online petition to support a bike-friendly downtown urbana

Tonight the Urbana City Council will meet and discuss their master bicycle plan.  If you can make it to the meeting, you should come out.  If you can't -- and even if you can -- but still want to show support for a bicycle-friendly downtown Urbana, Champaign County Bikes has developed an online petition you can sign to express your support for keeping Urbana bike-friendly.  Here's the details:

For all Champaign County residents - NOT just citizens of Urbana! As Urbana is the County Seat everyone in Champaign County should fill-in this petition.

BACKGROUND
Urbana has been recognized as a Bicycle Friendly Community by the League of American Bicyclists. Creating an active transportation system for Urbana will improve our residents health, add economic benefits, reduce our carbon footprint, and give our community more choices in transportation.

WHAT IS NEEDED
The Urbana City Council approved the Urbana Bicycle Master Plan and an Urbana Downtown Plan that both call for the redesign of Main Street in downtown Urbana implementing a road diet that would improve safety, reduce traffic speeds, create a more attractive environment for shoppers and diners and provide better access for pedestrians and bicyclists. The Urbana Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Commission also approved this plan as did the Officers and Steering Committee of Champaign County Bikes. Road diets have been shown to slow and calm vehicle traffic and encourage bicyclists and pedestrians to shop and enjoy the downtown. We encourage the city council to proceed with implementation of these plans.

WHY
The Urbana Bicycle Master Plan was created with the assistance of the best professional bicycle and transportation consultants in the state of Illinois along with the City of Urbana staff and extensive public input. It's implementation will provide safe, affordable, and healthy access for bicycling as a regular mode of transportation. In 2008 this plan won awards from both the Illinois Chapter of the American Planning Association and the Association of Metropolitan Planning Organizations, validating the very high level of expertise and the outstanding quality of Urbana's plan for bicycles in the city's future. Implementation of our excellent bike plan will benefit many generations to come and enhance the vitality of our downtown.

Thank You!
Champaign County Bikes

Please come to the Urbana City Council meeting this coming Monday evening, 5/10/2010.
Urbana City Building, 400 South Vine Street Urbana, IL 61801
Be there at 6:45. Meeting begins at 7:00PM

For more information about the street plan and for Urbana City Council contact information, please visit: http://UrbanaBikeLanes.notlong.com.