Median in Batavia to help walkers, bicyclists cross Route 31 canceled

Plans to build a refuge in the middle of Route 31 for walkers and bicyclists trying to cross at Houston Street are being dropped at the eleventh hour.

Batavia aldermen were shocked Tuesday to learn that what they thought would be a little island had turned into a 55-foot-long raised median that would prohibit drivers from turning left into one of the driveways for the Batavia Avenue Mobil service station on the southwest corner. And they are dismayed that neither they nor the station's co-owner, Stan Oke, knew about this until Oke asked a construction worker last week about markings being painted on the pavement.

Furthermore, the median would not square up with Houston but start 20 to 30 feet south of it, said Alderman Alan Wolff, who works at the station.

"I do feel that crossing there is more an illusion of safety than it is true safety," said Steve Oke, co-owner of the station. "And it was kind of a crummy way to find out we have a big impact on our business going down."

The station has two driveways on Route 31 and two on Houston Street. Eliminating one of the Route 31 driveways would make it more difficult for Illinois Central school buses to get in and out. The station has a fuel contract with the bus company, which serves the Batavia school district. The larger buses can't negotiate the left turn into the Houston entrances.

And drivers of regular vehicles would likely use the inconvenience to instead buy gasoline at a Shell station kitty-corner to the Mobil, Steve Oke said.

The planning for the median started in 2012, at the suggestion of the Batavia Bicycle Commission. Gary Holm, the city's public works director, said it took three years for the plans to be finalized due to the involvement of the federal government, because a federal grant was being used to pay for most of the work.

He said city workers counted traffic last Saturday into and out of the station off Route 31. Few drivers tried to turn left out of the station onto northbound Route 31, he said, and about half of the customers coming from the south made a left turn off the state route; the rest turned left onto Houston.

"It (the median) was a great idea, but it is not a practical idea," said Alderman Dave Brown. Even Alderman Lucy Thelin Atac, an avid cyclist who advocated for a median and in whose ward it is in, said she opposed this version, according to an email Brown read to the council.

The Batavia Police Department also opposed having a raised median at the intersection at all, saying it would give a false sense of security.

Now the intersection will just get a striped crosswalk.

But a striped crosswalk and flashing beacon will be installed one block north at McKee Street, which dead-ends at Route 31.

Alderman Kyle Hohmann said people are more likely to cross at Houston than at McKee, given that Houston is a major entrance to the downtown. The Riverwalk, the Batavia Government Center, the Fox River Trail, the Depot Museum and a bicycle bridge over the Fox River are all on or just off Houston.

"Everybody is going to go the path of least resistance anyway," Hohmann said.

McKee is dangerous for bicyclists to use, said John Gamble of the Batavia Bicycle Commission, because once they cross bicyclists would then have to ride against the flow of northbound traffic to get to Houston. Adult bicyclists are not allowed to ride on sidewalks in most of Batavia.