Wilmette officials hoping for a $290,000 grant to help create an east-west bicycle route through the village are still hopeful that the route they’re eyeing will meet with federal approval.
The proposed route – along Glenview Road and Wilmette Avenue from the Glenview border to Ridge Road – may not be as attractive to officials as it could have been, because it doesn’t connect with Wilmette’s downtown.
Wilmette Engineering Director Brigitte Berger said April 1 that the grant application Wilmette completed on March 31 is still strong, because the remaining legs of the proposed route will provide at least a partial way for bicyclists to cross the village from west to east, something Wilmette doesn’t have now.
Her department should learn sometime in June whether Wilmette will get the grant, Berger said.
Village officials who met with more than four dozen village residents last month agreed to remove the route’s proposed easternmost leg, between Ridge and Green Bay roads, after many of those residents said they didn’t want to lose parking along Wilmette Avenue to new bike lanes.
“We wanted to meet with residents before we did a full-blown application,” Berger said shortly after the March 11 meeting. “I’d rather know now than to put together a full-blown application, receive a grant, and only later realize that homeowners affected along the block weren’t OK with it.
“We completely respect the people who didn’t want the bike lane.”
The proposed route that federal Department of Transportation officials will consider includes two stretches of Glenview Road. The first, between the Glenview border and Skokie Boulevard, would be reconfigured to have two 15-foot-wide shared bicycle-car lanes and an 11-foot-wide median. It currently has two 12-foot driving lanes and a 13-foot-wide median.
The second Glenview Road section, between Skokie Boulevard and Crawford Avenue, has two 11-foot lanes and 2-foot gravel shoulders. It would be reconfigured to include two 11-foot-wide car lanes and 4-foot wide bike lanes.
Both proposals include options that would widen and pave the existing gravel shoulders to provide room for bicycle lanes.
The third leg of the route, which would run along Wilmette Avenue between Crawford and Ridge, now has two 21.5-foot-wide driving lanes with on street parking on both sides of the street
If the village gets its grant, that segment of Wilmette Avenue would be reconfigured to create two 11-foot-wide driving lanes, an equally wide median and two 5-foot-wide bicycle lanes, and the on-street parking would be removed. One possible option for that section of the route would be to provide bicycle lanes and a center turn lane.
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Unlike the Ridge-Green Bay leg of the route, the proposal for reconfiguring Wilmette between Crawford and Ridge did not generate residents’ opposition, Berger said.
Ken Obel, a spokesman for the Wilmette Citizens for Active Transportation, said March 23 that he and other bicycle advocates are pleased that Wilmette has applied for the grant.
“Sure, we would have wanted to include the Ridge to Green Bay section, but we understand that it’s a sensitive issue for members of that community,” he said.
Obel said he understands the concerns of residents who don’t want to lose on-street parking to a bike lane, but said he hoped the village would revisit the Ridge-Green Bay Road street of Wilmette Avenue in the future, because the street is a public resource.
“Making Wilmette Avenue safer and more welcoming for people on bikes will be a huge benefit to our village, and would help connect popular destinations on both sides of Wilmette. The village staff deserves credit for pursuing this,” he added.
“The important point is that the village is moving forward with the grant application for the majority of the proposed project scope,” he said.
Obel also noted that the village has already taken active steps to make Wilmette bicycle friendly by passing a so-called “complete streets” ordinance in February.
In April 2014, WCAT advocates asked village trustees to approve such legislation, similar to laws passed in Cook County and Chicago, which officially supports street design and development aimed at complete, safe access for pedestrians, bicyclists and transit riders, as well as motorists.
The village’s Municipal Services Committee reviewed the concept last fall, and in February the board approved an ordinance that, without requiring village planners to stick to such designs, does encourage them to do so.
Twitter: @pioneer_kathy
Rolling along
Who: Village of Wilmette
What: east-west bike lane route
Along: Glenview Road, Wilmette Avenue
Mission: win $290,000 federal grant to help complete