ANTIOCH, Tenn. (WKRN) — Taking her grandniece and grandnephew to school has become Jacobia Dowell’s new morning routine.

“The traffic is too fast down this road,” she said. “That’s the first thing: It needs to slow down.”

The former Metro Councilwoman lives two miles from Eagle View Elementary School, but she’s noticed some big issues as she drops them off at school.

“The students who live in this community, their parents have to drive them to school because there’s no infrastructure in the community to accommodate them,” said Dowell.

There are a number of schools located in Antioch, but Dowell has noticed a lack of sidewalks near them.

“A lot of the suburbs are at a disadvantage, because we built the city for high density,” she said. “We have not built the suburbs for high density.”

Dowell said because of the lack of sidewalks, as well as drivers speeding through the school zones, walking to school isn’t a safe option for many students.

“We have a school in a community, we need to make it accessible. I think that’s the simplest thing,” she said.

It’s not just a safety issue for students but also for adults who are left walking in the streets.

With more growth coming to Antioch, Dowell hopes city leaders will focus on making things safer for the area.

“I think that needs to be the city’s focus, because you can’t have responsible growth without public safety, and public safety involves putting infrastructure in place,” she said.

Dowell said she plans to reach out to Metro Nashville Police’s south precinct to get more officers to patrol school zones in the mornings.