The Chainlink

Kinzie. It's what's next.

Hopefully you've heard by now that CDOT will begin construction this week on the city's first protected bike lane: Kinzie Street from Milwaukee Avenue/Desplaines Street to Wells Street. 

 

Full story on Steven Can Plan. 

 

I want to know what you think about this.

  • What do you feel will need special attention?
  • Is this the right or wrong location for such a facility? Why?
  • Are you going to thank/congratulate Rahm, Gabe, and the CDOT Bicycle Program?
  • Will you use it?

 

Cycle track and protected bike lane naysayers, this isn't the post for you. But if you've ridden in protected bike lanes before, then I welcome your constructive comments and criticism based on your actual experiences. 

Big intersection

The new beginning. Looking southeast at the intersection of Kinzie/Milwaukee/Desplaines. 

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Permalink Reply by Dr. Doom on June 5, 2011 at 8:51pm
That's a shame, although I'm not surprised. After all, the South Side doesn't exist, and the people who live there aren't real!
Permalink Reply by Rico on June 5, 2011 at 8:54pm
I look forward to the protected bike lane, as I currently continue onto Desplaines from Milwaukee. It would have been a jem if it went all the way to state but it is a start. The pot holes are my main concern as well.
Permalink Reply by Steven Vance on June 5, 2011 at 8:57pm
I think there are better south side locations, ones that will encourage people to bike more (more often or bring out those who don't currently bike). The Stony Island stretch (69th to 77th) travels through only commercial areas and doesn't connect to other bikeways.

Dr. Doom said:
That's a shame, although I'm not surprised. After all, the South Side doesn't exist, and the people who live there aren't real!
Permalink Reply by Dr. Doom on June 5, 2011 at 10:08pm

Saying it doesn't connect to other bikeways (not sure why it would need to anyway) is a pretty sketchy claim.

69th is two blocks south of Jackson Park, which is used as a bikeway even if it isn't marked as one on maps, and Stony connects with the long and absolutely killer South Chicago Ave bike lane, probably the best in the city for my dollar, at 79th. A couple of small extensions to the proposed track would effectively connect broad swathes of the South Side to Hyde Park (and by extension the North Side, since the LFT hits Hyde Park) on safe, easily traveled routes.

The broader point is that if new cycling infrastructure is just going to serve a tiny minority of already well-served cyclists on their travels from West Town to the Loop and vice versa, which seems fairly likely, that's not only a shame on its own terms, but forfeits any chance of gaining broad political support for such programs.

Permalink Reply by Steven Vance on June 5, 2011 at 10:19pm

What I've written before is this:

Cycle tracks should go in places where people *already* ride, and where they have the best chance of 1) increasing the number of people who bike in that corridor; 2) increase the number of trips taken by bike by in that corridor; 3) reduce the number of bike crashes in that corridor. 

I felt that Stony Island would not be as effective at 1 or 2. All three criteria are from the two goals of the Bike 2015 Plan, to increase to 5% the number of trips by bike under 5 miles (for which there is no baseline data), and to cut in half the number of injuries while biking (also no baseline data). 

Kinzie will only mildly do these things. Other locations, which I've also written about, would net a bigger increase and reduction, respectively. But Kinzie is a great location in the respect that there're low barriers to implementation (few residents, low traffic), and that it will see "success" early on (success is in quotes because most who ride there now will ride in the protected lane and it will appear well-used - is there a net change in usage? Hopefully CDOT counted).

For these reasons, you will be able to count detractors and vocal critics of protected bike lanes on one hand. 


Dr. Doom said:

Saying it doesn't connect to other bikeways (not sure why it would need to anyway) is a pretty sketchy claim.

69th is two blocks south of Jackson Park, which is used as a bikeway even if it isn't marked as one on maps, and Stony connects with the long and absolutely killer South Chicago Ave bike lane, probably the best in the city for my dollar, at 79th. A couple of small extensions to the proposed track would effectively connect broad swathes of the South Side to Hyde Park (and by extension the North Side, since the LFT hits Hyde Park) on safe, easily traveled routes.

The broader point is that if new cycling infrastructure is just going to serve a tiny minority of already well-served cyclists on their travels from West Town to the Loop and vice versa, which seems fairly likely, that's not only a shame on its own terms, but forfeits any chance of gaining broad political support for such programs.

Permalink Reply by Dr. Doom on June 5, 2011 at 11:33pm

None of this has anything to do with the fact that the proposed Stony Island site in fact does a lot to link up some of the very best cycling routes in the city, or with just how much such a lane could, with some modest extensions, open up neighborhoods to the south of Hyde Park for cyclists from all over town.

Your assertion that cycle tracks should go in places where people already ride, by the way, strikes me as hardly being obviously true.

Permalink Reply by Anne Alt on June 5, 2011 at 11:45pm

I like the idea of having protected lanes - in places that actually NEED them.  Why Kinzie????

 

The south side gets screwed over yet again on bike accommodations.  We lost the Vincennes bike lanes when the Dan Ryan reconstruction started, then the city refused to restore them.  We have many areas where there are decent riding conditions within neighborhoods but it's difficult or impossible to find a safe route to connect to nearby neighborhoods.

