A cyclist rides on the Chicago Avenue protected bike lane just south of Church Street. Credit: Bill Smith Over 250 business owners and residents cosigned a letter Monday, urging Mayor Daniel Biss and city staff to continue supporting the Chicago Avenue multimodal corridor improvements project.
The letter comes two weeks after some merchants pened a letter opposing the project , and just one day before a community meeting is scheduled to take place on the subject.
In a letter written by the Evanston Transit Alliance and shared with Evanston Now, residents and business owners say that claims by critics that few people ride bikes on Chicago Avenue and that the project would eliminate too much parking along the stretch are false.
Proponents also say that the project aligns with several community plans, including the Multi-Modal Plan, Bike Plan, Complete Streets Ordinance and the Climate Action and Resilience Plan.
Opponents say the plan would strip the most of the parking from the east side of Chicago Avenue and harm “nearly 200 small businesses which depend on street parking for customer access.”
The transit alliance letter says about “75% of the total on-street parking spots will remain along the corridor,” and between Kedzie Street, Madison Avenue and Davis Street, “an average of approximately one parking spot would be lost on each block, with some blocks actually seeing increases in spaces provided.”
They also cited a heat map from the activity tracking site Strava that appears to show bikers using Chicago Avenue, despite its lack of dedicated bike […]
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