Northwestern University and Evanston's Only Daily News Source Since 1881

The Daily Northwestern

33° Evanston, IL
Northwestern University and Evanston's Only Daily News Source Since 1881

The Daily Northwestern

Northwestern University and Evanston's Only Daily News Source Since 1881

The Daily Northwestern

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Residents question effectiveness of bike policy

Although Evanston city code bans bicycles from downtown sidewalks, some residents say their hopes for a safe walkway remain deflated.

An average of 12 tickets are issued each month to cyclists who use downtown Evanston sidewalks, said Lt. Curt Kuempel of the Evanston Police Department. But coordinated “blitz” efforts have produced as many as 20 violations in one day, he said.

Such sporadic results have left some residents and students questioning the policy’s effectiveness.

“I have never, ever, seen one person stopped or ticketed,” said one Evanston woman, who called herself an activist and asked not to be identified.

When she has asked cyclists to move from the sidewalk, some have shot her a rude look or made an obscene gesture, she said. The woman estimated that this has happened to her at least 30 times.

“I’ve never had one who said ‘thank you’ and got off,” she said.

The policy originated about 10 years ago when a Northwestern student riding his bicycle down a Sherman Avenue sidewalk struck an elderly woman exiting a store. She sustained two broken hips and later died of her injuries, police said.

The incident sparked Evanston residents, especially seniors who live in or around the downtown area, to lobby the city for reform.

The city responded, and in 1993 a no-bike ordinance went into effect for all downtown sidewalks, Kuempel said.

In Evanston, a violation ticket carries a fee of $15, or $25 if the fee is not paid within 10 days.

So-called “blitzes” occur once every three to four months, Kuempel said. They take place whenever “people are ignoring (the regulations), and not voluntarily complying with the law.”

But NU students seem fairly unmoved by the policy, with some citing dangerous downtown traffic pushing fearful cyclists back onto the walkways.

“There’s really not a lot of room in the street,” said cyclist Mary Casperson, a Medill graduate student.

Casperson, who was riding her bicycle on a no-bike sidewalk when she made her comment, casually acknowledged that she knew about the no-bike policy, but was not fazed by it, and would not venture into the car-filled streets.

“I like my life,” she said.

University Police encourage students to bring their bicycles to school instead of cars. Aside from conserving much-needed parking space, bikes provide a great source of exercise, Lt. Glenn Turner said. About 140 student-owned bikes have been registered so far this year, UP records show.

Deanna Fisher, a senior agent at Randstad, a staffing firm in downtown Evanston, said the policy is working.

“I don’t notice (bicycles),” she said. “There’s more of them on the road than the sidewalk.”

Other college towns enforce similar ordinances.

In Iowa City, the town around the University of Iowa, riding a bike on the sidewalk carries a $28 fine. But as in Evanston, the policy is leniently enforced, and only 23 citations have been issued there since Aug. 26.

But a few bicycle riders around Osco Drug and Clarke’s don’t create the biggest problem, some students said. The mad dash to the classroom, especially with mud puddles along the sidewalks, is much more of a nuisance for those on foot, said Michael Ferrario, a Weinberg senior.

“The Evanston bike policy is inconsequential,” Ferrario said. “But if I see a biker coming at me on the sidewalk on Sheridan Road, I’ll throw a shoulder at him.”

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Residents question effectiveness of bike policy