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After parking complaints from locals, a West Side protected lane is being changed to a buffered lane

The Chicago Department of Transportation recently installed protected bike lanes on Independence Boulevard in Lawndale, an underserved community on the city's West Side. 24th Ward Alderman Michael Chandler signed off on the design a year ago. But after locals complained that they felt unsafe exiting their cars in the new "floating" parking lanes, and that the new configuration makes church and residential parking more difficult, Chandler blasted the lanes at community meetings and demanded that they be changed to allow curbside parking.

CDOT will be repainting the lanes this winter to convert them to buffered lanes, which do not provide a physical barrier between cyclists and moving cars, at an estimated additional cost in the low $10,000s. I talked to CDOT deputy commissioner Scott Kubly to get his perspective on the issue, and learn about the department's strategies to avoid this situation in the future:

http://gridchicago.com/2013/state-of-independence-the-protected-bik...

Keep moving forward,

John Greenfield

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Permalink Reply by h' Zerocats on January 7, 2013 at 11:24am

Chandler is a waste of space-- almost universally disliked among West Side residents; only ended up back in office because the alternatives were worse.

Any word on what's happeneing further east/south?
I noticed last night cars are still parked in the bike lane along Marshall. The curbside lane along Sacramento coming south off of Independence is a moonscape-- some of the worst pavement I've ever seen anyone try to pain bike lanes on top of.

Permalink Reply by John Greenfield on January 7, 2013 at 11:41am

Not sure about the boulevard routes further south. The folks at the Hub housing co-op on Marshall would probably know the latest.

You're talking about Sacramento through Douglas Park, right? Sacto doesn't connect with Indy.

Permalink Reply by Anne Alt on January 7, 2013 at 12:17pm

Howard - Did you mean Sacramento to Douglas Blvd.?

Permalink Reply by Juan 2-3 or more mi. on January 7, 2013 at 12:26pm

Complaints from locos (as in auto driving dependents bent on mindlessly destroying the environment).

Permalink Reply by h' Zerocats on January 7, 2013 at 12:35pm

Duh.... yeah, Sacramento coming south off Douglas Boulevard. Particularly north of Ogden. You pretty much need a full suspension ATB to ride in the lane there.

Why would the folks at the Hub have any special knowledge re: Marshall that you or I wouldn't have?

Permalink Reply by John Greenfield on January 7, 2013 at 12:36pm

Because they live on Marshall.

Permalink Reply by h' Zerocats on January 7, 2013 at 12:43pm

OK, I work on Marshall, have a building on Marshall, and ride it every day. Neener neener.

I'm curious about your statements that parking tickets on Independence were "thrown out."
When I talked to the folks at the 12th ward office about the ticketing on Marshall, I was told that the residents had to go through the usual process of contesting them on an individual basis, and there was no other way.

Permalink Reply by Steven Vance on January 7, 2013 at 12:47pm

I called it a minefield.


h' 1.0 said:

The curbside lane along Sacramento coming south off of Independence is a moonscape-- some of the worst pavement I've ever seen anyone try to pain bike lanes on top of.

Permalink Reply by h' Zerocats on January 7, 2013 at 12:52pm

That's the one. I can only imagine that whoever was charged with painting the markings on top of the rubble was thinking "stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid" the entire time.

 

Permalink Reply by John Greenfield on January 7, 2013 at 12:54pm

I believe you had to contest your ticket to get it thrown out.

h' 1.0 said:

I'm curious about your statements that parking tickets on Independence were "thrown out."
When I talked to the folks at the 12th ward office about the ticketing on Marshall, I was told that the residents had to go through the usual process of contesting them on an individual basis, and there was no other way.

Permalink Reply by Juan Primo on January 7, 2013 at 4:28pm

What does the term "underserved" mean in the OP first sentence?  Does it mean that Lawndale is underserved in terms of biking infrastructure or underserved in city services in general?

 

Permalink Reply by John Greenfield on January 7, 2013 at 4:53pm

Very good question Juan. I meant "underserved" in terms of city services in general, retail, etc., but it also applies to bike facilities. Lawndale, and most low-income neighborhoods in Chicago tend to have fewer bike facilities than more affluent areas, although that may change soon because it's easier to install protected lanes on the wide roadways of the South and West sides than the dense North Side.

The term "underserved" is appropriate in Chicago, where segregationist policies by the city government, the real estate industry and other entities resulted in large areas of concentrated poverty. Here's a good article by the Reader's Steve Bogira on the topic: http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/chicago-politics-segregation-a...

In the past these low-income areas were intentionally neglected, and they still don't get their fair share of city resources. Don't get me started on how the TIF program, originally a tool to encourage development in "blighted" neighborhoods, is now being used to funnel money away from public schools and parks to provide tax breaks for new corporate headquarters in the Loop.

But let's not get too far off-topic here. If you'd like to discuss the terminology issue much further, please drop me a line at John[at]GridChicago.com.

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