There are a couple Boy Scouts working towards Eagle that will be researching projects for it - maybe it could become one? I know they've painted lamp posts and fire hydrants and recently organized the Halloween window display as examples.
Riverside Info » About Riverside
Riverside Bicycle Plan
(30 posts)-
Posted Friday Feb 26, 2010 14:56 #
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rwhite: The Bike Plan is quite a ways from being approved, however, based on the enthusiasm at last night's meeting by the very large majority of residents who attended, we are very optimistically moving forward.
At the moment, the most important thing is to keep building on the positive momentum we have picked up. Please tell your friends and neighbors about our plans. We need all the community support we can get.
If you would like to help in a more formal way or just simply be added to our e-mail outreach list in order to stay informed please send an e-mail to info@greenriverside.org.
Posted Friday Feb 26, 2010 22:17 # -
This is a just a great and well thought out plan. I love the zoo tie in idea. It would be nice to use it as a ski path in the winter.
At one time there was a grant available for a bike path which would have covered nearly the entire cost. Is that still the case?
One question – historically there has been resistance to a bike path from the Olmsted Society, with Trustee Lonnie Sacchi leading the charge against it. I’m thinking since Kim is the president of Olmsted, this plan was designed to comport with Olmsted’s vision and those issues will be moot/minimized this time around.
Thank you Riverside Sustainability Council. I agree 100% - let’s make 2010 the Year of the Bicycle in Riverside.
Posted Monday Mar 1, 2010 09:40 # -
PLEASE ADD YOUR NAME TO THE LIST OF 80+ PEOPLE WHO HAVE ALREADY VOICED THEIR SUPPORT OF THE 2010 RIVERSIDE BICYCLE PLAN.
Various civic groups have already endorsed the plas as well.
Take a look at http://s93980653.onlinehome.us/bicycle-plan-flyer.pdf and, if you agree with the proposed plan, add your name to the list of supporters. A simple e-mail to info@greenriverside.org with your name and address suffices. Please note that multiple family members can support us individually, and that any child who is able to ride a bicycle is welcome to sign as well. Please also feel free to forward this e-mail and the attached flyer to your friends and neighbors.
On Monday April 5, the Riverside Sustainability Council will present the 2010 Riverside Bicycle Plan to the Village Board of Trustees and propose adoption of the 2010 Riverside Bicycle Plan. We will cover topics and offer solutions ranging from cost (incl. further grant opportunities), signage, safety, liability, to the promotion of our CBD, regional bicycle planning, etc.
Posted Friday Mar 19, 2010 20:33 # -
It is nice to see something positive "in the news"!
Good work and good luck Tom and the Riverside Sustainability Council!
A couple of on topic links you may find of interest:
Posted Friday Mar 19, 2010 22:03 # -
I saw this in the Landmark. I have been 'out of town' lately. This is a fine and much needed idea! It can promote and expose Riverside to others outside of this community and can show off its beauty. Speaking from experience, this place's beauty can 'capture you', and can pull you in to buy a home and raise a family here.
Biking, walking, and jogging are perfect ways to experience the genius of the layout of this town.
Let's all support this idea. It will help promote and expose Riverside to others for economics and will promote a more healthy lifestyle choice for all of us, especially the kids.
I did not do a detail check, but is there a design idea to get a pedestrian bridge across 1st avenue eventually? That would help with safety, too, and connect us to the other part of Riverside, the HS, and to the Zoo, which was in the original plan anyway. I like the idea found in this plan of making a safe connection across the tracks at West av. I think this kind of development is the 1930s style of infrastructure development that will have a *long* life expectancy and high value return on our area. Let's try to get some stimulus funds.
From an economic viewpoint, the zoo pulls in tons of people. Let's get some of them over here. This place would not disappoint. Imagine a place where people live and school their kids AND is like a park, too (you don't walk TO the park, you are IN the park already), a place that is new england like, small enough like the villages of old, and, unlike the bigbox communities of today, where neighbors watch out for each other, democracy still rules, and the police are top of things in minutes - and only 23 minutes to downtown and OakBrook. Our smallness is a bikers and walkers paradise.
This bike plan dovetails with these attributes. It leverages our assets, smallness and quaintness, for economic growth in the future. In today's down economic times, there will always be a market for health, sanity, and a good place to raise kids.
The little places opening up in town, mi casita and mollies, kind of work organically with this bike plan, too.
Posted Thursday Mar 25, 2010 14:08 # -
Connect the dots with Riverside Bicycle Plan
It turns out that 2010, the Year of the Bicycle in Riverside, is starting out with a bang. A grant money award to the Village, confirmation of significant safety improvement opportunities, and broad recognition of the outreach potential for Riverside top the list of positive developments that have taken place over the last few weeks.
