this monday: urbana city council holds public discussion on urbana's "master bicycle plan"

This upcoming Monday, 10 May, starting at 7pm in the Urbana City Council Chambers the Urbana City Council Meeting will include a public discussion about implementing Urbana's Master Bicycle Plan.  If you care about bike lanes in Urbana, come out and make your voice heard.  Here's some excerpts from an email to the Champaign County Bikes email list:

There will be an important Urbana City Council Meeting (of Committee of the Whole) next Monday, May 10 starting at 7pm in the Urbana City Council Chambers at 400 S. Vine St. in Urbana.  At this meeting, there will be a discussion about implementing Urbana's Master Bicycle Plan which calls for a road diet and bike lanes to be installed on Main St. in downtown Urbana. This plan is supported by Urbana City Staff, the Urbana Bicycle & Pedestrian Advisory Commission and the Officers and Steering Committee of Champaign County Bikes. It has also been endorsed by Ed Barsotti, Executive Director of the League of Illinois Bicyclists.

And yet there is strong opposition to the plan by some of the Downtown Urbana merchants would want to see more parking (angled) on Main Street and no bike lanes, despite the fact that there is an excess of parking space in the downtown area.

...we need people to support the plan to show up at Monday evening's meeting, especially Urbana residents and especially people from anywhere to shop and dine in downtown Urbana.

There are different ways for you to show your support of downtown bike lanes at the meeting, from the least involved and time-consuming to the most:

1. Leave a comment card with your support of the road-diet and bike lanes on Main Street in Downtown Urbana. You can then go home. Your name and comment will be read when the agenda item comes up.

2. Leave a comment card with your support of the road-diet and bike lanes on Main Street in Downtown Urbana. Stay through the discussion of the agenda item. I suggest wearing your bicycle helmet throughout the meeting as a very visible indication to the City Council of your support for bicycle infrastructure in Downtown Urbana (the helmet may also prove useful if an earthquake or tornado strikes Urbana during the meeting).

3. Leave a card requesting to speak as public input at the beginning of the meeting. And then speak. Comments are usually limited to 5 minutes, but may be shortened to 3 minutes of a lot of people want to speak. You can then go home.

4. Leave a card requesting to speak as public input when the item comes up on the agenda. Stick around (with your helmet on) and then speak. Comments are usually limited to 5 minutes, but may be shortened to 3 minutes of a lot of people want to speak.

All other things being equal, comments from those living in Urbana will have more impact on the City Council than comments those living outside Urbana. But comments from those who shop and dine in Downtown Urbana will have impact regardless of their place of residence.

In addition to encouraging bicyclists to come to the Urbana City Council meeting to show their support for the road diet and bike lanes in Downtown Urbana, Champaign County Bikes may be soon circulating a petition for signatures. More information will be provided about this soon.

But for now, put the Monday evening on your calendar and plan to be there if you possibly can.