Critical Mass Route Planning

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Andrew Bedno on April 18, 2009 at 3:53am

April's route potentially includes participants from UIC Disability Studies Student Council, as well as possibly more skaters than usual. Thus we should be cautious with distance. It is also just after Earth day, so we should take advantage of the theme.

I scoured ChicagoCriticalMass.org for historic April routes, and came up with the following:

2005: http://chicagocriticalmass.org/sites/chicagocriticalmass.org/files/...
Mostly around the loop, Adams, Canal, State, Wacker, Fairbanks, Ontario, Wells, Lake, past CTA HQ, Jefferson, Fulton, Canal, Kinzie, Orleans. Sounds short?

2001: http://old.chicagocriticalmass.org/ridereports/april01writeup.html
The Chicago Holdup / Bike Shop Ride
Kozy's on Harrison. Past Blommer, down Milwaukee. Passed Upgrade Cycle. Left onto North Ave from Elston. Past Rapid Transit, Milwaukee/North/Damen hold-up. Eventually to Diversey/Broadway/Clark, then past Quick Release, Cycle Smithy, Performance, Johnny Sprockets, another Kozy's and Urban Bikes. Ended at Moody's Pub and Heartland.

2000: http://old.chicagocriticalmass.org/ridereports/april00.html
South to Pilsen, Loomis, to Division, North to LeMoyne (party).

1999: http://old.chicagocriticalmass.org/ridereports/cmrid0499.htm
Loop, Greektown, Little Italy, Pilsen, Bridgeport, IIT, Bronzeville, Chinatown, Planetarium. That's HUGE?!?

1998: http://old.chicagocriticalmass.org/ridereports/cmridap8.html
Stairsteps to Damen/Milwaukee.


Anyone remember past few years?

Permalink Reply by Andrew Bedno on April 18, 2009 at 4:17am

I've developed a rough proposed route, starting from last month's unused Green route and lopping off chunks.
It's under 20 miles, passes through several parks (Grant, Douglas, Garfield, Humboldt, Lincoln), and ends at any desired point on lakefront North of Fullerton as far as Diversey or Montrose. Would be nice to not stay straight on Roosevelt nor North nor Fullerton so long, and is the Grant Park portion allowed?

See proposed route in Google Maps

Permalink Reply by Kelly on April 18, 2009 at 7:15am

I LOVE this route. As much green space we can get for Earth Day, the better. Ending at a beach? Um Yah!

Andrew Bedno said:

I've developed a rough proposed route, starting from last month's unused Green route and lopping off chunks.
It's under 20 miles, passes through several parks (Grant, Douglas, Garfield, Humboldt, Lincoln), and ends at any desired point on lakefront North of Fullerton as far as Diversey or Montrose. Would be nice to not stay straight on Roosevelt nor North nor Fullerton so long, and is the Grant Park portion allowed?

See proposed route in Google Maps

Permalink Reply by Todd Allen on April 18, 2009 at 8:38am

As for the wheelchair folks, there won't be a large contingent this month, but perhaps a couple of their organizers who may try it out to get a better sense of the challenges involved. I believe the current desire is to try to have a big group come out early next semester, probably on the September ride.

The wheelchair folks do not plan on doing an entire ride. They want to join in for the first half hour to an hour depending on how it goes. A slow pace on good pavement for the initial part of the ride would do the most to help them out.

I recently learned that Mumia Abu Jamal's birthday is Friday April 24th, the day of our ride. I am working on a playlist for Mumia including songs calling for his release, commentary on his disgraceful trial by many important figures and some of Mumia's brilliant commentaries made from his cell on death rowl. I hadn't thought about the route, but looking at yours I see it passes fairly near to 2337 W Monroe, the site of the murder of Fred Hampton in 1971. This would be a great place to include on a Happy Birthday Mumia ride.

Permalink Reply by Andrew Bedno on April 18, 2009 at 12:43pm

I made some slight adjustments, and gave my ongoing dev a permalink:
http://chicagonakedride.org/ccm

Note that the last portion after Fullerton is meant to be on lake front path, but the system only knows streets. Didn't find anything big listed in Grant park overlapping. I'm not super-familiar with the South+West parks (points C/D/E) so feedback welcome.

