City of Batavia Bicycle Commission met June 12.
Here is the minutes provided by the Commission:
Present: John Gamble, Amy Moore, Joanne Spitz, Scott Brasel, Randy Deicke, John Burnham, Emil Jensen , Steve Ericksen, Dean Hoskin, Dave Pedersen, Eric Weck
Absent: Matt Knowles, Randy Deicke
Economic Tourism: Eric Weck from Bicycle Tourism Network (BTW). There are 3 of them working on this.Bonnie Conkil and Tom Armstrong. Working with Zagstar, and with Trails for IL. 90,000 visitors/year on Fox Trail; 15% are true tourists; 75% college educated, ride 10 miles are local, and 1/3 spend money on restaurants, bars and groceries (average $30). Goals: Wayfinding. Need a lot of help in Geneva under the train bridge, and need consistent signage for amenities across the area.
Next step: Leverage trail towns survey. 1. Survey- send to city, businesses, BBC and individuals for a self- assessment of Batavia and do a bike tourism ride around town.
2. Trail preview tour: Aurora to St. Charles to see best way around towns.fall 2017, to get people off the trail and into the towns.
3. Showcase Tour: Group tour after all on board to share what they will all work on.
Could there be universal signage for wayfinding?
Difficulty in this is that different groups own different parts of the trail.BPD, Kane County and the city. Kirk Rd bike path is owned and maintained (or NOT maintained) by Kane County DOT.
Dean will get us a map of which group owns each part of the Fox River trail.
Eric will send us a list of purchase signs from Kane County. Jackie replaced Patrick.
WellBatavia: Went very well; trailer in a good location near bike trail. Will probably do it again next year. Thanks to Dave, John, Scott and Steve for helping.
Crossing Light: Emil addressed the 2 boys that were hit on Rt. 25 after hitting the flashing sign, by a drunk driver.both are ok. Emil is talking to the new police chief about doing a service video for BATV, Neighbors, to highlight and educate drivers, walkers and cyclists about the flashing beacons. Dave offered to do video. Emil said they will have plain clothes police officers work at crosswalk to demonstrate how to cross.
Bicycle Friendly Community: Amy went over the report card. Amy will present this at a city council meeting, and then John will present recommendations for route signage.city council is interested in promoting Bronze award and moving up to Silver.improving signage and routes would be a dramatic step towards Silver.
Recommended Routes and signage for Spring 2017: John shared maps with recommended signage and asked we all take one more look at it and let him know of any changes.
These were changes from the April meeting:
• Shift lane from Houston to McKee
• Sign on Prairie, not Van Buren
• Pine will connect to Fermi
• Good routes determined in all quadrants except SE
• We will ask school permission to put bike route signage on BHS property
• State – request flashing signed crossing
• Prairie should be bike route; 1 bike lane in each direction (shared with parking)
• Lathem ties to bike path; would like to tie it to Raddant with easement
• Webster and Laurel: Need signage and need to connect to trail
• Pine: need sign to Fermi
• Concern for safety if use Hart or Raddant as bike route
Bicycle Friendly Businesses: Dave estimate for marketing materials is $1655. Main Street will put in $500. Main Street thinks we should stay with the $20 fee to businesses. If we start program by end of summer, Amy recommends the $20 is good for 1 1⁄2 years. We are $700 short. Decided we do not need printed maps. Need to come up with more bike activities around town, like a scavenger hunt.
Celebration of bike’s 200 years: Fun idea, but not going to pursue this.
Depot Museum Expansion: Amy gave info to Scott, who offered to go to a focus group meeting at the Depot Museum. Steve offered to be the back up.
Bikes for Batavia: Got 10 bikes for large family with 10 kids, helmets (got more from Fit for Kids/Delnor), and bells. Joanne bought locks for them. Got 2 bikes for adult woman and her 31 year old niece with Downs who never had a bike and always wanted one. Working on 3 bikes for a family. Joanne started a google doc so anyone can see what is being done and what is needed. Send Joanne a message if you want to be on the google doc.
Scott said BBC was invited to tour Working Bikes in Chicago.
Farmer’s Market: Not committing to a booth this year
http://www.cityofbatavia.net/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Minutes/_06122017-1027
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