Missing the point of suburban bike-friendliness

Last updated on: October 19, 2025 at 8:03 pm by Jane the Actuary

0 Comments

Missing the point of suburban bike-friendliness 2025-10-19T20:03:04-06:00 Jane the Actuary

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Arlington Heights, IL; from https://web.archive.org/web/20161026201038/http://www.panoramio.com/photo/72503745 via Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Arlington_Heights,_IL,_USA_-_panoramio_%282%29.jpg

Every now and again, I scroll through the drafts to see what I had written and then decided was not yet “ready for prime-time” and afterwards forgotten about. This is one of those: it’s now dated because it was written in reaction to the announcements about pork-spending at the end of Illinois’ legislative session in May, but it’s still a topic I want to raise.

****************************

It seems that not just my own but pretty much every suburb wants to be bike-friendly and pedestrian-friendly, and also wants to have a popular “downtown,” whether it’s a historic area, a newly-built “town square” or some of both. In fact, these two objectives ought to be paired together as two sides of the same coin, as parts of broader objectives including strengthened communities and access to shopping, dining, entertainment, and employment without the need to drive a car. But as far as I can tell, or at least based on what I’m seeing in my town, that’s not the case and each is pursued in a way that completely misses the point: the village of Arlington Heights is pursuing a “downtown” to which its residents drive, then enjoy its amenities, while at the same time, its bicycle/pedestrian policy aims (to the extent that it is active) to encourage cycling and walking within isolated recreational paths.

The other day, I stumbled upon a report on some new state grants announced “to improve bicycling and pedestrian infrastructure” (according to the report’s description) in Illinois, of which about $3M is headed to my town. I hunted down the original source and found a state press release which stated that $139.2 million was awarded in grants, which were described as supporting

bike and pedestrian paths and trails, streetscape beautification and other projects designed to encourage safe travel across various modes of transportation at the local level. Thanks to Rebuild Illinois, an all-time high in funding was made available during the competitive call for projects, with approximately 74% allocated for improvements in communities that best demonstrated financial need.

It’s not clear to me whether this is one of those grant programs that was reported to have been exclusively allocated to districts held by Democratic state senators or representatives, but it is certainly the case that my local state senator Mark Walker, who, yes, like pretty much everyone in the area is a Democrat, took credit, with his own press release headlined: “Four infrastructure projects in the 27th District to see $9 million in funding thanks to Walker advocacy,” which certainly indicates that this is the case, that projects were politically determined. In any case, the IDOT website helpfully has a list of projects (confusingly labelled 2024). Of the $139M, $122M is targeted at improving bike and pedestrian access, including construction or improvement of bike paths, sidewalks, or shared use paths, either off-road or alongside roads, including, in areas near me, on busy streets which lack sidewalks entirely in some areas and make pedestrian or bike travel unappealing and/or unsafe, and however much it’s discouraging that these grants are Democrat-only, the objectives seem entirely worthy.

But I’m far more skeptical about the $3M being spent on “historical preservation” and the $14.5M on “landscape/scenic beautification,” which seem to be much more “purely” pork, and don’t belong in a “safe travel” grant program at all — and one of these is the $3M awarded to Arlington Heights with the project title, “Vail Promenade Downtown Pedestrian Accessibility & Streetscape Enhancement,” the description “Installation of sustainable streetscape, pedestrian, and bicycle infrastructure,” and the location “The project is located in Downtown Arlington Heights in the area bounded by Highland Avenue to the west, Wing Street/Davis Street to the north, Dunton Avenue to the east, and 250 feet south of Campbell Street along Vail Avenue.”

For non-locals, this area describes the “downtown” area and more specifically, the area which is closed to car access in the late spring/summer/early fall for Arlington Al Fresco, when restaurants, of which there’s a significant concentration, welcome outdoor diners, once a week the village hosts outdoor concerts at Harmony Park, and as the Al Fresco finale local businesses and restaurants offer their wares in the Taste of Arlington Heights. The special events and concerts have been around for a while (though the crowds for the concerts have been growing) but the Al Fresco began when restaurants were closed due to state Covid restrictions.

What this means is that downtown Arlington Heights is not remotely in the same category as the other grants. It is not in need of funding to improve bike or pedestrian infrastructure to help cyclists or walkers get to their destination; it is the destination. Instead, if the information in an article from 2020 (the only one I could find on the matter) is still applicable, the purpose of the money is to make the downtown area more appealing when being used as a car-free plaza.

Arlington Heights officials are contemplating plans to further enhance the village’s downtown, including transformation of the main Vail Avenue-Campbell Street intersection into a pedestrian-friendly, European-inspired streetscape.

The village has retained consultants to develop concept plans for a proposed “woonerf,” a Dutch word for “living street” that emphasizes pedestrian traffic over that of vehicles, no curbs, and decorative permeable paver bricks. . . .

Arlington Heights officials say as a curbless street, the so-called Vail Avenue Promenade would be easier to close for events like the Mane Event and Taste of Arlington Heights. The Vail woonerf would essentially serve as an expansion of nearby Harmony Park, home to summer concerts and more informal gatherings of residents and visitors.

Now, this sounds all well and good, if money grew on trees and there were no trade-offs needed. But ours is a world of trade-offs, and there are within Arlington Heights plenty of areas where the basic element of safe sidewalk access to shopping and restaurants on busy streets is still missing.

And, in fact, Arlington Heights as a village is quite enamored of “downtown Arlington Heights” as a pedestrian-friendly area, but the reality is that most of the restaurant and event-goers drive their cars there — which means that most residents of Arlington Heights get in the car and drive whenever they want to go out to eat, get a cup of coffee or a treat, or enjoy some sort of entertainment. Not long ago, I spent time ringing doorbells in support of a local candidate, and talked to a young man living with his parents to save up for a down payment, who, after I asked what his thoughts were on housing, set me straight right away: he had no intention of buying in Arlington Heights. It’s lifeless, full of old people, nothing to do, nowhere to go that doesn’t require a designated driver.

A few blocks of “downtown” with attractive streetscape isn’t going to solve that no matter how many parking garages there are on the outskirts, and to finally get to my point, the village of Arlington Heights — and all such similar suburbs — would be far better off working to enable and promote some kind of “micro-downtowns” throughout the village, accessible by bike from nearby apartments and subdivisions, perhaps at the edges of strip malls to avoid walking through a massive parking lot,

************************************

And that’s the end of the original draft. As I recall, I then ended up down a rabbit hole of reading the actual Arlington Heights Bicycle Commission’s report, which had a lot of ambitious ideas, such as narrowing residential streets or creating one-way streets in order to have dedicated bike lanes, but seemed to miss prioritization, and to me what should be prioritized, are the major arteries which lack sidewalks or have sidewalks in poor condition or too narrow to be shared by pedestrians and cyclists.

But in any case, on the assumption that this little post will have readers outside my small circle: I would love to see some kind of return, in a new iteration, to the corner store and the corner tavern, to walkable/bikable places dotted throughout town. Does your town have this? Could you imagine it existing in the future?

Uncategorized

urban planning

Previous Post

October 2, 2025

Are Mormons Christian?

Next Post

October 21, 2025 Just how high will whooping cough prevalence increase?

I was thrown into a den of these beasts for praying three times daily, but they did not harm me. What creatures were they?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Lions Wolves Bears Serpents