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Permalink Reply by dan brown on May 27, 2010 at 2:21am

I have ridden there a lot as well. We would take the Fox River Trail (it parallels the river on the East side) and goes to South Elgin. It has a mix of sun (open) and shaded areas, there are some decent overpasses and some hills by a landfill near Bartlett IIRC.

google the fox river bike path and this may halp

DB

Kristian M Zoerhoff said:

You're out in my neck of the woods, so I can help you out here (I live about 10 miles north of South Elgin now, but have ridden there a lot). Do you want to just exchange info here on the thread, or via email?

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Permalink Reply by heather s on June 7, 2010 at 5:25am

Sorry for dropping the ball on this. Yes, I'm still interested. In short- what streets would you like to see more bike facilities on? Would you ride on a high-speed road like Randall or Rt. 31/La Fox if there was a marked bike lane or sidepath? Do you see people cycling on the roads much, or do they stick to the sidewalks and bike paths mostly?

Kristian M Zoerhoff said:

Hey, Heather, are you still looking for help here?

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Permalink Reply by heather s on June 7, 2010 at 3:59pm

Awesome, thanks so much for your input! No need to chat up the South Elgin rep at the KKCOM meeting, as this was a 1-credit, 4-week class, and the last session is Wednesday.

I give you mad props (do people still do that?) for riding out there all the time. I was literally run off the road on Gilbert last week. And then I picked myself up, dusted myself off, headed down Middle St, and got knocked by someone's sideview mirror. That was when I started to cry. I feel like I'll have a tough time trying to communicate something positive about biking in that area for our class presentation.

Kristian M Zoerhoff said:

heather stratton said:

Sorry for dropping the ball on this. Yes, I'm still interested. In short- what streets would you like to see more bike facilities on? Would you ride on a high-speed road like Randall or Rt. 31/La Fox if there was a marked bike lane or sidepath? Do you see people cycling on the roads much, or do they stick to the sidewalks and bike paths mostly?

OK, where to start?

Spring St and McLean Blvd need bike facilities; Spring has a path on its north side west of McLean, but I think it ends at Umdenstock, not at Randall. McLean is a major commercial artery, and right now has nothing, that I'm aware of. Having something on Bowes and Sundown wouldn't hurt, either.

31 definitely needs some sort of bike paths or lanes north of State/Spring/Fox River Trail; the village keeps pushing it as the heart of town, but it's utterly impassable by bike in its current state, unless you like riding on busted up sidewalks and through parking lots.

I ride on Randall pretty regularly already; the wide shoulder makes it comfortable enough for me, but I'm pretty fearless/foolhardy around high-speed traffic. I think a separated path of some sort is going to be needed north of Silver Glen Rd, just as one exists south of there.

There are some paths west of Randall through Thornwood today, that do connect to the path along Silver Glen Rd (and along Randall south of that point), but they don't connect out to Hopps/Spring on the north end, so they're somewhat limited in usefulness today. This might be covered loosely under the Mid-County Trail umbrella, but I'd ask anyway.

I don't know if the new Stearns/McDonald Rd alignment is getting a sidepath or paved shoulder west of the river. That's another critical crossing point along Randall, so I'd toss this on the list as well, even though it falls under KDOT's jurisdiction.

East of the river, it would be nice if Gilbert St could be used to link to the new paths being built as part of the Stearns Rd project, at 25.

If KKCOM's Bike/Ped planning committee has a meeting anytime soon, I can chat up the South Elgin rep as well, if need be. These tend to be pretty infrequent, though (we last met in January).

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