Last year the River Forest Village Board approved the creation of a Village-wide Bicycle Plan based on the recommendation of the Sustainability Commission. The purpose of the plan was to establish a safe, comfortable and defined network of bicycle facilities that serves all ages and abilities and connects to key destinations in the Village, the adjoining communities, and the nearby Forest Preserves and regional trails. Implementation of the initial phase of the plan has begun and involves the installation of bike lane signs, bicycle crossing signs, turn and decision signs. This project also includes the installation of thermoplastic pavement markings including bike lane symbols, arrows, and shared lane markings.
One of the features of the bicycle plan is the introduction of marked shared lanes. These can be seen on streets with “sharrow” (bicycle symbol and double chevron) markings. For the initial phase sharrow markings will be placed on the following streets: Lathrop Ave, Division St, Chicago Ave, Central Ave, and Washington St. These are streets that are appropriate for joint use by motorized traffic and bicycles but where there is insufficient width to provide bicycle lanes due to on-street parking. They are located within the vehicular travel lane to guide bicyclists to the most visible location to ride with moving traffic that is outside of the door-zone of parked cars.
Some of the Benefits of Marked Shared Lane Guidance:
- Creates a shared travel environment on streets with insufficient width for bicycle lanes
- Raises awareness of potential presence of bicyclists
- Positions riders in most visible location to motorists while avoiding door zone of parking lane
- Connects gaps where obstructions or turn lanes interrupt continuity of bicycle lanes or paths
- Provides directional guidance
- Reduces incidents of sidewalk riding
The Bicycle Plan and more information about bicycling in River Forest can be found within the bicycling section of the Village website: www.vrf.us/bicycling