The City of Evanston announced Thursday that it has received a $3 million state grant for a project to add bike lanes to Church Street west of Dodge Avenue.
The project would also include improvements to pedestrian crosswalks on Church Street from Dodge Avenue to the city limits.
It also includes studying the feasibility of creating a bike path along the east side of the North Shore Channel between Church and Dempster streets that would connect Beck and Harbert Parks.
The grant is part of the Illinois Transportation Enhancement Program administered by the Illinois Department of Transportation.
City staff say the work would improve the safety and efficiency of transporting children to local schools and increase access to the downtown by connecting to the existing bike infrastructure on Church east of Dodge.
The project is in Phase I preliminary environmental and design. Phase II design engineering will begin after approval of the Phase I report, expected this fall.
Watch out for the loss of street parking. Former Ald Wilson tried to do this and received so much opposition that even though he had to drop the idea it eventually was one of the major items that caused him to come in 3rd in a 3 person race for his reelection.
The loss of street parking is insignificant compared to safety improvements for pedestrians and cyclists, not to mention drivers who will no longer have to share the road with bikers.