Updated Bike Path Aims To Keep Batavia Connected, Attractive: City

BATAVIA, IL — Batavia's Bike and Pedestrian Plan will be updated from its current form, adopted in 2007, thanks to City Council's unanimous vote March 6.

The citywide Bicycle Plan was first created in 2007 as a way to make Batavia a safer and more welcoming destination for biking. That goal remains the same in the updated version, which focuses on both pedestrian and biking improvements.

"I think it lays out a lot of very easy, achievable improvements to both our roadways, our sidewalks and our intersections to make it — as the vision statement says — make this place safe and comfortable for all users regardless of age, ability and mode of transportation," Alderperson Abby Beck said at the meeting.

Here's a look at the plan objectives, which the city can undertake over time:

• Improve pedestrian and bicycle connectivity across Batavia without changing the city’s unique character.
• Enable all pedestrians, bicyclists, and passengers to feel safe and comfortable on streets, sidewalks, paths, and trails.
• Provide low-stress access for pedestrians and bicyclists to community destinations, downtown, trails, and other local amenities.
• Create a stronger, healthier sense of community and connections.
• Promote increased walking and bicycling to support a cleaner environment, better health, less traffic congestion, reduced wear on streets, and a vibrant local economy.
• Keep Batavia an attractive place to live where people have options for traveling throughout the community.

Some recommendations were also made for road improvements, which will require partnering with other roadway jurisdictions:

• Enhance pedestrian mobility by installing sidewalks on at least one side of each street, prioritizing those around schools, parks, bus stops, and the central business district.
• Build on the existing network of off-street trails, side paths, and local bikeways to create a connected bicycle network.
• Continue to increase connectivity between neighborhoods and developments for pedestrians and bicyclists to minimize short-distance trips by motor vehicles.
• Increase pedestrian and bicycle visibility and safety at school and park crossings and in business districts with high visibility crosswalks, curb bump-outs, pedestrian and bicyclist signage, and other traffic calming enhancements.

"The resulting plan envisions a network of roadways which all users, regardless of age, ability and mode of transportation, are safe and comfortable," City Administrator Laura Newman said in a statement. "The result will be improved health and happiness, a cleaner environment, a vibrant local economy, and better access to opportunities for everyone."

Recommendations and objectives highlighted in the new plan are the results of "extensive and intense public outreach and participation" through open houses, surveys and stakeholder meetings, among other things.

Batavia Mayor Jeffery Schielke said the police department is also "very supportive" of the document. But with it comes the possibility of increased enforcement around biking due to some "very near misses and potentially some very strong injuries" as a result of bikers riding on the sidewalk.

"I think myself and the police department is very much of the opinion that we're going to have to take some stronger enforcement on bicycle riding downtown," Schielke said, "especially on the sidewalks, specifically on the hills, both the east and the west sides. ... We may be writing some tickets, but that's just the normal course of business."