MOLINE, Ill. — The new pedestrian path along the new Interstate 74 bridge is one example of Moline's scenic bike paths.
"Right now, Moline has amazing bike paths on the river," said Alderman Matt Timion.
Each path can take you places, and every mile provides a connection.
"What we're missing is a connector to some of the great recreational paths that we have," Timion said.
Moline Fourth Ward Alderman Matt Timion is among the city leaders helping make that connection with the rest of the community. It's something he says is lacking throughout town.
"The whole idea here is we need to make a north-south connection easier," Timion said.
That starts with several projects already in the works. Crews are already building a new bike path on 36th Avenue between 7th and 13th Streets, as well as a new path along the Mississippi River, according to the city's website.
Another project is connecting River Drive and the Avenue of the Cities with a bike path along 19th Street.
"We're building what we're calling the river-to-river corridor, and that's gonna go from Mississippi to Rock River," Timion said.
The city now wants to hear from its residents about where more paths are needed. Timion and several city departments are using a survey to collect feedback from the community.
That survey is open through Friday, Sept. 2, and can be found here.
"We've built Moline, we've built all of our cities in America around a car," Timion said. "But younger generations, millennials and below, are often rejecting that, and they're not going to move to a city that doesn't accommodate that need."
Timion and other officials say they're focused on Moline's future. Adding bike paths will be a long process, but city leaders also want to consider the most cost-effective options for each individual identified location.
For example, one option includes narrowing a stretch of road from 14-foot driving lanes to 11-foot driving lanes.
"We could take that extra three feet and turn it into a bike path," Timion said. "At that point the cost is paint."
According to city officials, this is a long-term plan without an end date.
"There is no end goal here," Timion said. "It isn't 'we're gonna put bike lanes everywhere' because in 20 years there might be another need we hadn't anticipated."