Bikeway workshop last night (Elgin, IL)

Last night, I attended a presentation on creating a network of bikeways
in Elgin, IL [1]. I don't actually live within the city limits anymore,
but I still do a lot of riding in Elgin, so I was interested in what
was being planned.

I originally thought I was just going to see a presentation, put on by
the city, the Chicagoland Bike Federation, the Elgin Community Network,
and an outside consultant, and the session indeed started off with one,
mostly on the various kinds of on- and off-street bikeways. Elgin already
has two major trails, the Fox River Trail and the Illinois Prairie Path,
but the town is old enough, and built on a dense urban-style grid for the
most part, so there's not much room for more paths [2]; on-street bikeways
are definitely a major focus. Furthermore, bike lanes are mostly out, due
to lack of room to expand roads, or political will to restripe them for
fewer traffic lanes, so the major focus would seem to be on shared lanes
with directional signage.

So, at this point, the session switched into a workshop, with 8 tables
with maps layed out; 2 for each quadrant of the city. I made a beeline
for the NW quadrant, as this is where I spend most of my time. We were
given a sheet to fill out, asking to identify:

* Destinations within the quadrant
* Impediments or barriers to cycling
* Needed connections that don't exist today
* Tweaks to the proposed primary and secondary routes shown

Our table had 3 "serious" cyclists (including me), and a couple more
recreational riders. We spent about 15 minutes hashing over the map,
pointing out major flaws in the propsed routes (dangerous hills, traffic-
heavy 4 lane roads, uncontrolled 5-way corners, etc.), and looking for
connections that weren't shown, but which we felt needed. We also pointed
out some employment draws, something that the other tables didn't seem to
figure in. At this point, I thought we were done, when suddenly a microphone
appeared and each table was asked to give a quick rundown of their
discussion. When it came to our table, all eyes fell on me.

The guy who doesn't even live here.

I hemmed and hawed for a second, and gave the spiel for our quadrant. Once
all the tables were done, they collected the comment forms, and went back to
work for the next iteration of the plan.

This morning, one of the local papers ran a story on the workshop:

http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/couriernews/news/361028,3_1_EL27_A1BIKE_S1.articleprint
http://tinyurl.com/2bv7af

The reporter, unofrtunately, interviewed the one gentleman who seemed to
feel that Elgin was somehow incredibly dangerous for cyclists. This is not
at all my impression of things, and I was disappointed to see the fear-
mongering appraoch, especially from someone who seemed to claim so much
riding experience. I should make it a point to stick around for any
reporters next time instead of bolting for home.




[1] To the dismay of Scotsmen everywhere, it's pronounced 'Eljin', rather
than with the proper hard 'g' sound.

[2] In the NW quadrant, we did identify two potential good off-street
bikeways, in that they had few to no street or driveway crossings. One is
a utility ROW for a gas pipeline that could connect two parks and several
neighborhoods, the other is along a rail ROW that could connect a major
county park and the newest far-west side developments to the existing areas
on the west side. Everything else was on-street in nature.

--

__o Kristian Zoerhoff
_'\(,_
(_)/ (_)

Kristian M Zoerhoff wrote:

The reporter, unofrtunately, interviewed the one gentleman who seemed to
feel that Elgin was somehow incredibly dangerous for cyclists. This is not
at all my impression of things, and I was disappointed to see the fear-
mongering appraoch, especially from someone who seemed to claim so much
riding experience. I should make it a point to stick around for any
reporters next time instead of bolting for home.

Very long time since I lived in Dundee, but I always thought it and
Elgin were pretty mellow places to ride. Maybe that's just because I'd
moved out there from inner Chicago.
Bravo to you for caring enough to to to the workshop!


Bill


__o | I used to think that I was cool, running around on fossil fuel
_`\(,_ | Until I saw what I was doing was driving down the road to ruin.
(_)/ (_) | - James Taylor

On 2007-04-27, wrote:
Kristian M Zoerhoff wrote:

The reporter, unofrtunately, interviewed the one gentleman who seemed to
feel that Elgin was somehow incredibly dangerous for cyclists. This is not
at all my impression of things, and I was disappointed to see the fear-
mongering appraoch, especially from someone who seemed to claim so much
riding experience. I should make it a point to stick around for any
reporters next time instead of bolting for home.

Very long time since I lived in Dundee, but I always thought it and
Elgin were pretty mellow places to ride. Maybe that's just because I'd
moved out there from inner Chicago.
Bravo to you for caring enough to to to the workshop!

The Dundees /are/ extremely mellow places to ride; it's too bad I have
the (slightly) crummy ride I do to get there from Gilberts.

That will be my next project; Gilberts has to complete a transportation
plan in order to continue receiving state gas tax revenue once the
village population hits 5,000, and I fully intend to get involved in
that process to make sure peds and cyclists aren't left out. Being on a
first-name basis with half the village board gives me a leg up.

--

__o Kristian Zoerhoff
_'\(,_
(_)/ (_)

On Apr 27, 11:46 am, Kristian M Zoerhoff
wrote:
[1] To the dismay of Scotsmen everywhere, it's pronounced 'Eljin',
rather
than with the proper hard 'g' sound.

Not a Scottish bone in my body and I'm dismayed. . Any Canadian knows
that Elgin is pronounced with a hard 'g'. Mind you the old Earl did
live here for a while http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_B..._Earl_of_Elgin

Kristian M Zoerhoff wrote:

I originally thought I was just going to see a presentation, put on by
the city, the Chicagoland Bike Federation, the Elgin Community
Network,
and an outside consultant, ...

So, at this point, the session switched into a workshop, with 8 tables
with maps layed out; 2 for each quadrant of the city. I made a beeline
for the NW quadrant, as this is where I spend most of my time. We were
given a sheet to fill out, asking to identify:

* Destinations within the quadrant
* Impediments or barriers to cycling
* Needed connections that don't exist today
* Tweaks to the proposed primary and secondary routes shown

Sounds familiar. I've been to two of these this year (in Glenview). Is Nick
Black the guy who's fronting this for the CBF? He seems pretty good.

The engineering firm for the Glenview and 4-village work is T.Y.Lin, which
is a different firm than Elgin is using.

--
Mike Kruger
An opinion should be the result of a thought, not a substitute for it.
[Jef Mallet]

On 2007-04-28, Mike Kruger wrote:
Kristian M Zoerhoff wrote:

I originally thought I was just going to see a presentation, put on by
the city, the Chicagoland Bike Federation, the Elgin Community
Network,
and an outside consultant, ...

So, at this point, the session switched into a workshop, with 8 tables
with maps layed out; 2 for each quadrant of the city. I made a beeline
for the NW quadrant, as this is where I spend most of my time. We were
given a sheet to fill out, asking to identify:

* Destinations within the quadrant
* Impediments or barriers to cycling
* Needed connections that don't exist today
* Tweaks to the proposed primary and secondary routes shown

Sounds familiar. I've been to two of these this year (in Glenview). Is Nick
Black the guy who's fronting this for the CBF? He seems pretty good.

I think so. I came in about 2 minutes late, and only partially caught the
introductions.

The engineering firm for the Glenview and 4-village work is T.Y.Lin, which
is a different firm than Elgin is using.

Yeah, I think Elgin was using DKI, or something along that line.


--

__o Kristian Zoerhoff
_'\(,_
(_)/ (_)