City of Batavia Bicycle Commission met July 10.
Here are the minutes provided by the commission:
Present: Steve Erickson, Joanne Spitz, Dustin Pieper, Officer Jamie Goschey, Jared Heck Absent: Jenn Ress, Amy Moore
1. Approve Minutes; Card was signed by those present to send to John Gamble (had a triple bypass surgery last week; home and doing very well).
2. Pedestrian Advocacy: To get to Silver level, need to add pedestrian advocacy. We are 2 years into our Bronze status, and 2 years to go, and have to reapply for Bicycle Friendly Community again. Adding pedestrian advocacy would go hand in hand with bike safety advocacy. We could have separate meetings or add pedestrian concerns to every BBC meeting agenda.
3. Add commissioners to BBC: Rewrite of our by-laws is with Laura, and will be going to vote at city council soon. August 8, 2023 vote. Goal is 7 BBC commissioners, and 2 city staff members on BBC. Current commissioners will pull straws to see who has 1, 2 or 3 year terms, which is how we will rotate all commissioners going forward. Should there be a way for commissioner to stay longer than 3 years if we can not fill their spot? We need a BBC member with social media skills, and ability to handle website, and interest in cycling and/or walking advocacy. Need members intested in planning and executing events, like bike rides, rodeos.
4. Kane County Forest Preserve contact: New contact is Jessica A (contact info to follow)
5. Bicycle Friendly Community- Silver- There are 10 areas we need to rank. We do well in at least 4, 1 being we meet more frequently than needed and need to prioritize them – Steve will send info out to all commissioners so we can rank them, and Steve will get our list to Laura and Max, who Amy and Steve met with about this. Need to get transportation budget, and Batavia needs a lot more roads with bike paths to qualify.
6. Bike Path Reroute: Help off discussions till next month
7. Stop as Yield proposed law for Illinois: Had some discussion and will continue. Officer Jamie gave input and will talk to police department further. It is about compliance versus risk. Would be safer if there were more bike lanes. Would help to have data on where car/bike accidents occur (besides Rt. 31). More often than not, the car driver is at fault….our concern is the safety of all. Some felt it is an odd time to bring this up to the public, after the recent tragedies on Rt. 31.
8. Route 31: IDOT still set on keeping 4 lanes from Wilson to Main St. And no pedestrian island/bike lanes. Dustin shared ideas that have come up to improve safety until the road diet is done.
• Trees/vegetation to calm drivers
• Add stop bars before cross streets
• Rapid flashing beacons
• Cut back brush for better visibility.
• HAWK (flashing yellow and red lights)
9. Aurora Bike Group contacted Steve and hope to get several local bike/ped advocacy groups together soon. Aurora, Geneva, Batavia, Naperville
https://www.bataviail.gov/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Minutes/_07102023-2126
Alerts Sign-up