Bicyclist and Pedestrian Commission

Wheaton Bicyclist and Pedestrian Commission May 21, 2025 7pm Gammon Room, Wheaton City Hall, Wheaton, IL In person and Virtual meeting I. Call to Order 7:00 pm Members present: Michelle, Lou, George, Laurel, Bill, Rita, Bob, Cate, Connor Members present via Zoom: None Members absent: Mike Public Present: None Public Present via Zoom: None II. Agenda Item Approval of April Minutes Motioned: Laurel Seconded: Cate Unanimously approved via voice vote. III. Public Comment - No public were present, however Michelle reported that Paige Donahue’s mother emailed asking us to post a GoFundMe link for the August bench dedication, but the City does not allow for us to do that. Michelle informed her mother of this decision. IV. Agenda Item Chair Report- A. May City Council Meeting Mike submitted the following notes from the meeting: New city council members sworn in! Proclamations 1. Glen Ellyn Children's Chorus 60th Anniversary 2. Wheaton Garden Club 100th Anniversary 3. May 2025 is Wheaton History Preservation Month 4. May 5th, 2025 is Hale Street Tent Day Citizens to be heard Steven - American Legion Post 556 at Cantigny Park. Feel Forgotten and want to reintroduce themselves/offer to help city reach out to veterans in the area New Business 1. Reappointments to Board of Trustees (Firefighters Pension Fund) and Fine and Cultural Arts Commission 2. Changes to Wheaton Zoning Ordinance (Elementary/High School parking) WHEATON BICYCLIST & PEDESTRIAN COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES May 21, 2025 3. Downtown Wheaton train station vendor proposal (only received one - from same company that's current operating there) 4. Thanks for the volunteers of the Environmental Improvement Commission - Prairie Path Cleanup and Native Plant Sale 5. Wednesday May 7th - National Bike and Roll to School Day (Our commission got a shoutout!) 6. Reminder that is Teacher Appreciation Week 7. Mac and Cheese Festival May 10th, 2025 B. Blanchard Street Resurfacing MIke Dzugan had previously shared with us in March 2025 that the section from President Street to Darwin Lane was scheduled for a mill and overlay project in 2025, but the width was insufficient to accommodate bike lanes/sharrows. Michelle asked if a solid white line could be added to this area? Here is Mike’s response: We did look at it to see if we could accommodate a parking stripe. The problem is that there is not enough pavement width for two lanes of traffic and a dedicated parking lane. If we did deploy a parking stripe, the lanes would result in 10.5' wide which is smaller than the typical 11' wide lanes that we like to use as a minimum. Generally speaking 12' wide lanes should be standard. C. Grant Writing/Bike Plan Consultant Kyle Moss and Lou participated in the 4/23/25 webinar regarding the SS4A grant application. The webinar made clear that the primary focus of this grant program is to improve roadway safety for all users by reducing and eliminating serious injury and fatal crashes. Since our intention was to use this requested funding to update our bike/ped. plan, that would not be addressing all roadway users which was this grant program’s focus. Therefore, we will not be pursuing this grant but will continue to look for other grant opportunities. D. Virtual History Rides Susan Bishel updated our History rides on our webpage and made this its own section as follows: 2 WHEATON BICYCLIST & PEDESTRIAN COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES May 21, 2025 Susan will be including a notice about the Parks in Wheaton virtual history ride and the 2025 Group Rides in the next Wheaton Weekly email newsletter. She will promote it on social media as well. V. Ongoing Business A. Bike Valet i. Sign-up - Laurel will do a transition shift between the first and second shifts. ii. Press release to city - Bob has this written, specifying bike valet parking, and will submit it to the City. iii. May 31st French Market The Park District already is promoting the bike valet parking, so the decision was made that we will not do the French Market. B. Slow Roll Ride Survey Results Bill volunteered to review the results and will report back to us at our June meeting. -Laurel recommended we do a “mini-safety” quick check in conjunction with our slow ride and that the route be a combination of parks/trails and city streets. -George reported he did the Glen Ellyn slow ride last week - they had about 24 participants. 3 WHEATON BICYCLIST & PEDESTRIAN COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES May 21, 2025 -Bill reported that he spoke to the person from Ride Riverside, who said they get about 100 participants for each of their slow rides. Per the Ride Riverside group, their slow rides are getting people who are afraid to ride to ride with a group and secondly, people who rode in the past but are just getting back to riding. C. Letter of support for the Forest Preserve’s application to the Bike Path Grant program for Herrick Lake. i. Vote to approve letter-Rita to bring to meeting Motioned: Cate Seconded: Bill Unanimously approved via voice vote. Michelle will email the letter to the Forest Preserve. HerrickLakeImprovement Side Note: Rita reported that she and Bill did a tour of the Aquatic Resource Center at Blackwell and found it fascinating. She suggested that another tour could be set up for our commission members if we are interested. ii. Survey about Master Plan Michelle encouraged that everyone fill out this survey. D. Group Rides i. May 24th-2pm-Blackwell/McKee Marsh ii. June 19th-10am-Peck Homestead 1. $5 admission for tour VI. New Business A. 5 Year Roadplan Michelle has been looking through the 5 year roadplan and will email MIke Dzugan with our commission’s recommendations. Michelle said we are still awaiting the hire of a new assistant city manager who will be our city liaison. Bob suggested that once the new assistant city manager is hired, we review the history of our collaboration and successes with the city in the past with the new hire. B. History Ride: George has mapped out a route of the parks on the south side of Wheaton for the History ride. George will highlight the main parks we would like Bob G. to talk about and Bill will share this information with Bob G. C. WBPC Focus for Next Year Connor brought up that, per Mike Dzugan’s recommendation earlier this year, we need to start discussing what our commission wants to do next year so we can include it in our September annual report. Michelle will start a Google doc titled “Ideas for Next Year” and asked that all of us provide input so we can discuss at our next meeting. Next Meeting: June 18, 2025 X. Adjournment - 8:07 pm 4 WHEATON BICYCLIST & PEDESTRIAN COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES May 21, 2025 Approved 5