Safer Bike Lanes?
- As of right now, Chicago certainly isn't one of the most bicycle-friendly cities, every year numerous cyclists are hit by cars while traveling to and from work and other locations. But city officials are hoping to change that by creating a new type of bicycle lane that will make traveling on Chicago's streets safer and prevent cyclists from getting hit by cars.
But wait! There's more!
Unlike the bike lanes in many other cities where the designated lane is just a 5-foot wide strip of the street next to traveling vehicles, the city is adopting a "cycle track." This special type of bike lane will create a physical barrier between vehicle lanes and the lane designated for cyclists. Cycle tracks most commonly use concrete "Jersey walls," typically seen in construction sites, or raised concrete barriers that don't let bicycles pass into the vehicle lanes or vice versa.
The news came after the Chicago Department of Transportation was given a $3.2 million grant from the federal government to improve their bicycle lanes by testing and building cycle tracks in the city. As of right now, CDOT is trying it out on Stony Island Avenue, between 77th and 69th streets.
First of all, creating a "wall" or Jersey barriers - wouldn't that pretty much remove a few miles of curb parking on the streets affected?
Second, the bikers are going to just love being penned in by a curb and a Jersey wall when someone pops out to hit them with a two-by-four to steal their bikes, phones and i-Pods. Every copper in the city can name a viaduct or stretch of bike lane notorious for muggings, robberies and random beatings of bikers. Many times, the cyclists can utilize their mobility avoid or escape the worst of an attack. But this sounds exactly like the chute to a slaughterhouse.
Labels: dumb ideas
posted by SCC at 12:02 AM
49 Comments:
"First of all, creating a "wall" or Jersey barriers - wouldn't that pretty much remove a few miles of curb parking on the streets affected?"
Will the city have to pay LAZ parking if they take away any former metered spaces???
The parking deal just keeps getting sweeter and sweeter - for LAZ.
One of the best laughs I had when I arrived in patrol, fresh from a unit, a couple years ago, was the pre-printed Crash Reports with "DOORING" printed on them.
Dooring? (No, Dory, this isn't a post about you.)
So many cyclists think they are 30mph vehicles, traveling alongside the parked cars, I guess it was inevitable.
"Dooring". Alert! Does the Oxford English Dictionary know Chicago has coined a new word?!
Yeah, have to read up but as I recall these are hated and a disaster everywhere they're tried. Any raised ridge on the pavement ia a death trap that will throw you -- being walled-in with higher barriers reduces the commute to the lowest common demominator -- in Holland, some befuddled 3-MPH cannabis consumer two blocks ahead sets the pace.
Add to this a hostile population that's gonna throw shopping carts and glass and s__t like that in there to stop you, jam you in there with 6 guys on 5 bikes -- the spare rider is for yours.
Rolling some asphalt down the shoulder of a busy street and painting it off for bike use only -- boy, I could sit down with a map and show you 20 spots in city and suburbs where this should be done, like where main streets go through Forest Preserves with no ridable shoulders and you don't want the winding, scenic drive 'way over in the Preserves, you want to stay along Devon, say, go straight and get somewhere.
Please, God, can't we get this idiot Daley out of town without him causing any more damage? There oughta be a law.
I can already tell -- this guy's retirement is also going to consist of him causing trouble and costing everyone money. I frankly pray for some age-related degeneration that will render him increasingly incoherent (that shouldn't take much at all) and implausible to lawmakers.
77th street and stony island? Does anyone even bike ride down there? You might get shot in that area. Yeah great place for testing.
I have my electric bicycle to get around Chicago. No gas or CTA for me ever!! WhoHoo!
Let's not forget about the snow removal. Will not be able to plow to the curbs now.
'But this sounds exactly like the chute to a slaughterhouse.'
sounds like a plan.
Chalkie
I'm all for the barrier, EXCEPT, it should run East to West, not North to South.
Sorry, but those that get hit by cars are not paying attention to traffic, running red lights & stop signs & listening to their radios or talking on the cell phone, oblivious to road conditions.
