Champaign County prioritizes bike safety through community events

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. (WICS/WSRP) — Champaign County is known for its bike-friendly community, and on Tuesday it celebrated sharing the road with National Bike to Work Day.

The County's largest cities are on the ranking for being bike-friendly and continue to improve bike safety in the community.

Illinois has recognized 17 bike-friendly communities according to The League of American Bicyclists.

Champaign and Urbana have been on the list for several years, working their way up the rankings.

"1,500 to 2,000 bikes cross Green Street in front of Illinois union, the same number on Wright Street in front of sift," Sustainable Transportation Assistant at Facilities & Services for UIUC, Sarthak Prasad said.

Urbana is rated gold according to its report card.

This is based on high-speed roads with bike lanes, bike plans being implemented and updated often, and over 43% of roads in Urbana are bike-friendly.

"I bike out to Riggs and things like that and there is a noticeable difference in Urbana in quality of bike lanes, and even drivers to some extent seem more aware in Urbana," Champaign Resident, William Schlaack said.

Champaign is rated silver.

Silver communities have an average of 9% of their transportation budget being invested in bike projects and working on adding more bike-friendly streets.

"Making it safer for bicyclists, more bike lanes, bike paths," Prasad said.

With the new addition of bike lanes along Green Street, champaign continues to put bikers' safety as a priority.

"The addition of bike lanes has been really instrumental in helping my commute to the library every day. I really appreciate it and the cities are doing their best I think," Schlaack said.

CU Bike Month, Champaign County Bikes, and several other organizations came together for Champaign County's Bike to Work Day on Tuesday, September 14th.

There were a total of 17 welcome stations this year, in Champaign, Urbana, on the U of I campus, Savoy, Mahomet, St. Joseph, and Rantoul.

The 14th annual Light the Night bicycle light giveaway event was Tuesday evening (Tuesday, September 14, 2021).

Lights were available at three campus locations to help promote safety for bikers at night.

The Campus Bike Center Grand Re-opening Celebration is Thursday, September 16, 2021.