Rollover crash critically injures bicyclist on Madison

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Permalink Reply by Mark on September 6, 2011 at 10:53am

Sadly, maybe this will help Alderman Burnett's request to remove the median planters in order to make room for bike lanes along Madison Street.

 

http://gridchicago.com/2011/talking-transportation-with-27th-ward-a...

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Permalink Reply by h' Zerocats on September 6, 2011 at 12:55pm

The planters are traffic-calming and make streets like Madison more bikeable and less deadly.

Is there really a stretch of Madison that has planters that needs 4 lanes of automobile traffic?

 Just frikkin' lose a car lane, end of story.

Mark said:

Sadly, maybe this will help Alderman Burnett's request to remove the median planters in order to make room for bike lanes along Madison Street.

 

http://gridchicago.com/2011/talking-transportation-with-27th-ward-a...

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Permalink Reply by Michelle S on September 6, 2011 at 1:28pm

I agree that Madison doesn't need four lanes and two are plenty. However, from my (limited) experience in these matters, I predict the argument for "needing" four lanes is: When events at the United Center end and thousands of people jump into their cars, even four lanes are not enough!

 

It's the same kind of mentality as designing shopping mall parking lots for Christmas season crowds, planning for peak usage only, and who cares what it looks like the other 330 days a year.

h' said:

The planters are traffic-calming and make streets like Madison more bikeable and less deadly.

Is there really a stretch of Madison that has planters that needs 4 lanes of automobile traffic?

 Just frikkin' lose a car lane, end of story.

Mark said:

Sadly, maybe this will help Alderman Burnett's request to remove the median planters in order to make room for bike lanes along Madison Street.

 

http://gridchicago.com/2011/talking-transportation-with-27th-ward-a...

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Permalink Reply by Mark on September 6, 2011 at 3:25pm

Madison is not a four-lane street in this section.  The medians on Madison are narrower than all of the standard planters later installed on 4-lane streets.  As a result, the one driving lane in each direction is narrower than a normal two-lane street, leaving less room for cyclists.  The medians also create blind intersections along this street and create a hazard for turning cars not seeing approaching cyclists - or cars.

 

The only reason these planters were installed in 1996 was to make delegates to the 1996 Democratic Convention feel more comfortable venturing out to the West Side back then.  The City would not install median planters like this now.

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Permalink Reply by Davo on September 6, 2011 at 4:32pm

I would argue that if there were reduced lanes and car traffic "sufferd" during events, then maybe people would try a different transportation mode to get to these events.

Michelle said:

I agree that Madison doesn't need four lanes and two are plenty. However, from my (limited) experience in these matters, I predict the argument for "needing" four lanes is: When events at the United Center end and thousands of people jump into their cars, even four lanes are not enough!

 

It's the same kind of mentality as designing shopping mall parking lots for Christmas season crowds, planning for peak usage only, and who cares what it looks like the other 330 days a year.

h' said:

The planters are traffic-calming and make streets like Madison more bikeable and less deadly.

Is there really a stretch of Madison that has planters that needs 4 lanes of automobile traffic?

 Just frikkin' lose a car lane, end of story.

Mark said:

Sadly, maybe this will help Alderman Burnett's request to remove the median planters in order to make room for bike lanes along Madison Street.

 

http://gridchicago.com/2011/talking-transportation-with-27th-ward-a...

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