Bill
HB 2675
Requires trail and highway authorities to install clear warning signs at paved bicycle trail crossings to improve safety and coordinate signage.
Status and key dates
- Bill: HB 2675 — enacted as Public Act 104‑0243
- Governor approved: August 15, 2025 — Effective date: August 15, 2025
- Companion: SB 1492
- Passed both houses and enrolled; amendments adopted during floor and committee stages.
Purpose
- To clarify and expand signage requirements for publicly owned paved bicycle trails and for highways where those trails cross, with the goal of improving safety for trail users and motorists.
Main provisions
- Definition: “Paved bicycle trail” explicitly includes trails surfaced with aggregate, asphalt, bituminous treatment, concrete, crushed limestone, or any combination of these.
- Trail authority obligations:
- The authority having maintenance jurisdiction over publicly owned paved bicycle trails must erect permanent regulatory or warning signs alerting pedestrians or cyclists to highway crossings — unless the crossing is already controlled by an official traffic control device or sign.
- If the trail authority has actual knowledge of an emergency or safety hazard that creates a dangerous condition on a paved bicycle trail, it must take reasonable steps to erect temporary warning signage or markers (examples listed: cones, barricades, drums, painted markings) to alert pedestrians or cyclists.
- Highway authority obligations:
- The Illinois Department of Transportation (for State highways) and local highway authorities (for other highways) must erect or install permanent signage/markings warning vehicular traffic in advance of bicycle trail crossings, unless the highway approaches are controlled by an official traffic control device.
- Permanent warning signage must conform to the State traffic control manual, and advanced warning signs must be located at least 150 feet in advance of the crossing.
- Exemption: Rustic or primitive trails are not covered by this Section.
Who is affected
- State and local transportation agencies (IDOT, county/city highway departments) — must install compliant signage on highways.
- Public agencies or entities that maintain paved bicycle trails (municipal park districts, forest preserves, conservation authorities, trail districts, etc.) — must install permanent trail-side signs and temporary markers when aware of hazards.
- Trail users (pedestrians, cyclists) and motorists — expected safety benefits from clearer advance warnings.
- Potential minor fiscal impact on agencies for purchase, installation, and maintenance of signs and temporary warning devices.
Practical impact
- Clarifies responsibilities and creates a coordinated expectation that both trail owners/operators and highway authorities provide advance warnings at trail/highway crossings.
- May increase costs and workload for sign installation and maintenance, and necessitates interagency coordination for placement and conformance with the State manual.
- Temporal requirement for temporary warnings is triggered by the trail authority’s actual knowledge of hazardous conditions (i.e., when they become aware of a danger).
Compiled from official sources — confirm details with the bill’s official record.
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