Motorists and pedestrians on Green Street and on South Lincoln Avenue in recent weeks may have noticed some new signs reminding them to travel safely.
The Division of Public Safety recently purchased two mobile electronic signs that can be programmed to display safety messages, and detect and display passing motorists’ speed. The police purchased the signs, which cost about $33,000, with a grant from the Illinois Department of Economic and Commerce Opportunity and the help of state Rep. Naomi Jakobsson. The new signs give the police a total of three signs, which they also use to control pedestrian and vehicular traffic during public events.
“We are continuing to do high levels of educational enforcement, focusing on intersections and areas with high pedestrian and vehicular traffic,” such as Wright Street, and the intersections of Sixth and Green streets, and Sixth and Chalmers streets, said Jeff Christensen, assistant chief of police.
In the coming weeks, UI bicycle patrol officers also will step up enforcement of traffic laws applicable to bicyclists.
“If you’re riding your bicycle on the street, you need to behave as a vehicle: You need to travel the right direction on one-way streets, signal when you turn, obey signs and signals, and yield to pedestrians when they’re in the crosswalks,” said Lt. Skip Frost. “A lot of the bicyclists aren’t complying.”
However, cyclists say that the existing bike path system is not conducive to compliance with traffic laws because it is confusing, doesn’t connect with the cities’ bike paths and doesn’t exist on some streets, Frost said.
The UI and the cities hope to develop a bike master plan in the near future, along with adopting “complete street” design and signage standards for the University District, said Pam Voitik, director of campus services.
Complete street designs, which other communities have adopted and are part of a bill before the Illinois Senate, consider all users – vehicular traffic, pedestrians, bicyclists and people of all ages and abilities – when developing transportation routes. “Complete streets try to incorporate all modes of transportation in a safe way,” Voitik said. “They include high-visibility crosswalks so that pedestrians know where to cross and so they are more visible to motorists. They also include designated bicycle lanes on the pavement, not on the sidewalk, that identify where bicycles should be, and put bikes in situations where they behave as vehicles.”
The bicycle master plan is one of several safety projects that were recommended in the Campus Area Transportation Study, a report commissioned by the Champaign-Urbana Urbanized Area Transportation Study (CUUATS), a multi-jurisdictional committee that comprises officials from Urbana, Champaign, the UI, the Illinois Department of Transportation and the Champaign-Urbana Mass Transit District.
Some of the safety modifications recommended in the Campus Area Transportation Study, originally completed in June 1999 and updated in July 2005, have been completed. But the CUUATS plans to propose three additional projects to IDOT soon. The projects will make improvements on Goodwin Avenue, Fourth Street and Wright Street, such as upgrading traffic signals and street lighting, pavement striping and installing “pedestrian bump-outs” at intersections. A bump-out extends the curb into the parking lane so that the crosswalk is shorter. (A bump-out is at the intersection of Sixth and John streets in Champaign.)
Bill Gray, director of public works for Urbana, said that over the summer, the city will stripe bike lanes and install pedestrian bump-outs at intersections on Illinois Street between Goodwin Avenue and Gregory Street, and on Lincoln Avenue between Illinois Street and Gregory Drive.
The UI also will be refurbishing the intersection of Mathews and Springfield avenues with pedestrian bump-outs and other safety enhancements.
Gray said Urbana has applied for a $560,000 grant from the Highway Safety Improvements Program, a multimodal safety initiative funded by the Federal Highway Administration, to make improvements on Goodwin Avenue between Clark Street on the north and Gregory Drive on the south. If the city receives the grant, the $1.1 million project would include pavement resurfacing, striping bike lanes, upgrading the street lighting and consolidating bus stops to reduce the number of stops on Goodwin Avenue to one stop between Green and Springfield and one between Nevada and Gregory Drive. The work would be done in 2008.
This fall, the UI police will host Safety Awareness Day, an educational event intended to foster a campus culture where people are mindful of good safety practices. The police are developing the event in conjunction with a group of students from instructor Kris Campbell’s “Public Information Management” class (Speech Communication 251).
On April 10, a consulting firm hired by the UI will present the findings of a campus intermodal transportation study to Chancellor Richard Herman, who commissioned the report last year. The firm examined long-term, strategic issues such as transportation needs on campus and tactics for reducing congestion.