Every summer I see near misses. Its a wonder that more aren't hit.
This will make the Maggie Bumpers look tame in comparison. No Emergency parking - probably no access to one side of the street at all. Sorta like trying to cross MLK jr Drive during the running of the Billiken - but year 'round. PLUS!!! we get to pay the foreigners for lost parking meter places. Sorta a parting FU to the remaining taxpayers.
So, between the planter boxes in the middle of the street, the cycle track towards the curb lane, will there even be enough room for the highly skilled and no doubt fully insured motorists to navigate Stony Island in the summertime?
Let's not forget the contractually mandated payments due to loss of parking revenue owed to LAZ/CPM, not to mention the dwindling number of stores that will be able to thrive in such a business-unfriendly environment. This "perfect storm" will eventually herald our seemingly inevitable devolution into a Detroit on steroids (even if we have lost our Supt. on steroids).
OH COME ON!!
JAYZUS! JUST STOP IT ALREADY!
Most Chicago arterial streets are beshat beyond recognition with median planters,dedicated bicycle lanes red light cameras et al.
Side streets are full of bullshit "traffic calming" devices like speed bumps, roundabouts and those stupid-assed parking lane planters designed to choke traffic to (barely) one passable lane.
Roundabouts are truly obnoxious... Waiting for somebody important to get blown up trying to negotiate one of these silly things.
Dude drove through one and tore the dick, balls and ass from under his ride... fluid and parts from Monroe to Madison... Blood, teeth and shit all in the car but he wasn't so dead that he couldn't take the plates off but that's another story...
All of this shit is a hazard implimented by a menace with no clue about public safety.
Are these maniacs still contemplating activating the speed sensors and tying them in with the red light cameras?
Or is that the revenue generating surprise awaiting the right time to be sprung on the public?
We can see it now... "Greedy Cops Refuse To Play Ball To Help City With Financial Crisis That's All Their Fault. Speed Cameras To Be Phased In."
Hell... Ya can't get any where in this city quicky and efficiently with the current emphasis on "traffic calming."
That's that scooter riding, euro-weenie bullshit from "The Tale of Shortshanks Travels."
those that get hit by cars are not paying attention to traffic, running red lights & stop signs & listening to their radios or talking on the cell phone, oblivious to road conditions.
Most who get hit are nailed by oblivious drivers - idiots who don't look at their side mirrors before opening their doors, those who are talking on their cell phones and not paying attention to traffic, those who run red lights, etc. There are plenty of people who ride like idiots. There are a lot more people who DRIVE like idiots.
That dumb ass Daley was in China and now, like the good socialist democrat he is, wants you out of your car and on a bike. It'll save the environment, don't you know? Try driving this in the winter, numb-nuts!
The only motherfucker riding a bike along Stony Island just stole it from some yuppie up north.
Seriously, who the fuck thinks putting anything at 69th and Stony is a good idea? Besides gun towers? Or maybe a nuke testing site?
Who's going to "plow" these lanes during the winter because there are a lot of these idiots still riding their bikes during shitty fall and winter weather and even blizzards. I remember when the bikes were tucked away in the garage in late fall and never saw light until spring.
I was in California a ways back, and at least where I was they had the bike lanes in the middle of the street. Prevents the "dooring" and makes the cyclists more visible being on the drivers side.
I'm gonna head to 77th & Stony to try it out and report back. So if any coppers working that area sees a white guy on a mountain bike with an M4 slung over his back thats me.
SCC,you should see the silly stuff they hve in NYC. They moved parked cars over one lane and the bike lane is now the old parking lane at the curb. Bike riders still ride where ever they want and now they run into opening passenger side doors.
"Sorry, but those that get hit by cars are not paying attention to traffic, running red lights & stop signs & listening to their radios or talking on the cell phone, oblivious to road conditions."
Bullshit. This is a two way street. What about drivers who put on their make-up, or talk on the phone? If cyclists scoot ahead at intersections, maybe it's because they don't want to get run over by someone in a car who's changing the channel on their radio. Yes, there are bicyclists who should be kicked in the ass, but the drivers are far from innocent.
