More bike lanes?
We already have plenty of bike lanes in my neighborhood.
We call them sidewalks.
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That’s not what the Active Transportation Alliance is talking about when it asks Oak Park officials to provide funds for bike lanes on side streets as a way to travel throughout Oak Park.
“Most people are not comfortable riding on a busy street,” Ron Burke, Oak Park resident and executive director of the Active Transportation Alliance, recently told the village board.
This network of bike lanes on residential streets “will get people biking in Oak Park,” Burke said. “We hope this type of network can get people biking in Oak Park to get to schools, downtown, parks, etc., without getting on a busy street.”
And, I say, if there were more such bike lanes, bikers might be less inclined to use sidewalks as bike lanes and we wouldn’t have to make sure we looked both ways before walking out our front doors to make sure a sidewalk-riding biker wasn’t barreling down on us.
The Alliance’s want list also includes what it calls special intersection treatments, such as flashing lights, pedestrian safety islands and traffic signals that turn red at the press of a button.
Whether village officials include money for these ideas in next year’s budget has yet to be determined.
It would be a shame, though, if Oak Park faltered in its commitment to cycling.
In 2008, the village adopted the Oak Park Bicycle Plan. The 50-page plan laid out in detail a vision of a community in which bicycles played an important role in the quality of life for its residents.
More bikes would make Oak Park a more livable community by reducing traffic, improving air quality and increasing Oak Parkers’ physical fitness.
Since this plan was adopted, Oak Park and Oak Parkers have taken this vision to heart and to the village’s streets. On any nice weekend, you can see laughing families biking together all over town.
And cycling in Oak Park has received a giant boost with the recent appearance of Divvy and its bike-sharing rental program.
So, bring on more bikes and more bike lanes.
And let sidewalks be sidewalks.
Paul Sassone is a freelance columnist for Pioneer Press.