Permalink Reply by Reddog on April 18, 2009 at 4:59pm

I like this route. Well thought out. I hope no one tries to get on Lake Shore Drive itself as we get near it. That always makes me nervous.

What is also nice is that If I need to bail early for some reason, it goes right past my pad near Humboldt park.

Permalink Reply by Andrew Bedno on April 19, 2009 at 1:19am

EXACTLY.
As a skater, the Diversey underpass to LFP/harbor is fun. But mass can only reasonably cross to lakefront at Fullerton. We've gone there before (by Theatre on the Lake) and flummoxed the constabulary largely simply because we stalled. This time those wanting more miles keep going North, those tired bail or party down-beach, others do as they will. The LFP (lake front path) was MADE for us so the mass is gonna hafta cross under LSD sometimes. My latest rev suggest Webster instead of Fullerton Eastbound, which I think we've done before. It's peaceful, goes by more parks, could help mass up, and because Fullerton's full of f-in a-holes.


While I'm posting I want to clearly reiterate credit that this map was inspired by/derived from/based on a much longer one by Spencer "Thunderball" Thayer last month. Also thanx to that effort CCM now has a mobile messaging group.


Reddog said:

I like this route. Well thought out. I hope no one tries to get on Lake Shore Drive itself as we get near it. That always makes me nervous.

What is also nice is that If I need to bail early for some reason, it goes right past my pad near Humboldt park.

Permalink Reply by lauren sailor on April 19, 2009 at 6:18pm

hey, early in the route you have us riding east on Randolph when it's one-way westbound; that should probably be changed! also, i'd prefer an alternatives to being on Roosevelt for so long—maybe take Canal north to Taylor? it seems we'd be on Central Park a while, too, though i don't have a good second option in mind.

Permalink Reply by Andrew Bedno on April 20, 2009 at 12:06am

Washington to Michigan (Bean), South past Grant Park to Roosevelt, West (4 miles) to Douglas park, then North through the park boulevards connecting Douglas, Garfield, Humboldt, Logan, Palmer. Then Diversey back East (2.3mi) to Lake. We've done similar.

PROBLEM IS I'm REALLY inexperienced with those parks (other than last year's Parkways rides) and with Roosevelt, so I need some sanity confirmation or tweaks from those who know those territories. UIC peeps? West siders?
Assume the parks stretch is a given; how would you take a mass to it?
Worst case we tie up Roosevelt for a few miles. Don't wanna let the cagers start the summer complacent anyhow. Reasons not to? How's the pavement?

Skip Grant park and we could take Randolph W to Ogden (Union Park) SW to Douglas park. That drops Roosevelt and makes milage slightly less. Probably a better plan. Sound good?

Permalink Reply by payton on April 20, 2009 at 1:57pm

hey, thanks for putting something together! my main concern is about the segment lengths. on longer segments, especially on higher-speed roads, the front tends to speed up and the mass gets stretched out -- not good, since the goal is to keep people together (i.e., maintain Critical Mass). in my experience, turning every 1/2 mile (four blocks) is a pretty good way to keep the speed down -- even if it's just from one street to a parallel street one block over.

Howard has a good point about Ogden. it's zero fun. you have about two hours of sunlight to work with (6-8PM), and the ride is slower than you think. I'd aim for 10 miles, so there's still a bit of sunlight when it's over. the beach is a bit anticlimactic at night, and maybe kinda cold (especially in the "cooler by the lake" spring). I'm guessing your route has more like 18 miles right now.

Permalink Reply by Andrew Bedno on April 21, 2009 at 12:08pm

All good stuff. 5th rev, drops Douglas Park, shifts to Polk (and adjacents) for a Westbound leg. Shorter total distance. How is Polk?

Permalink Reply by Andrew Bedno on April 21, 2009 at 1:21pm

Updated GoogleMap view here, let's you drill-down to street details.

h3 said:

Good move, making progress.
Which stretch of Polk are you referring to?
I can't think of any through stretch of Polk that's longer than 5 blocks or so.
I can put a proposal for the Westside/Garfield portion if I know more specifically what streets are indicated in this graphic.

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