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| Elgin on 2 wheels: City soon should have fine-tuned bicycle route plan | |
| May 2, 2007 | |
| Rob Phillips, Staff Writer | |
| Daily Herald | |
| Pertains to Elgin | |
| St. Charles, Batavia, Geneva Fox River Trail By July, Elgin residents will get to see the plan for an expanded network of paths designed to make it easier to move through the city on two wheels rather than four. "There’s always been a desire to connect every neighborhood to the Fox River and downtown Elgin," said Tom Armstrong, a principal planner with the city. "There is also a goal to link every neighborhood together and provide people with safe routes to bicycle." The goal of making Elgin more bicycle-friendly has been around for years. In a 2000 survey, 80 percent of the nearly 900 Elgin residents surveyed said they wanted more bike paths in the city. The city for four years has required developers to create off-street bike paths in their far west neighborhoods, Armstrong said, but work still needs to be done to connect those neighborhoods to older ones and to each other. The city signed a contract last year with two firms for more than $97,000 to craft the map of proposed bike paths. The team also will be assisted by the Chicago Bicycle Federation. The agencies are expected to return estimated costs of creating the bike routes. John Loete, Elgin’s public works director, said some of the bike paths won’t include off-street routes, which should keep costs low. Those on-street paths will be designated with either a bicycle lane or sign designating the road as a bike route, Loete said. During a meeting last week, residents offered their thoughts on a preliminary plan. Loete said the community members provided valuable input on better routes and ways to connect the planned paths to existing ones. Carl Missele, president of the Elgin Community Network, said creating more bike paths has health and environmental benefits. "We’re hoping that people will ride their bicycles to destinations where normally they use their car," said Missele, who attended last week’s meeting. "We want to get people out of their cars and onto their bicycles." |
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