Associated Student Government representatives plan to question the Evanston City Council today about a recently passed ordinance that allows the city to prohibit bicycle riding on residential sidewalks.
Under the ordinance, passed at the April 26 City Council meeting, biking now can be banned on any sidewalk in the city where safety is a concern. Previously biking only was prohibited on sidewalks in downtown areas zoned for business use.
In the past week, officials posted signs restricting biking on the north sidewalk of Foster Street, between Sheridan Road and the Foster El station. Biking still is allowed on the south sidewalk of Foster.
“If there are smaller children in the area, it gives them one sidewalk to use,” said David Jennings Evanston’s director of public works.
ASG External Relations Chairman Jon Marino said he and City Council Liaison Jim Lovsin plan to speak during the citizen comment portion of Monday night’s council meeting. Marino, an Education sophomore, said ASG’s main concern is that the city put up the signs without making an effort to inform students.
“We were taken aback by the sudden way it was done,” he said. “The signs just appeared. Nobody was told beforehand.”
Marino said he and Lovsin are attending Monday’s meeting to “hear and talk and listen.” He said he wanted to find out more about the council’s reasoning for changing the ordinance.
Jennings said the signs were put up at the request of a neighbor near Foster, who almost were hit by bikers a few times. The signs might be switched to the south side of the street in the next month, because more pedestrians walk there.
But Lovsin, a McCormick junior, said he is worried about students thinking that both sides of Foster Street now prohibit bicycle use. He said this could lead to safety issues because students might think they must bike on the road.
Medill senior Meredith Kesner, an ASG off-campus senator, said she is concerned about the placement of the new signs.
“It’s causing a lot of confusion because the signs aren’t just on Foster,” she said. “They’re at intersections.”
The city has no specific plans to add bike-banning signs in other areas, Jennings said. He will handle requests for signs on a case-by-case basis, only adding them where they are needed.
Bikers who ride on prohibited sidewalks can be charged a $15 fine. Evanston Police Department was unable to provide statistics Friday on the number of citations that have been issued.
But for some students, a sign banning biking will not force them to the streets. Communication junior Mike Kopera said he often bikes in no-cycling zones on the sidewalks of downtown Evanston and will probably do so on Foster.
“Cops have passed me dozens of times and only once has one said anything,” he said. “I’ll probably just ignore the (new) signs.”
The Daily’s Mike Cherney, Amy Hamblin and Alison Knezevich contributed to this report.
