| April
2006 |
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Oregon Law Shows How Complete Streets Fit In 'Healthy Roads' Spring Up in DuPage Getting the Ball (and Wheels) Rolling in Suburban Communities Minorities Travel Dangerous Routes |
Getting the Ball (and Wheels)
These rides often prove revelatory for the participants. So when follow-up recommendations are made, the decision-makers can evaluate local streets from a cyclist’s point of view. This is one of the key first steps Chicagoland Bicycle Federation suburban coordinators take when a municipality asks for help with a bicycle plan. Sometimes, citizen-advocates initiate this step themselves. In Hinsdale, resident Matthew Griffin recently organized a community ride at the recommendation of West Suburban Coordinator Pamela Brookstein. Along for the ride were a village board trustee, the village engineer, officials from the parks and recreation commission, neighbors and CBF’s deputy director and planning consultant, Nick Jackson. The initiative worked so well that the village established a Bicycling Task Force and named Griffin its chairman. Griffin persuaded the village to ask its residents in a village-wide survey what they thought about improving bicycle and pedestrian access. “85% of residents agreed or strongly agreed that the village should develop a plan to accommodate and promote safer bicycling and walking,” Griffin reported. “Getting bicycling included in my community’s larger
transportation discourse has not been overwhelmingly difficult,
but it has been work,” Griffin said.
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