<p>Joey Thurman: Stop, look and listen. That's what we tell our three year old son every time he gets to an intersection, whether it's busy or not. The Prairie Path, part of Aurora, Illinois's Bike Trail is incredibly busy. We're talking with citizens of Aurora to see how the city can make it much more safe for them.<br /><br />Joey Thurman: Bill. This, as you said, the second time crossing this intersection and it's a very busy intersection. Do you feel safe?<br /><br />Bill: If people mind the lights, then yes. They don't always mind the lights.<br /><br />Joey Thurman: Is there anything that you feel that the city could do to make this safer for a bicyclist?<br /><br />Bill: They could probably paint some lines approaching the intersection to bring it to the attention of the-<br /><br />Joey Thurman: Perfect. You're in bright colors as well. That helps. This intersection right here seems to be in particular, pretty busy. How do you feel crossing it?<br /><br />Speaker 3: It's a challenge. Most of the time they stop for the light. I punch it every time. Once in a while, no. But the light helps, but it's not the best thing.<br /><br />Joey Thurman: I'm here with Dustin and Dennis. Dustin, I noticed that it took a long time for you to cross there.<br /><br />Dustin: Yeah. You have to look both ways for sure. It's a busy, busy road here.<br /><br />Joey Thurman: Yeah. There's two of you, you think they might have slowed down, right?<br /><br />Dustin: Yeah. Well, you think so? Yeah. You don't count on it.<br /><br />Joey Thurman: Yeah.<br /><br />Dustin: Right. Yeah, no it's ... As a biker out here, you've got to pay attention and not make assumptions that people are going to slow down for you, even if there's a cross section.<br /><br />Joey Thurman: We're at this intersection here at Farnsworth and it's 10:30 and it's highly, highly busy. What is the city doing to help bicyclists and people that are using the path there?<br /><br />Bob Greene: Well, a couple years ago, the city pursued what's called a Highway Safety Improvement Program Grant. It's a federal grant. The thought was, this is, as you can see, challenging to cross here at the Prairie Path. This whole segment was a challenge, both to cyclists and pedestrians. We thought, hey, with this segment, maybe we can do some improvements, put in a raised median, very challenging to cross four lanes without a median.<br /><br />Bob Greene: They give a refuge for pedestrians and bicyclists. They can see what's coming at them from one direction. With that, we'll enhance the what's called the rectangular flashing or rectangular rapid flashing beacon systems. A lot going on in the grant. A lot of pieces to the puzzle. We're very excited about getting at.<br /><br />Joey Thurman: Speaking to that, what's the timeframe when these improvements are going to be made?<br /><br />Bob Greene: Right now, we're in what we call preliminary design, wrapping that up this year. Then we are hitting the ground in construction in 2023.</p>