The Chainlink

After 16+ years as Chicago's bike coordinator, Ben Gomberg shifts focus to launching and running bike share

Chicago cycling has seen a major paradigm shift since Ben Gomberg came from Canada in 1996 to serve as Chicago's first and only bicycle program coordinator. Back then there were very few bike lanes and bike racks, and now the city is blanketed with them, and many exciting new cycling initiatives are in the works.

Earlier this year the Chicago Department of Transportation underwent a reorganization with a new focus on creating "complete streets" that serve all users: pedestrians, bicyclists, transit users and motorists. As part of the re-org, Gomberg will stop managing bikeways and parking installations, and other aspects of the bike program, to concentrate on launching and running the city's 4,000-vehicle bike share system, slated to debut this summer. “Ben’s Gomberg’s 16-plus years of work on bicycle projects has laid the foundation that got us to this point,” says CDOT Deputy Commissioner Scott Kubly.

Kubly provided details on the CDOT re-org, which affects many other aspects of CDOT's sustainable transportation initiatives: http://chi.streetsblog.org/2013/03/13/cdot-reorganizes-with-an-incr...

Here's Gomberg's Chainlink interview from a couple years ago: http://www.thechainlink.org/page/ben-gomberg-bicycle-program

Keep moving forward,

John Greenfield

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Permalink Reply by h' Zerocats on March 14, 2013 at 12:58pm

So she's our new Ben Gomberg? Anyone here hang with her? What's she about?

Janet Attarian, formerly head of CDOT’s streetscape and sustainable design program, is now in charge of the complete streets group, which encompasses streetscaping, the pedestrian program (still managed by ped coordinator Suzanne Carlson), bikeways engineering, bike parking and more. 

 

Permalink Reply by John Greenfield on March 14, 2013 at 1:38pm

Not really. As detailed in the Streetsblog article (http://chi.streetsblog.org/2013/03/13/cdot-reorganizes-with-an-incr...), bike projects are divvied up as such:

The new “citywide services group,” headed by Sean Wiedel, formerly with Chicago’s now-defunct Department of Environment, is responsible for bike sharing and the Bicycling Ambassadors.

The new "complete streets group," led by Janet Attarian, formerly head of CDOT’s streetscape and sustainable design program, is now in charge or bikeways and bike parking. Attarian, who's been working at CDOT for many years, has already been working on a number of bike initiatives like the Bloomingdale elevated greenway and a new section of bike path along the North Branch of the Chicago River near Addison Street.

Here's an article I did about her work on the Congress Parkway rehab (due to IDOT constraints it didn't wind up being as bike/ped-friendly as she would have liked, but she did manage to take out a car lane in one section): http://newcity.com/2012/06/05/checkerboard-city-gimme-shelter/

Permalink Reply by h' Zerocats on March 14, 2013 at 1:49pm

Yeah, I got that. But it looks like the bread and butter of what we were getting from a "Bicycle Coordinator", namely bikeways and bike parking, has now fallen to her.

Was she in attendance at the Advisory Council meeting?

Permalink Reply by John Greenfield on March 14, 2013 at 2:00pm

Yes, she was. We'll have a write-up later this afternoon.

Permalink Reply by Juan Primo on March 14, 2013 at 2:49pm

I just learned that some city employees have jobs to "foster the growth of green jobs and environmentally friendly household practices" and "educate Chicagoans about how to get around the city efficiently and economically". As if...

And also as a student of semantics, I learned that "bike share" is the newspeak for "bike rent", and a "People Spot" is a very small park.

Permalink Reply by John Greenfield on March 14, 2013 at 2:59pm

Juan, here's info about what Greencorps, Chicago Conservation Corps, and Sustainable Backyards do. It's good stuff.

And, not to be anti-semantic here, it makes sense to have a new term to describe bike share, because it functions less like renting a bike from Bike Chicago for a couple hours to go for a cruise and more like hopping a ride on a CTA bus or train. You check out the bikes for short periods of time to make quick commuting trips and leave them at a kiosk at your destination. Otherwise it gets expensive fast.

Permalink Reply by Juan Primo on March 14, 2013 at 4:09pm

Not sure if journalist

or spokesman

Permalink Reply by John Greenfield on March 14, 2013 at 4:42pm

No need to worry Juan, we're not afraid of criticizing CDOT policies when necessary. Here's a recent example: http://chi.streetsblog.org/2013/03/08/why-chicago-is-lagging-behind...

Permalink Reply by John Greenfield on March 15, 2013 at 12:05pm

Yeah, that's been the number for more than a year now. I think 5,000 was the original target and they got funding for 4,000: http://gridchicago.com/2011/ray-lahood-stops-in-logan-square-announ...

But, of course, they can always expand the system after that.

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