All that being said, it is a dumb idea for the reasons listed. I'm getting 24 days off without pay for 4 years now. My department hasn't hired anyone who actually works for two years. Yet, these idiots can blow millions of dollars for something that everyone else can see is a bad idea. God help us all.
wouldn't that 3.2 million dollars
be put to better use repairing the
streets themselves and getting rid
of the holes and gullies that we
are forced to drive over and on ?
Here in Illinois and Chicago we pay very high vehicle registration fees, gasoline taxes, and road use
fees, yet our streets and roads are
the worse in the U.S.
Anonymous Anonymous said...
77th street and stony island? Does anyone even bike ride down there? You might get shot in that area. Yeah great place for testing.
I have my electric bicycle to get around Chicago. No gas or CTA for me ever!! WhoHoo!
3/01/2011 12:42:00 AM
Naw this would be perfect! The libs could drive through and then we could watch "When animals attack" on news at 9! The animals get fed, the libs get to see how the animals act WIN! WIN!
Now this is a great area to throw away more of "our money"! The savages over there would welcome the new meat!
Old Retired Guy Here;
Yes, I still live in the city. I ride my bicycle here often. I ride at an old man's pace. It is very dangerous. Some of my closest calls, have been with other bike's. They ride past me at high speed. They pass on the right, and left. They never announce their presence. In my opinion the best thing they can do for bikers, is to remove all the flower pots, and open these streets up.
No thanks. I'll stick with with my large, American, gas-guzzling SUV...much better to run over "zombies" with...
that's right, kiss the ass of the .01% of people who use the streets because they make a little noise about safety. Very few, if any, follow the traffic laws on a consistent basis. 90% of the bike accidents are caused by the bike riders themselves riding like assholes, running lights, going the wrong way or against traffic, riding in traffic or just them thinking they are superior to us.
Part of it is the bosses' fault for letting groups like Critical Mass run roughshod through the streets on their "runs"
simple solution: Concealed Carry for Illinois
then the biker who fails to arm himself will have only himself to blame for being mugged
Let's not forget about the snow removal. Will not be able to plow to the curbs now.
3/01/2011 01:31:00 AM
They don't do that anyway.....so no difference.
Ya can't get any where in this city quicky and efficiently with the current emphasis on "traffic calming."
If people wouldn't drive like leadfoot assholes, we wouldn't have all these traffic calming measures inflicted on us.
I commute by bike along the North Shore Channel Trail and have already managed to avoid (by maniacal riding and screaming like a crazed panhandler) one attempted takedown by some honor students.
Current bike lanes, made of paint, are fine. I dont wanna be a slot car....
"Isn't Lake Short Drive shut down for most of an entire day so cyclists can enjoy the lakefront from a different vantage point?"
This scam is one the lapdog media should be looking into...bigtime!
The "Trixie Transportation Alliance, Richard M. Daley, Mayor" pulls in almost a million bucks from this 'event', never publishes a budget so no one knows who is getting paid what and for what, no one knows what sort of state and Federal grants they are getting, and JUST WHAT DO THEY DO WITH THE MONEY?
Oh, and those'Ghost Bikes' and 'Rides of Silence'...ever see one west of Halstead and south of Cermack? Wasn't there a kid killed in Garfield Ridge last summer? didn't a couple of cyclists get run down in Englewood? Where was Trixie Transportation Alliance then?
Dealing with bikes in the city is a no win situation. Being a cyclist myself I have been sideswiped by 2 cars and almost "doored" countless times(dooring is when a parked vehicle decides to not check the mirror and casually open the driver side door into traffic, not a big deal for cars but if there is a car and a bike side by side the biker has no where to go and thus slams into aforementioned door and likely goes to the hospital helmet or not). The heart of the issue isn't the lanes themselves it is the idiotic drivers that insist on texting surfing and talking on their phones and completely ignoring their surroundings. Yes, the law is in place against distracted driving but we all know enforcement has better things to do. Sadly since everyone knows this the law does nothing.
