Residents from the 1st, 6th and 7th Wards gathered at Westminster Place’s Caldwell Assembly Hall Tuesday evening for the final joint ward meeting to discuss the city’s 2026 Bike Plan Update.

The update builds on Evanston’s 2014 Bike Plan, using safety and crash data from the Illinois Department of Transportation, ridership data and community engagement feedback to expand the city’s bike infrastructure and update its existing policies and programs.

The construction of potential east-west bike corridors, which would largely run through the 6th and 7th Wards, was the most pressing issue for attendees. Improvements along existing latitudinal bike routes on Lincoln Street, Isabella Street and portions of Central Street also dominated Tuesday’s conversation.

According to Evanston Assistant City Engineer Chris Sous, five-criteria — comfort, connectivity, equity and implementation & impacts — will be used to evaluate areas of improvement identified through community feedback. The city will then gather data from each category, normalize it to a 0-1 scale and add the values together.

“Ones that score with the highest priority will show you just how much of a priority, using the criteria, that corridor would be,” Sous said.

The implementation and impacts criteria consider roadblocks that would “typically prevent projects from happening in the immediate future,” said Sous. The category weighs funding for potential infrastructure improvements as well as their effects on local parking, trees, businesses and the community. 

In his opening presentation, Sous noted the city is also looking into identifying “secondary stress networks.”

These networks would designate “wide-enough” neighborhood or side streets with low traffic levels as “second, safe street” options adjacent to or connecting city bike routes, Sous explained.

Kelly Mack, 6th Ward resident and owner of Mack’s Bike & Goods, said she was excited to discuss increased east-west connectivity across Evanston. 

Mack said her six-year-old son, Leo, enjoys biking to school, but said their ride to Willard Elementary School can be a challenge. Oftentimes, Mack said her son will bike on the sidewalk while she bikes in the street, attempting to coach him through safe biking practices.

Riding west to the beach from their home in the 6th Ward during the summer is no easier.

“We have had really terrifying incidents where Leo and I have almost been hit several times or been unfortunately screamed at by people in cars,” Mack said.

Haven Middle School parent Gabe Weiss shared a similar experience from his family’s bike commute to Lincolnwood Elementary School. Weiss described the route from their home in the 5th Ward, which includes crossing through several intersections, as “a nightmare.”

“It was kind of an ad-hoc situation — and not a safe one,” Weiss said.

On multiple occasions, residents referred to biking incidents that have occurred throughout the city. Mack even read a statement given to her by a 73-year-old biker who was hit by a car at the intersection of Green Bay Road and Lincoln Street in early January.

Now recovering from a broken leg and collarbone, the cyclist called for increased awareness surrounding bike safety.

“Evanstonians stop being idiots,” the biker wrote in their statement, read by Mack. “Let’s set an example for other communities.”

Attendees broadly expressed desire for markings that clearly indicate the city’s designated bike routes to both drivers and cyclists.

“It’s the painting and the signage and discouraging cars from some of the smaller roads,” said Council member Clare Kelly (1st). “Just making it very clear to drivers that bikes are allowed here.”

Throughout the meeting, Sous encouraged residents to submit their perspectives to the Community Remarks Online Engagement Portal, an interactive webpage open to public comment until March 15.

In combination with the joint-ward meetings, comments from the portal will guide the next step in the bike plan: crafting a draft of the update.

Ultimately, many residents expressed frustration with the current safety levels when biking in Evanston. Those included Weiss, who mentioned his family’s experience being tailgated on their ride back from Sunday brunch on Central Street.

“Cars go wherever they want, and they feel like we don’t belong anywhere. And that has to be addressed in this bike plan,” he said, garnering applause from the crowd.

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