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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Permalink Reply by Jenn_5.5 mi on January 10, 2013 at 9:50am

The 'LOOK' made me giggle last night... I am not sure if it helped. I think I will re-word my calling out/yelling to "Look - Bike(Bike Lane)" It will be an inside joke for myself, I like to entertain myself with stupid things while I bike.

I truly hope it will work. I want to give the general public the warm & fuzzies about bike people by not having to 'yell' daily. (We always remember the worst.) 

I want to love this lane, but right now I am still indifferent. 

*Also, I think it would have been clever to make the OO's wheels, so people knew what they were looking for.

Permalink Reply by Joe Brosilow on January 11, 2013 at 12:26am

rode it today for the first time, it's almost useless in the around the loop, i made it from kinzie to washington before getting fed up and cutting east.  there were sewer-suckers parked in the middle of it, no need for a campaign or anything silly to prevent Rahm from maintaining the city's sanitation, but overall it flat out does not make sense to have a two-way bike lane on the west side of a busy, one way northbound street. in order to get around the trucks i had to swerve out of the "safe" "protected" bike lane into oncoming traffic.  pedestrians, including myself, are not used to a bike lane being there either. i think people assume it is safe to cross the street through the parked cars blindly into the bike lane because it is so new.  i had to lock up my brakes several times to avoid hitting peds casually crossing, nothing new but nothing anyone wants to deal with.  it would've made a LOT more sense to have a normal bike lane, not a "protected" one on sate.  I take kinzie whenever i ride downtown and it is nice, but I'm starting to doubt the effectiveness of the protected lanes.  I'd much rather ride next to traffic where i can comfortably keep my distance from doors and pace with moving cars rather than worrying about people opening passenger side doors and pedestrians waiting in the street to cross.  LONG STORY SHORT, the dearborn bike lane sucks, especially those stupid bike stop signs (c'mon folks, don't act like it's not a great rush to run red lights) for me it takes the fun out of biking in the city.

btw:

I always wear headphones when I ride, they actually help me concentrate better (don't EVEN try to tell me otherwise)

;)

Permalink Reply by Tony Adams on January 11, 2013 at 9:59am

Filed a consumer complaint this morning about a cab parked in the lanes last night. I'll try to remember to report back if anything comes of it.

Taking a picture sure made it easier - cab number, cab company, and the pic's timestamp made it easy to fill out the form.

Permalink Reply by Adam Herstein on January 11, 2013 at 10:14am

I seriously can't tell if this is a joke or not. Maybe you should stick to the Lake Front Trail? You wearing headphones is just as bad as the pedestrians wearing them who can't hear bikers coming down the lane on Dearborn.

The fact that you list one of the reasons you dislike the new bike lane is because you want to be able to run the red lights pretty much discredits your point.

Joe Brosilow said:

rode it today for the first time, it's almost useless in the around the loop, i made it from kinzie to washington before getting fed up and cutting east.  there were sewer-suckers parked in the middle of it, no need for a campaign or anything silly to prevent Rahm from maintaining the city's sanitation, but overall it flat out does not make sense to have a two-way bike lane on the west side of a busy, one way northbound street. in order to get around the trucks i had to swerve out of the "safe" "protected" bike lane into oncoming traffic.  pedestrians, including myself, are not used to a bike lane being there either. i think people assume it is safe to cross the street through the parked cars blindly into the bike lane because it is so new.  i had to lock up my brakes several times to avoid hitting peds casually crossing, nothing new but nothing anyone wants to deal with.  it would've made a LOT more sense to have a normal bike lane, not a "protected" one on sate.  I take kinzie whenever i ride downtown and it is nice, but I'm starting to doubt the effectiveness of the protected lanes.  I'd much rather ride next to traffic where i can comfortably keep my distance from doors and pace with moving cars rather than worrying about people opening passenger side doors and pedestrians waiting in the street to cross.  LONG STORY SHORT, the dearborn bike lane sucks, especially those stupid bike stop signs (c'mon folks, don't act like it's not a great rush to run red lights) for me it takes the fun out of biking in the city.

btw:

I always wear headphones when I ride, they actually help me concentrate better (don't EVEN try to tell me otherwise)

;)

Permalink Reply by Anne Alt on January 11, 2013 at 10:32am

For years, that's been one of the worst spots on Dearborn, along with westbound turning traffic at Ontario.

