Ride Illinois’ member surveys tell us that your top priority for our work is bike-friendly roads. Over the past year, we have significantly increased our time spent reviewing upcoming IDOT roadwork to advocate for you. We are combing through the five-year plan for each of IDOT’s nine districts, one by one, selecting roadwork where bicycling needs are greatest and writing letters detailing our technical suggestions. Our requests provide recommendations for improvements that we feel are at an appropriate level for these projects.

On May 9th, we met with IDOT District 8 engineers to review our road project letters for the Metro East area and Southwest Illinois. We also broadly discussed road design issues ranging from paved shoulders and rumble strips to re-striping for bike lanes and bicyclists triggering a green light. While some progress was made and there was improved understanding of the needs of cyclists, the results for some resurfacing projects could be better. We need your help to reinforce our request to IDOT District 8, and let them know that local residents would like to see bike-friendly roads in their communities. If you live in District 8, please take a moment to sign our petition here and ask IDOT to implement our road design recommendations.

IDOT District 8 Letters:

• IL161 resurfacing from Scott AFB to Mascoutah
• Greenmount Rd additional lanes and resurfacing in Belleville
• US50 resurfacing in and east of Lebanon
• US40 resurfacing from Pocohontas to Mulberry Grove
• US67 construct bypass in Delhi
• IL13 resurfacing from Freeburg to New Athens
• IL3 resurfacing from Monroe County line to Ruma (through Red Bud)
• IL160 resurfacing from Trenton to New Memphis

This spring, we also sent input letters on 17 road projects in IDOT District 6, Springfield and Western Illinois, and we hope to meet with them soon. If you live in District 6, please add your name here to our call for more bike-friendly roads in your area.

IDOT District 6 Letters:

• Illinois 29 and Main in Rochester – intersection project
• Stevenson Drive in Springfield – resurfacing project
• Business 55 (6th/5th St, etc) in Springfield – resurfacing project
• S. Dirksen Parkway in Springfield – resurfacing project
• Macarthur and Laurel in Springfield – intersection project
• IL 4 from Auburn to Virden – resurfacing project
• IL57, Quincy to Marblehead – resurfacing project
• US24-67 in Rushville – resurfacing project
• IL29 in Pana – resurfacing project
• Business 55, south of Lincoln – resurfacing project
• IL96 in Quincy – resurfacing project
• Business 72/Morton Avenue in Jacksonville – bridge project
• IL96, south of Nauvoo – bridge project
• US67-IL100 over Illinois River in Beardstown – bridge project-
• IL106 over Illinois River in Florence – bridge project
• US54 over Mississippi River near Louisiana, MO  – bridge project
• US136 over Mississippi River near Hamilton – bridge project