Protect Cyclists in Skokie After Rash of Recent Fatalities
With the recent traffic crashes involving cyclists in Skokie, IL, Evanston Transit Alliance calls for the Village of Skokie, the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT), and the Cook County Department of Transportation and Highways (DoTH) to improve safety by reducing speed limits, implementing traffic calming, and constructing protected bicycle lanes along Church and Oakton Streets. The recent incidents resulting in the deaths of Joseph Center and Carlos Medina underscore the dangers that cyclists face on our local roads due to the lack of safe infrastructure.
Despite being listed on the Village of Skokie’s Bicycle Network Plan, both Church and Oakton are wide thoroughfares with high volumes of fast-moving car traffic, no traffic calming, multiple unmarked crosswalks and uncontrolled intersections, and no dedicated lanes for cyclists. This creates barriers for safe access to the residential neighborhoods, commercial areas, major employment centers, civic/recreational facilities, and schools located along these roads. Last month, potential improvements to Church Street were presented at two public meetings—but these plans are inadequate: painted bike lanes in the ‘door zone’ along with “sharrows” where lane reductions were prematurely eliminated as an option prior to any public input. Plans for Oakton Street do currently feature lane reductions and traffic calming features including a center median, but similarly provide cyclists inadequate protection. These plans would not, as they stand today, provide a safe enough facility to encourage those of all ages and abilities to make more trips outside of cars, reducing road congestion, air pollution, and greenhouse gas emissions, nor sufficiently reduce the possibility of life-threatening injuries and fatalities to cyclists that have occurred as of late.
ETA urges the Village of Skokie, IDOT, and Cook County DoTH, who have jurisdiction over the design of the roads in question, to modify their current proposals for Church and Oakton Streets to include protected bike lanes, physical traffic calming features such as raised crosswalks, additional signalized crossings, and enact lower speed limits along both corridors. It is critical we act now and together to ensure the safety and well-being of those who travel by bicycle in our community and prevent any further needless tragedies.
