The key to a thriving community is one whose urban design is human-centered and empowers freedom of mobility. At least, that is what the St. Charles Urban Design Advocates believe.
The student-run organization, started in January by North sophomore James Bryner and East junior Calvin Reed, aims to better the safety, quality, eco-friendliness and efficiency of St. Charles’ urban design, and enable community members to choose walking, biking or taking public transportation rather than driving to get to their destinations.
“We are a growing community, which means there’s a lot of new developments being put up in downtown and stuff like that, and we want to make sure those developments are done right, so that it benefits everyone, it creates affordable housing and it is walkable and bikeable to get to,” said Bryner. “We’re focused on improving bikeability, walkability and transit within St. Charles, because right now it’s kind of lacking.”
One of the organization’s current projects is their free bicycle safety kits for St. Charles employees. The kits include a helmet with Multi-Directional Impact Protection System, or MIPS, technology, bike lights for front and back, a bell, reflectors, a pamphlet about bike safety and a reflective drawstring bag. This initiative came following the death of Rafael Hernandez-Villa, an employee at St. Charles business El Puente, after being hit on his bike ride home from work last October.
“The biking safety kit is a kit that we’re giving out to local St. Charles businesses because a lot of their workers bike home who live in downtown St. Charles, and they don’t typically have the proper equipment,” said Bryner. “We want to give them these kits, and they contain helmets, reflectors, lights and a pamphlet about safety. And this will basically not only get them more aware, but it’ll hopefully get them to wear this [equipment].”
Partnering with local businesses Sammy’s Bikes and El Puente, the nonprofit is currently donating the kits in hopes of increasing the safety of St. Charles employees by providing them the necessary equipment.
“We’re in the distribution phase, so we’re just kind of getting those out, and we might actually make more kits if the need comes upon itself,” said Bryner.
Another of the organization’s projects is their Fox Valley Transportation Survey. This survey is designed to collect data about transportation habits in the Fox Valley. The organization strongly encourages Fox Valley community members to fill out the form in order to have their voices heard and provide guidance for future projects.
“We’re running [the survey] through the end of the year. It is a survey to collect data about people’s transportation use, how they’re getting around St. Charles, if their needs are being met, and that data will be compiled into a study, which we will release to the public,” said Bryner. “That is something that is going to be really great for us in the long run because we can use that data in our future projects.”
The survey intends to gather input and voice from community members focused around their experiences with transportation and freedom of mobility.
“We are asking people how they get around St. Charles, if they feel like they have freedom of mobility, like if they want to get somewhere, are they able to do that and if they’re happy with their quality of service,” said Bryner. “Especially we want to capture the people who ride Pace, which is the suburban bus system around here, because those people [who] don’t get a lot of voice and stuff, so we want to make sure their voice is heard, and we want to make sure that their needs are hopefully met or improved.”
As for future projects, the nonprofit is hoping to continue their work in bettering the transportation and urban design of St. Charles and the Fox Valley area.
“As we go into the winter months, we can obviously do less physical stuff, but hopefully we’ll be able to work on more online stuff, like designing improved designs St. Charles designs and designing our website and stuff. And then into next summer, we hope to maybe make an actual physical impact on St Charles, like painting a bike lane or something where it’s needed,” said Bryner.
Further information about the St. Charles Suburban Design Advocates is available on their website.
