Champaign County is looking for feedback on a proposed redesign for South Lincoln Avenue that aims to improve safety along the arterial road in Urbana.
The county’s regional planning commission has been studying a 1.2-mile section of the corridor between Florida Avenue and Green Street. The road running adjacent to the University of Illinois has seen heavy vehicle traffic as well as several crashes and injuries over the years.
In 2017, the Illinois Department of Transportation flagged the intersection of Lincoln and Ohio as a priority location for safety improvements.
J.D. McClanahan, a planner with the commission, has been studying the road’s current conditions and asking community members for their thoughts.
“A frequently expressed issue was pedestrian infrastructure, both from pedestrians saying, ‘I don’t feel safe crossing the road,’ and also from drivers saying, ‘I don’t know when a pedestrian is going to going to try to walk across the road,’” he said.
Several blocks on South Lincoln Avenue currently have two vehicle travel lanes in each direction as well as a center turning lane. The planning commission’s proposal is to repave the street and implement a road diet, reconfiguring its width to one vehicle lane in each direction across the whole corridor.
The new design would also add bike lanes, with the group recommending they be elevated above street level similar to the cycling infrastructure on Green Street. Additional changes would include constructing new pedestrian crossings and limiting access to certain side streets.
McClanahan said the redesign would make for a safer transportation experience along South Lincoln and improve the flow of traffic.
“In all of those, [we’re] trying to make it so that all the different modes on the corridor can travel safely, can travel efficiently, and can communicate with each other what their intentions are and what they want,” he said.
Planners are hoping to hear the public’s concerns before taking the next step to seek support from the Urbana City Council.
“We want to make sure that what we’re having adopted has the support of the public so that when the time comes, we are able to get to that implementation stage and get these improvements built,” McClanahan added.
The planning commission is taking public input, in writing or by email, through the beginning of next year.
Construction for the project could be years away. McClanahan said Urbana’s calendar would have the city break ground on the road closer to 2030. He said the county hopes to apply for state and federal grant funding that could speed up that timeline.