"...those that [hit bicyclists] are not paying attention to traffic, running red lights & stop signs & listening to their radios or talking on the cell phone, oblivious to road conditions.
Every summer I see near misses. Its a wonder that more aren't hit."
--3/01/2011 02:41:00 AM
Works both ways -- except when was the last time an automobile driver was killed by a pedestrian or bicyclist?
"So many cyclists think they are 30mph vehicles [?], traveling alongside the parked cars, I guess it was inevitable."
"So many drivers open their doors without looking first, I guess it was inevitable."
"CDOT is trying it out on Stony Island Avenue, between 77th and 69th streets."
What's the idea -- an express lane between a payday loan place and a nail-painting parlor?
Good place to throw old tires, batteries, bumpers. Kids are going to go balancing along the top of the wall until they fall off into traffic, trucks will hit this, etc.
Someone please stop the Mayor. Stay at his elbow and steer him to long luncheons at expensive country clubs in the suburbs, take him shopping for new casual clothes, etc. until his term is finally up.
Please.
"Let's not forget about the snow removal. Will not be able to plow to the curbs now."
--3/01/2011 01:31:00 AM
THANKS!
Yeah, this time they never did get all the way to the curbs anyway on many major streets. Today, there are STILL piles of snow at many street corners.
On the south side on Vincennes Ave they had a bike lane years ago. It was just painted on the street along the curb. You can still see the faded lines. Vincennes is a busy street and is more so at rush hour. I used to take this short cut because the Ryan was always a mess in the morning. Well all the bike lane did was create a traffic nightmare. It turned it into a single lane north bound. In all the years I used Vincennes I NEVER saw a bike using it. And people wouldn't drive their veh. in it even though there were no "look at me I'm saving the planet" hippies using it.
Anonymous said...
wouldn't that 3.2 million dollars
be put to better use repairing the
streets themselves and getting rid
of the holes and gullies that we
are forced to drive over and on ?
Here in Illinois and Chicago we pay very high vehicle registration fees, gasoline taxes, and road use
fees, yet our streets and roads are
the worse in the U.S.
3/01/2011 09:01:00 AM
Bicyclists pay -0- (ZERO) in motor fuel taxes and thus nothing for street and roadway upkeep. We car and motorcycle and truck drivers pay for all this bike lane shit.
I feel that more totally white painted bicycles will be found chained to trees and street signs around town soon enough. Along with bundles of flowers and piles of teddy bears all around.
Now, wait a second, there's a real core issue here.
Can you sit on top of this thing?
Oh oh.
You have just created the city's longest Loitering Strip -- a Superfrontstoop.
Motherf___ers out there all day and all night long, finishing and smashing 40s, getting up in groups to block anyone dumb enough to ride here, playing the fool, urinating against it, etc.
A blocks-long continuous Instant Public Nuisance, squeezed out of a caulking gun.
Bad idea. Bad, bad, bad.
"The only motherfucker riding a bike along Stony Island just stole it from some yuppie up north."
--3/01/2011 06:38:00 AM
I've seen them for decades, appearing suddenly in the oddest places all over the city and suburbs day or night, standing up on those pedals and s-t-r-a-i-n-i-n-g to move the thing because they don't know how to _______ and I'm sure not gonna tell 'em.
Really funny watching one try to get up a steep overpass like where Central goes over the Milwaukee Road. Eyes bugging out, give themselves an aneurysm before they ever fathom the workings.
Now we start to roll down the other side. Stopping is a whole 'nother trip especially on road bikes...simpler to just hang on and whip through the intersection motherf__ing everyone right and left like you got some kind of entitlement, and hoping for the best.
Ya gotta love it...
"...not to mention the dwindling number of stores that will be able to thrive in such a business-unfriendly environment."
--3/01/2011 03:22:00 AM
Go look at Milwaukee Avenue from Lawrence south. "FOR LEASE,"FOR LEASE," "FOR LEASE," block after block -- and that's without the parking walled off.
"This 'perfect storm' will eventually herald our seemingly inevitable devolution into a Detroit on steroids..."
