Even though it’s feels like winter out there, the Illinois cycling scene has been active in the past few days:
MCT opens bus-bike station: Madison County Transit today opened its new $4 million Leclaire Junction bike-bus station in Edwardsville.
The opening of the station means makes it a lot easier for cyclists to navigate through Edwardsville. A critical part of the station is a lighted tunnel that takes cyclists and other trail users using the Nickel Plate Trail beneath busy Troy Road (formerly Illinois 159) in Edwardsville. After going through the tunnel, you can continue on the Nickel Plate Trail to Alhambra or turn on the Quercus Grove Trail to Hamel, Worden and Staunton.
The Leclaire Junction station is located near Edwardsville’s historic Leclaire neighborhood, once a a factory town created by industrialist N.O. Nelson. The old factory is now the Nelson Campus of Lewis and Clark Community College
The station also includes parking for people using MCT’s park-ride system.
And speaking of MCT, the agency will introduce a new trails map in 2012. The map isn’t available to the public yet, but I recently received a copy of it.
The folding map has cardboard front and back covers designed to make it more durable. Of course, the map details all the county’s bike trails and retains the seven loops feature of connecting trails in the Edwardsville area. Insets of Alton, Collinsville and Edwardsville show the location of restaurants and lodging.
Calhoun County bike trail feasibility: Last week, the Calhoun Trails Patrnership conducted three public forums about the feasibility on enhancing bicycling and pedestrians routes in Calhoun County.
I went to Wednesday’s forum in Hardin. Similar forums also were held in Kampsville and Brussels. In talking to some of the folks involved in the process, I got the impression they are likely to look at modest trail plans and designating and widening some existing roads as bike routes.
The modest trails could serve the Two Rivers National Wildlife Refuge or communities within the county.
As for the bike routes, Calhoun County already is part of the Illinois alignment of the Mississippi River Trail, although the trail is unsigned in the county and much of Illinois. From the north, the MRT enters Calhoun County on Illinois 96, continues south on Mississippi River Road through Hamburg and Batchtown, turns east on Schleeper Road to the Illinois River Road, which takes the route to the Brussels Ferry.
I was asked for my thoughts about where the focus on bike routes should be. I suggested focusing on the southern part of the county because the vast majority of cyclists enter the county via the Golden Eagle Ferry, a Mississippi River ferry that links Calhoun County and St. Charles County, Mo., and the Brussels Ferry, an Illinois River ferry that links Calhoun and Jersey County.
To me, the bike routes on existing roads seem more feasible for Calhoun County, a rural county of about 5,100 people nestled between the Illinois and Mississippi rivers. Calhoun County has no abandoned railroad rights of way, so building a long trail would be too costly.
Another public forum is likely in the spring, but if you want to be a part of the process, you can go to the Calhoun County Illinois Bike Study page at Facebook and add your thoughts there.
Illinois Share the Road license plates: The League of Illinois Bicyclists last week reached its minimum 1,500 reservations for Illinois’ permanent Share the Road Illinois license plate. LIB says it probably will be at least another five or six months before the plates start appearing on Illinois vehicles.
You still can put in a reservation. Just go to LIB’S license plate page and follow the instructions, and you’ll be in line to get a plate.
Share and Enjoy