 

Having protected lanes on Stony Island could have given us a safe north-south through route in an area where there are few now.  Reading the Trib article, it suggests that the Stony Island idea was killed because few cyclists ride there now.  Well, DUH!!!!!  Who in their right mind would *want* to ride on that section of Stony in its current configuration?  There are many destinations that could be of interest to cyclists, but the street configuration is almost a freakin' highway.  People wouldn't ride there UNLESS there were improvements to make it reasonable for riding.

 

If they weren't going to build it on Stony, why couldn't it be somewhere on the south or west side, especially on a section of the boulevard system?  This sucks!

 

Duppie said:

This Tribune article gives some more detail. Apparently the Kinzie cycle track is being paid for by money originally designated for the cycle track on Stony Island. That project has been cancelled.

 

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-met-bike-track-0606-201...

Permalink Reply by Anne Alt on June 5, 2011 at 11:46pm
Thank you!

Dr. Doom said:

None of this has anything to do with the fact that the proposed Stony Island site in fact does a lot to link up some of the very best cycling routes in the city, or with just how much such a lane could, with some modest extensions, open up neighborhoods to the south of Hyde Park for cyclists from all over town.

Your assertion that cycle tracks should go in places where people already ride, by the way, strikes me as hardly being obviously true.

Permalink Reply by Anne Alt on June 5, 2011 at 11:48pm
Have you ever ridden south of Hyde Park?  Have you ridden in any area adjacent to the Stony Island section?

Steven Vance said:
I think there are better south side locations, ones that will encourage people to bike more (more often or bring out those who don't currently bike). The Stony Island stretch (69th to 77th) travels through only commercial areas and doesn't connect to other bikeways.

Dr. Doom said:
That's a shame, although I'm not surprised. After all, the South Side doesn't exist, and the people who live there aren't real!
Permalink Reply by Steven Vance on June 5, 2011 at 11:56pm

Name a neighborhood and I've ridden there or through it. My work for CDOT took me to every square mile of the city (except for Hegewisch). 

The south side is a very big place. Would anyone be appeased if Blue Island or Ogden was selected as a "south side candidate" for protected bike lanes, in place of Stony Island?

Bikeway planning in Chicago is still largely under the control of aldermen. Bike lanes don't go in if the alderman doesn't want it. If aldermen do want it, they will be installed. See every bike lane addition or maintenance project in the 42nd Ward in the past 1-2 years. Bikeway planning should be done on either the city or neighborhood scale and should transcend wards or geographies like "south side", "north side", or "west side" - no boundaries for these exist.

 

I'm excited to see the first location of cycle track become a little contentious, at least among commenters on The Chainlink. And it's quite telling none of this "planning" has happened with public input (at least that I'm aware of). 


Anne Alt said:

Have you ever ridden south of Hyde Park?  Have you ridden in any area adjacent to the Stony Island section?

Steven Vance said:
I think there are better south side locations, ones that will encourage people to bike more (more often or bring out those who don't currently bike). The Stony Island stretch (69th to 77th) travels through only commercial areas and doesn't connect to other bikeways.

Dr. Doom said:
That's a shame, although I'm not surprised. After all, the South Side doesn't exist, and the people who live there aren't real!
Permalink Reply by Robert on June 6, 2011 at 8:10am
Whether this protected bike line is in a good location or a bad location, whether it's designed well or not, whether the money is coming from a good place or not, it says one definitive thing to me and that is that politicians are beginning to see bicyclists as an organized voting block whose opinions need to be considered.  IDOT keeping track doorings, the new license plates (if you haven't reserved one, I encourage you to) scream to politicians that we also are willing to put our money where our mouth is.  People like the "Hi" Guy that uses his own time to sweep off the LFT, the countless things that Steven Vance has done on his own and all the other activities that cyclists do for other cyclists says a lot to politicians and I think that we are seeing some results.
Permalink Reply by Duppie on June 6, 2011 at 8:26am

I think that one reason that the Stony Island cycle track failed was it ridiculous long development time. 4 years for some paint and some signage? Really?

The new major wants a quick win since he promised cycletracks in his transition plan. He has money (from the Stony Island cycle track), an alderman that is more than cooperative (Reilly), and a stretch of road that is not residential in nature (Kinzie). Sounds like a politically sound decision by Emanuel.

 


Steven Vance said:

Name a neighborhood and I've ridden there or through it. My work for CDOT took me to every square mile of the city (except for Hegewisch). 

The south side is a very big place. Would anyone be appeased if Blue Island or Ogden was selected as a "south side candidate" for protected bike lanes, in place of Stony Island?

Bikeway planning in Chicago is still largely under the control of aldermen. Bike lanes don't go in if the alderman doesn't want it. If aldermen do want it, they will be installed. See every bike lane addition or maintenance project in the 42nd Ward in the past 1-2 years. Bikeway planning should be done on either the city or neighborhood scale and should transcend wards or geographies like "south side", "north side", or "west side" - no boundaries for these exist.

 

I'm excited to see the first location of cycle track become a little contentious, at least among commenters on The Chainlink. And it's quite telling none of this "planning" has happened with public input (at least that I'm aware of). 


Anne Alt said:

Have you ever ridden south of Hyde Park?  Have you ridden in any area adjacent to the Stony Island section?

Steven Vance said:
I think there are better south side locations, ones that will encourage people to bike more (more often or bring out those who don't currently bike). The Stony Island stretch (69th to 77th) travels through only commercial areas and doesn't connect to other bikeways.

Dr. Doom said:
That's a shame, although I'm not surprised. After all, the South Side doesn't exist, and the people who live there aren't real!

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