...and it's intensifying as the Mayor's departure date draws closer -- some insane new project announced seemingly every day.
Daley just doesn't know how to stop with the concrete. It's like a drunk with a bottle; when his drinking begins to scare him, he hits it twice as hard to blot out the inevitable.
"Bicyclists pay -0- (ZERO) in motor fuel taxes and thus nothing for street and roadway upkeep. We car and motorcycle and truck drivers pay for all this bike lane shit."
Wrong. http://www.bikecommuters.com/2011/01/10/dispelling/
Also the person saying that the accidents are mostly cyclist's fault. Wrong again.
"Toronto found that clumsy or inattentive driving by motorists was the cause of 90 percent of these crashes. Among the leading causes: running a stop sign or traffic light, turning into a cyclist’s path, or opening a door on a biker."
http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/28/who-causes-cyclists-deaths/
As a cyclist you see the people being idiots when they drive. As a driver you see people being idiots when they ride. It's easy to group people into and us vs. them, but it's never that simple.
They should put a bicyclist "red light" camera at Milwaukee at Elston downtown...by far THE WORST intersection where bicylists just blow through the red light going eb on Milwaukee and if you are one of the poor drivers turning left from Elston onto Milwaukee (even if you have the green light), better yield for all those red-light ignoring idiots.
""Dooring". Alert! Does the Oxford English Dictionary know Chicago has coined a new word?!"
Why not? On the Lost and Found case report we define the person who lost property a "LOSER"!
Technically true, but it's still funny!
Anonymous said...
"Bicyclists pay -0- (ZERO) in motor fuel taxes and thus nothing for street and roadway upkeep. We car and motorcycle and truck drivers pay for all this bike lane shit."
Wrong. http://www.bikecommuters.com/2011/01/10/dispelling/
---
People who own bicycles may pay the taxes when they drive their cars, if they drive cars, but they do NOT pay ANY motor fuel taxes on those bicycles. Thus the previous statement at the top is still true.
All the bicycle accidents I have handled, ALL, in the past three years, (two fatal) were the fault of the bicyclist. Totally. Not always the case I imagine but it sure was in the two fatals I took reports on.
You think it is fun watching some young person leak his or her head contents out onto the street with people screaming for me to perform first aid? There is no first aid for massive head trauma along with massive skull fracture. You do get to see how worthless those puny Styrofoam helmets are when they contact the ground at anything over 10mph.
Yet many bike riders are still super aggressive and never stop for stops signs, rarely for red lights and pay no attention to one way streets.
And when they get creamed there pops up a memorial with white bicycle as a testament to stupidity and lack of concern with one's own longevity.
Ya gotta love it...
3/01/2011 08:58:00 PM
Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom.
I feel that more totally white painted bicycles will be found chained to trees and street signs around town soon enough. Along with bundles of flowers and piles of teddy bears all around.
3/01/2011 06:57:00 PM
-
Isn't TRASH or ABANDONED PROPERTY supposed to be removed in a timely fashion? And, don't cry 'memorial'!! We don't paint CARS white and chain them to a post whenever there's a fatal auto accident.
When I ride, and I do stop at signs and lines, there are many near misses because someone driving a car wasn't paying attention. I also see people riding being idiots also. What can you do?
In regards to taxes, the point of the article is the gas taxes don't even cover the majority of the cost of roads. My property and income taxes pay for it, no matter if I'm driving my car, or riding my bike.
"Roundabouts are truly obnoxious... Waiting for somebody important to get blown up trying to negotiate one of these silly things.
"Dude drove through one and tore the dick, balls and ass from under his ride... fluid and parts from Monroe to Madison... Blood, teeth and shit all in the car but he wasn't so dead that he couldn't take the plates off but that's another story..."
--3/01/2011 03:34:00 AM
Boy, I bet he made a dent in the headliner...
Why would anyone drive a bicycle in Chicago? Once cars became the norm, Chicago's Main Streets aren't really suited for bicycles.
Bike lanes are all a part of the UN Agenda 21 plan - see Rosa Koire's "Behind the Green Mask". She's on YouTube.
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