The Chainlink

Does anyone have any info on what the bike parking facilities will be like when the station is remodeled?

Currently there are 32 spaces, and at certain times of day its completely full.

The station is being remodeled, but I cannot find out what will happen to the bike parking.

CTA tells me its a City issue, and the City says its CTA.

I've emailed the CTA website several times about this and always get the reply that they can't provide info on the new station for "security reasons".

They did say one time that there will be 8 'random' bike spaces around the new bus station, but no info as to whether its secure, under cover, etc.

And the City just doesn't reply at all.

Please, does anyone know who I can contact?

I depend on being able to park there as part of my commute downtown.

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Well Jane and The Chainlink, it looks like you can rack up another advocacy win -- partly thanks to this discussion, the CTA is committing to providing an equal or greater amount of racks at the new station: http://chi.streetsblog.org/2017/08/09/cta-commits-to-providing-an-e...

That's fantastic news! Thank you for sharing the update and for picking up the story. 

Sure thing. Hopefully, I've redeemed myself for my previous, erroneous reporting that this issue involved suicidal squirrels.

I didn't totally get the squirrel tie-in but I did appreciate the squirrel on bike illustration. My dogs don't trust squirrels either.

Thank you John Greenfield for working on this and getting a result.

I don't think that the planners had really realized just how crucial this bike parking is.

As the most southerly station on the L, 95th has a lot of commuters that live beyond a walking journey to get to the station, it really is a very busy hub, with countless buses and a Greyhound station.

I think that the cyclists generally have a good relationship with the station staff, they have gotten to know us regulars, and so the current arrangement works really well. I am so happy that we get to keep it!

The far south side bicyclists (and squirrels) salute you!!

Finally, a quick question!

I noted in the video that at the start of the discussion one of those present said  "We are working closely with the local community . . . . ".

Really? Do you happen to know the context? I'm not aware of any dialog or meeting having taken place with local bicyclists regarding this issue. Can you link me into whatever this forum is please?

I've been emailing CTA for over a year on this issue, and never been made aware of any local group being involved on this issue.

And thanks again for your help!

I'm not sure what Chris Bushell meant by working with the local community, other than the public meetings they had on the project years ago and more recent interestions with community leaders and residents like yourself. The video in the post is from the monthly CTA board meeting.

Today I met with the construction supervisor at 95th, where the new station is nearing completion.

He was totally unaware of any plans to include bike parking within the station.

There are 6 new racks dotted randomly around the new bus station. My objections to these were already stated to the CTA long before the work started -

- they are outside the station, and therefore not undercover or weatherproof

- they obstruct the flow of pedestrian traffic between buses and trains

- although there are cameras, the inevitable crowding as riders line up to board the bus means that the racks and bikes will be obscured from the camera view at busy times, which I am sure is a great delight to the potential bike thieves

- there are 6 racks, giving a total of 12 spaces. Currently we have 32 and we were promised an "equal or greater number of spaces" by the Chicago Transit Board who presumably do not have much ability in math.

So what next??

I think we need to push CTA on this. This is unacceptable.

So today there are notices on the bike racks saying that they are closing. There is no sign of the "new" parking we were promised, except for half a dozen random racks OUTSIDE the station by the bus stops.

I depend on the parking at 95th as part of my daily commute.

If I can't park there my options are to walk to the station, which adds another 20 minutes each way to my journey or to risk parking at the bus station and see how much of my bike is still there when I come home. 

So I went to the 'new' station yesterday, and sure enough there is no parking except for the half dozen racks outside, which in my view are unsafe.

I asked the station manager about the parking that we were promised and he said he knew nothing about it.

He also said that he doesn't want any bikes in his station and to get an Uber in future.

Is this a new CTA policy?

I now cannot get to work without either (a) walking to 95th, which will take an additional 20 minutes each way, or (b) waiting for a bus which would be 35 minutes or more.

Welcome to the 1970s Chicago.

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