The Chainlink

I rode Dearborn today...anyone else?

I just missed the press conference and just hung out at lunch to see how it would all work. It seemed easy enough, so I took Dearborn as my starting route home to Roscoe Village. Normally I hit Franklin to Orleans then north to Lincoln.

I have to say, it was pretty easy and relatively safe. The ambassadors were helpful with the the auto traffic. The walkers were easy enough to avoid. I had to chuckle at two riders riding side by side in the lane.

What I didn't see was any oncoming traffic; southbound riders. I am guessing that will come in time or at other times during the day.

Way to go Mayor RE! This is really making a statement.

Who else rode the new path?

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Fuegofan on February 21, 2013 at 9:22am

I saw two police cars there this morning--parked correctly and not in the bike lane!  :)

Permalink Reply by Anne Alt on February 21, 2013 at 2:35pm

The vast majority of police cars that I see parked on Dearborn (whether they're Chicago or Homeland Security) are parked correctly and not in the bike lane - and I see parked police cars on Dearborn pretty much every day.

Permalink Reply by Adam Herstein on February 25, 2013 at 9:16am

Lots of snow in the southbound lane. I spend about a third of my time riding in the opposite lane. There was also this gem in front of the Westin.

Permalink Reply by Lisa Curcio on February 25, 2013 at 9:22am

That is not the Westin.  That is the back of the 181 N. Clark building.  The Westin has been very good with the snow this year.
 
Adam Herstein (5.5 mi) said:

Lots of snow in the southbound lane. I spend about a third of my time riding in the opposite lane. There was also this gem in front of the Westin.

Permalink Reply by Adam Herstein on February 25, 2013 at 9:39am

Ah, my bad. Is that an office building? How can I contact someone from the building regarding this issue?

Lisa Curcio 4.0 mi said:

That is not the Westin.  That is the back of the 181 N. Clark building.  The Westin has been very good with the snow this year.
 
Adam Herstein (5.5 mi) said:

Lots of snow in the southbound lane. I spend about a third of my time riding in the opposite lane. There was also this gem in front of the Westin.

Permalink Reply by Lisa Curcio on February 25, 2013 at 10:28am

My bad!  That is not 181 N. Clark.  That is a different newer building next to a building in which I used to work. ;-).  The building that backs up to Dearborn there is the newer building on the southeast corner of Clark and Kinzie and I don't know the address.  Sorry!

Permalink Reply by Adam Herstein on February 25, 2013 at 12:14pm

Oops, I missed that too. 181 N Clark would be in the Loop, and this is just north of the river. I believe this building is 353 N Clark: http://goo.gl/maps/Qp73J

Lisa Curcio 4.0 mi said:

My bad!  That is not 181 N. Clark.  That is a different newer building next to a building in which I used to work. ;-).  The building that backs up to Dearborn there is the newer building on the southeast corner of Clark and Kinzie and I don't know the address.  Sorry!

Permalink Reply by Anne Alt on February 25, 2013 at 12:59pm

353 N Clark is the right building.  The leasing/property management contacts would be a good place to start.  Perhaps emailing them the photo above and explaining why it is unacceptable for their maintenance people to block the bike lane with snow would get the message across.

Adam Herstein (5.5 mi) said:

Oops, I missed that too. 181 N Clark would be in the Loop, and this is just north of the river. I believe this building is 353 N Clark: http://goo.gl/maps/Qp73J

Permalink Reply by Anne Alt on February 25, 2013 at 1:03pm

311 calls might help, too.

Permalink Reply by Adam Herstein on February 25, 2013 at 2:36pm

I emailed the property managers listed on the 353 N Clark website (thanks Anne!).

This morning, I noticed that snow had been dumped from the sidewalk in front of your building into the protected bike lane on Dearborn (see attached image). Doing this creates a dangerous situation for those using the bike lane, as piles of snow not only obstruct the lane, but also make the road slippery. Please pass this on to whomever is responsible for clearing the sidewalks after a snow event, and instruct them to cease this practice going forward. Thank you for your time.

Permalink Reply by Lindsay on February 25, 2013 at 6:17pm

I pretty much got that same photo this morning...
Steve Vance pointed me in the direction of this conversation. I've also noticed this issue by K Station. For 353 N. Clark, I emailed the leasing / property management folks the following: 

Hello,

I've been commuting in to my job in the loop on the Dearborn bike lanes since they were installed this season. I've noticed that CDOT goes to all this effort to plow the bike lanes, but certain buildings along the way clear their sidewalks and dump it into the bike lane. This makes riding a bike quite a challenge. Here was my view this morning (as posted on twitter): https://twitter.com/lindsaybanks/status/306061351145574402

Is there a particular person at 353 N. Clark who is responsible for snow clearing? It would be most appreciated if the snow could be piled up on the sidewalk or cleared so that it doesn't block bike traffic.

Thank you,
Lindsay
Permalink Reply by MagMileMarauder on February 25, 2013 at 6:28pm

I rode through the Kinzie PBL today and encountered similar piles of snow by the Merchandise Mart. Either their employees are oblivious to what they're doing or have contempt for cyclists.

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