Not least of all, the level of support and encouragement by the large majority of the community is exhilarating.
Just as the Riverside Sustainability Council had geared up to finalize two proposed new bicycle routes for Riverside a few weeks back, the Village of Riverside learned of a $8,550 grant it had been awarded for the development and creation of bicycle route maps and route destination signage.
The grant is the result of a January 2009 joint application by the Village of Riverside and the City of Berwyn for CMAQ (Congestion Mitigation/Air Quality Improvement) funding by the U.S. Department of Transportation. The purpose of the CMAQ program is to fund transportation projects that will contribute to attainment or maintenance of the national ambient air quality standards for ozone, carbon monoxide, and particulate matter.
Furthermore, communities with adopted Bicycle Plans are eligible for a host of further and significantly larger grant funding opportunities for sustainable community development. These grants will allow capital investments in our infrastructure that will improve the safety of all road users at a time when property tax dollars aren’t keeping up with municipal expenses.
For instance, the ‘Safe Routes to Schools’ grants would be a perfect fit for the future extension of the Riverside Ring Route, which is to provide a safe connection between West Avenue and Bloomingbank Road. At the exact location of the main N-S connection across the railroad tracks in Olmsted’s original plan, existing railroad bridge foundation walls are forming a sizable cavity below the BNSF lines which could be turned into a proper underpass with relatively little cost and effort.
Pete Coster from the Sustainability Council made the very discovery of the hidden underpass by studying old maps. The Ring Route extension would put an end to the many RBHS students crossing the rail lines illegally at West Avenue every day, and help alleviate the traffic bottle neck at the center of the Village.
There are also surprising findings relating to the purported increase of liability exposure to the community that has been discovered through extensive research by the legal team of the Riverside Sustainability Council.
In 1998, the Illinois Supreme Court ruled with a sharply divided 4-3 majority decision in the Boub v. Wayne Township case that bicyclists are “permitted” but not “intended” users of Illinois’ roadways, and that local road agencies have no responsibility for an on-road bicyclist’s injuries due to road condition.
The immediate consequence of the Boub v. Wayne Township decision was that Illinois policy towards on-road bicycling has been the worst in the country ever since. In all other 49 US states, the Uniform Vehicle Code grants bicyclists “all the rights and duties applicable to the driver of a vehicle”. Not so in Illinois.
For instance, all Riverside grade and high school students riding their bicycles to school every day have zero liability protection from road condition problems on the vast majority of our roads, while all other road users, including mopeds and motorcyclists, have full protection.
Further, the Supreme Court ruling means that immunity for municipalities goes away when there is some physical indication (like lane striping or route signage) that cyclists are “intended” on a particular roadway. Unfortunately, this has led a number of communities to overreact on the issue and shy away from adopting bicycle route due to a perceived increase in liability exposure. However, the actual level of liability exposure is very minimal, based on lack of actual lawsuits and lack of liability insurance premium increases to local government agencies.
Finally, in adopting the 2010 Riverside Bicycle Plan, Riverside has a golden opportunity to ‘Connect The Dots’: embark on a coordinated and low-cost marketing and outreach campaign that leverages our numerous natural, cultural, and commercial assets in an environmentally sensitive way and increases positive exposure for Riverside.
Just think of the proposed Heritage Route which will pass by 33 historic and landmarked buildings, including 3 by Frank Lloyd Wright. Village commissions as well as commercial and civic organizations ought to collaborate in creating promotional materials.
If we so choose, we can take a small step towards the realization of a 21st Century adaptation of Olmsted’s vision.
Posted Wednesday Mar 31, 2010 11:39 # -
Very topical. Today was the start of my bike riding to work, 14 miles each way from Riverside to Downers Grove. Keep up the good work, Tom.
Posted Wednesday Mar 31, 2010 12:02 # -
TS, if we could all bike like that, it would probably single handedly solve the Health Care problem in the US! yes, tom, thanks for the work. question:
At the exact location of the main N-S connection across the railroad tracks in Olmsted’s original plan, existing railroad bridge foundation walls are forming a sizable cavity below the BNSF lines which could be turned into a proper underpass with relatively little cost and effort.
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The Ring Route extension would put an end to the many RBHS students crossing the rail lines illegally at West Avenue every day, and help alleviate the traffic bottle neck at the center of the Village.Would this be a pedestrian / bike underpass or an underpass for cars, also ( I saw the reference to alleviating traffic in the center of town)?
Posted Wednesday Mar 31, 2010 21:33 # -
mrt:
It would be for bicycles and pedestrians only. I see the traffic jams in the center of town as the greatest problem/danger for the weakest traffic members, i.e. pedestrains and bicyclists.Posted Thursday Apr 1, 2010 07:30 #
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