Questions for the next Mayor's Bicycle Advisory Council meeting?
Hello Chainlinkers,
The next MBAC meeting is Wednesday June 12. 2013 (3:00 pm, City Hall, Rm 1103 - public invited!).
I'm one of three community representatives on the council and have a chance to bring up topics of discussion or ask questions of the CDOT officials during the meeting.
Since you're a large part of the bicycling community and I'm your rep, I ask you: What questions would you like asked or topics discussed?
(Edited May 31 2013 to update date)
Views: 1594
Replies to This Discussion
-
Permalink Reply by Jim Freeman on
-
Yeah, the Sacramento bike lanes are painted on rubble. As one friend of mine said about the Douglas Park bike lane, "Those city workers must have been laughing the whole time they were putting those lanes in."
People wouldn't even drive in the outside lanes of Sacramento before the bike lanes were installed. I guess that's no big loss of driving space since no one was using them.
h' 1.0 said:I would like to know more of the story of how bike lane came to be painted on completely unrideable pavement on Sacramento near Douglas, and what the plan is for the Marshall Boulevard buffered bike lane.
-
-
Also, since the topic is brought up...
I will tell you that the trend we are seeing in my practice is injuries arising from vehicles executing turns across protected bike lanes. These collisions seem to be worse than your typical left crosses. I postulate about the reasons that; 1) the bike lane is further from the apex of the turn, and therefore the cars are going faster by the time they hit the bicyclists, 2) becuase the separation of the two modes of traffic causes drivers to be less aware of cyclists, or 3) It also might be that it isn't intuitive for drivers to negotiate turns across protected bike lanes. Either way, I don't think we can have too much in the way of markings and signage with respect to vehicles turning across protected bike lanes.
-
Permalink Reply by h' Zerocats on
-
I don't want to muddy this thread but the last I heard (from my alderman's office) is that it's going to be taken out, curbside parking restored, and a non-buffered lane painted. Wanted to see if that info was still current.
What happened was that signage was slow to go in, local police knew not to ticket yet, but some local residents hammered 911 to complain about the cars parked curbside, and non-local police responded and did mass-ticketing, after which it blew up.
Jim Freeman said:Any chance we could do something about the ambiguous signage and cars parked in the Marshall Boulevard bicycle lanes? This is a chronic problem.
-
-
Could also be that riding in a protected lane puts the cyclist in a more complacent place than swimming directly amongst the sharks...
Jim Freeman said:Also, since the topic is brought up...
I will tell you that the trend we are seeing in my practice is injuries arising from vehicles executing turns across protected bike lanes. These collisions seem to be worse than your typical left crosses. I postulate about the reasons that; 1) the bike lane is further from the apex of the turn, and therefore the cars are going faster by the time they hit the bicyclists, 2) becuase the separation of the two modes of traffic causes drivers to be less aware of cyclists, or 3) It also might be that it isn't intuitive for drivers to negotiate turns across protected bike lanes. Either way, I don't think we can have too much in the way of markings and signage with respect to vehicles turning across protected bike lanes.
-
-
I picture the workers shaking their heads repeating "stupid, stupid, stupid" while painting the lane, but laughing could work too...
Jim Freeman said:Yeah, the Sacramento bike lanes are painted on rubble. As one friend of mine said about the Douglas Park bike lane, "Those city workers must have been laughing the whole time they were putting those lanes in."
People wouldn't even drive in the outside lanes of Sacramento before the bike lanes were installed. I guess that's no big loss of driving space since no one was using them.
h' 1.0 said:I would like to know more of the story of how bike lane came to be painted on completely unrideable pavement on Sacramento near Douglas, and what the plan is for the Marshall Boulevard buffered bike lane.
-
Permalink Reply by Joe Guzzardo on
-
Our mayor wants to make Chicago the bike friendliest city in America. NYC requires that parking garages set aside spaces for bikes but there is no such mandate here. Why not? Offering bicyclists sheltered parking in the downtown area would be a huge boost, not only for bicyclists but for the retail establishments in the area as well. There are very few places where one can park a bike under shelter in the loop and the Millennium Park bike station is too far away for many of us to be practical.
-
Permalink Reply by Michelle S on
-
Thank you to everyone for the additional suggestions.
Jim, when were the photos in your blog post taken? Also, do you know approximately when the bike lane was installed?
Jim Freeman said:Any chance we could do something about the ambiguous signage and cars parked in the Marshall Boulevard bicycle lanes? This is a chronic problem.
-
-
Michelle-- see here:
http://www.thechainlink.org/forum/topics/protected-bike-lane-sighti...
Nothing has been done since; no changes to signage as it existed before the lane went in.
The paint on top of rubble (north of Ogden, and to a lesser extent between 19th and 22nd) and the signage/parking snafu (betwwen 22nd and 24th) are kind of two separate things.
Michelle Stenzel said:Thank you to everyone for the additional suggestions.
Jim, when were the photos in your blog post taken? Also, do you know approximately when the bike lane was installed?
Jim Freeman said:Any chance we could do something about the ambiguous signage and cars parked in the Marshall Boulevard bicycle lanes? This is a chronic problem.
-
Permalink Reply by Anika on
-
My biggest questions regarding all the new bike lanes,routes, etc. is what is being done about education - for pedestrian, cyclist, motorist, and enforcing officers. New lanes don't do a bit of good if no one knows how to use them and motorists/law enforcement just scoff at them. So far I've seen nothing.
-
Permalink Reply by Sarah D. on
-
+1 Anika! I think infrastructure is great, but education and communication and agreeing on expectations about baseline behavior is just as important.
Anika said:My biggest questions regarding all the new bike lanes,routes, etc. is what is being done about education - for pedestrian, cyclist, motorist, and enforcing officers. New lanes don't do a bit of good if no one knows how to use them and motorists/law enforcement just scoff at them. So far I've seen nothing.
-
Permalink Reply by Lisa Curcio on
-
Let me third that. Probably the most important question to be asked and answered.
Sarah D. 1-3.3 said:+1 Anika! I think infrastructure is great, but education and communication and agreeing on expectations about baseline behavior is just as important.
Anika said:My biggest questions regarding all the new bike lanes,routes, etc. is what is being done about education - for pedestrian, cyclist, motorist, and enforcing officers. New lanes don't do a bit of good if no one knows how to use them and motorists/law enforcement just scoff at them. So far I've seen nothing.
-
Permalink Reply by David Barish on
-
+4, but...
...I think some of that falls on the cycling community. education is something that all of us, advocacy groups, clubs etc. working with official organs such as the MBAC, need to do. This is a good way for the cycling community to get on good paper with the powers that be and perhaps actually get something done. After all, who iwill do a better job educating? riders or interns? How this is to be done is a good question. Let the conversation start.
Groups
-
Critical Mass discussion
262 members
-
Chicagoland Beer Explora…
203 members
-
Chicago Randonneurs
269 members
-
Walk Bike Transit
63 members
-
British Bicycles of Chic…
172 members
© 2008-2016 The Chainlink Community, L.L.C.
Powered by