Cameron 7.5 mi said:

The problem for me hasn't been pedestrians waiting to cross at corners, it's more been people standing in the bike lane mid block paying a valet or trying to hail a cab. Also driveways are a major problem. No one pulling out of the Westin ever looks for southbound bike traffic and they rarely look for northbound bike traffic.

Permalink Reply by Fuegofan on January 11, 2013 at 12:25pm

I had that problem last night.  I was dinging by bell and calling to the pedestrian in front of me as I was headed southbound at Madison or Monroe.  After I passed, I heard a, "you're going the wrong way."  Hopefully time will educate the locals. 

Adam Herstein (5.5 mi) said:

Those LOOK signs seems to help a bit, but I still had to yell at a few people this morning who were standing in the bike lane. Unfortunately, they were wearing earphones and didn't hear me until I was a few feet away. :-/

Permalink Reply by Fuegofan on January 11, 2013 at 12:33pm

Those cab complaints do have impact!  The Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection keeps close tabs on public chauffeurs and prosecutes the bad actors zealously.  Keep doing what you're doing.  I don't know how bike lanes go with the ordinance which grants taxis reasonable time to pick up and drop off people in no parking zones, but the more complaints DBACP gets from bikes, the better.  If they don't get complaints, they won't know there is a problem, and if there are drivers who are doing it on a routine basis, they need to be corrected. 

 Cameron 7.5 mi said:

I've filed one as well, I expect to receive the standard from letter that the complaint has been placed in the driver's file. I doubt that the complaints actually do anything, but they're easy enough to file that I'll get it a shot.

Tony Adams 6.6 mi said:

Filed a consumer complaint this morning about a cab parked in the lanes last night. I'll try to remember to report back if anything comes of it.

Taking a picture sure made it easier - cab number, cab company, and the pic's timestamp made it easy to fill out the form.

Permalink Reply by Sarah Lewert on January 16, 2013 at 9:14am

I'm beginning to think the Dearborn PBL is actually more dangerous than just riding in the street with cars. Just on my ride this morning from Polk to Lake I got hit by a biker behind me when I slammed on my brakes for a pedestrian that jumped out in front of me, had 6 other pedestrians step out in front of me at Monroe, Madison and Washington, then turning right onto Lake almost got hit by a cab doing about 50 mph. What gives? This type of thing, at least for me, is becoming the norm. 

Permalink Reply by blair on January 16, 2013 at 9:59am

Still no plates, right?  I'd like to try it out but not until they're installed.  Does anyone know when they should be?

Permalink Reply by Adam Herstein on January 16, 2013 at 10:11am

CDOT said last week that they'd be installed "in the next couple of weeks".

122782_ said:

Still no plates, right?  I'd like to try it out but not until they're installed.  Does anyone know when they should be?

Permalink Reply by Anne Alt on January 16, 2013 at 10:14am

Do you use a mirror for riding in traffic?  I have them on all my bikes.  If someone is following closely and I'm stopping, I loudly call out "Stopping" so the person behind can hear me and have a better chance of avoid a collision.  It's something I learned from years of group riding that can be useful in an on-street lane.

I don't have a good answer for the speeding cabbie.  I wish more of them would get tickets more often, and that judges wouldn't let them skate for high speed violations like that.  I know police officers who love writing tickets on guys like that.  Of course, for the system to work appropriately, it depends on the police officer showing up for the court date (doesn't always happen) and the judge applying an appropriate penalty (doesn't seem to happen often enough).

Sarah Lewert said:

I'm beginning to think the Dearborn PBL is actually more dangerous than just riding in the street with cars. Just on my ride this morning from Polk to Lake I got hit by a biker behind me when I slammed on my brakes for a pedestrian that jumped out in front of me, had 6 other pedestrians step out in front of me at Monroe, Madison and Washington, then turning right onto Lake almost got hit by a cab doing about 50 mph. What gives? This type of thing, at least for me, is becoming the norm. 

Permalink Reply by Anne Alt on January 16, 2013 at 10:15am

The latest word (yesterday) was that the plates are being made now.  No word on a definite installation date yet.

122782_ said:

Still no plates, right?  I'd like to try it out but not until they're installed.  Does anyone know when they should be?

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