Transportation Roundup

New stoplights and "bumpouts" in Champaign. In Urbana there are "Bike boxes" for bicycle traffic and potential Kickapoo Trail collaboration with Carle.

Coming soon to downtown Champaign: More stoplights
More than three years after a woman was injured by a bus while crossing at a downtown intersection, the city plans to add stoplights there.

At the intersections of Walnut and Logan and Neil and Clark streets, construction crews have been busy since May adding "bump-outs" to shorten the crossing for pedestrians, and they'll soon add traffic lights there as well.

Even before the February 2015 accident, the city had begun a traffic study and had been in discussions with Christie Clinic, where many of the pedestrians crossing those intersections work.

After the accident, which cost a Christie Clinic employee her legs and the MTD nearly $10 million after a lawsuit, a donation by Christie resulted in the installation of flashing beacons that pedestrians can activate by pushing a button.

But the traffic study showed the need for traffic lights, according to Champaign City Council documents.

More information on businesses impacted and other location details at the full article here. Over on the Urbana side of town, the News-Gazette yesterday described "bike boxes" as helping a time honored left turn tactic for bicyclists, with a bit more space to maneuver:

Urbana intersection's new 'bike boxes' gives cyclists a bit more direction
For bicyclists, turning left at a busy intersection can be a bit dodgy — literally.

Cyclists using a right-hand bike lane have to merge across one or two lanes of traffic in order to enter a left-turn lane while hoping they're seen by cars in the intersection.

New "bike boxes" — flat, bright-green pavement markings — at the intersection of Green Street and Goodwin Avenue in Urbana are designed to make those left turns easier and reduce conflicts between bikes and cars.

They're the first of their kind in the city of Urbana and, as far as assistant city engineer Craig Shonkwiler knows, the first in the region, part of the Multimodal Corridor Enhancement Project, or MCORE...

The green boxes are positioned at each corner of the intersection, with a left-turn arrow painted in white.

When cyclists approach an intersection, they stay in the bike lane through the intersection, stop in the bike box across the street, then turn their bikes 90 degrees and wait. When the light facing the opposite direction turns green, they can proceed with traffic.

More information at the full article here. And finally today the News-Gazette talked about a potential collaboration on the Kickapoo Trail work:

Urbana working with Carle on proposed Kickapoo Rail Trail expansion
Amid ongoing litigation between the city and Carle Foundation Hospital, Urbana Mayor Diane Marlin thinks the two entities should still collaborate, and a plan to expand the Kickapoo Rail Trail will allow them to do just that.

The plan requires a collaborative effort from the city and hospital, along with the Champaign County Regional Planning Commission and Urbana Park District. Carle is contributing $25,000 as a grant match to $100,000 from the Illinois Department of Transportation, which will allow the planning commission to conduct a feasibility study on expanding the rail trail.

The vision, Marlin said, is to expand the pedestrian and bike trail westward from its current terminus at the intersection of East Main Street and U.S. 150/University Avenue through the northern edge of downtown, the southern edge of Crystal Lake Parkand Carle's hospital campus, stopping at the intersection of Lincoln and University avenues, near the northeastern edge of the University of Illinois campus...

Local and state taxing authorities have been in a years-long legal battle with Carle over property taxes. The state Supreme Court sent the case back to circuit court in 2017, when former Mayor Laurel Prussing was in office.

Marlin said that collaborating with Carle has been one of her goals since she was elected, which came later in 2017. She noted that the proposed trail expansion would allow Carle employees to easily go downtown for lunch.

More at the full article here.