Found: Scores of potholes in the bike lanes

by Michelle Stenzel

We held our first annual Bike Lane Potholepalooza yesterday! It took a little over two hours for Michael Reynolds, Andrew Herman and I to ride up and down Wells, Lincoln, Armitage, Halsted and Clark spotting the craters that pose a danger to bicyclists. 

A notoriously bad stretch of bike lane potholes on Lincoln Avenue, north of Armitage.
(Photo: Bike Walk Lincoln Park)

Join us for Bike Lane Potholepalooza on Saturday!

by Michelle Stenzel

"Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not."  - Dr. Seuss in The Lorax

Pothole in the bike lane. (Photo: Bike Walk Lincoln Park)

Are you tired of swerving to avoid potholes in the bike lanes in Lincoln Park? Yes, so are we, and we're ready to take action to get them fixed! We're hosting the first "43rd Ward Bike Lane Potholepalooza" on Saturday, June 1, starting at 9:00 am, and we hope you'll join us.

In April, the Chicago Department of Transportation held a citywide "Potholepalooza" in which they encouraged citizens to report as many potholes as possible via 311 and various means, so that city crews could get out in force to repair them. I never read whether it resulted in an increase in reports, but Michael Reynolds and I thought the basic idea was great, so we're going to do the same thing for bike lane potholes.

We plan to ride up and down every marked bike lane in the ward, and document each pothole via photo and address, then report them in bulk to Alderman Smith's office and CDOT. So this means we'll be scoping for craters on Wells, Lincoln, Armitage, Halsted and Clark. I'm predicting Lincoln will be the most work. Although Lincoln is a state route and therefore not under the direct control of CDOT for resurfacing and other major work, we've been advised by Ald. Smith's infrastructure specialist that CDOT is nevertheless permitted to do patchwork like potholes in the bike lanes. 

We hope you can join us! This is a big job, and it would be great to have at least 5 or 6 people to help with the tasks and just provide fun companionship as we spend some time helping to make bicycling in our area a little safe and more enjoyable for all users.

WHAT:    43rd Ward Bike Lane Potholepalooza

WHEN:    Saturday, June 1, 2013 - 9:00 am

WHERE:  Meet near the corner of Wells and Lincoln (at 1820 N. Lincoln)

Please RSVP so we can expect you and communicate in case of inclement weather: bikewalklincolnpark@gmail.com or to @BikeWalkLP

Are you ready for bike share, Chicago?

by Michelle Stenzel

After a few delays, bike share is finally coming to Chicago in the next month!

As you know, bike share systems are transportation systems that give ordinary citizens one more way to get around their neighborhoods in their city. You can read some basics about what a bike share system is and is not on this prior post. The most important thing to know is that this is not for tourists, but for people who live, work and study in the area serviced by the bike share stations. These bikes are meant to be taken to reach destinations that are perhaps one, two or three miles away. 

So we've finally begun to hear details about what bike share will look like in Chicago. First, the system will be called "Divvy"and the bikes will be light blue, with black and white details.

Screen shot from the Divvy Bikes website.

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Why are signs needed forbidding bikes on the Fullerton sidewalk?

by Michelle Stenzel

Street signs help us remember what is and isn’t allowed on the streets and sidewalks of Lincoln Park. However, I’ve noticed lately that they sometimes reflect unmet needs of people wishing to undertake legitimate actions. I wonder whether it wouldn’t be better to solve the problem of the unmet demand rather than simply forbidding the behavior. 

This is the first of a two-part post on this subject. Today I'll discuss signs forbidding riding bikes on the sidewalk, and in the next installment I'll provide examples of other signs and behaviors.

Signs threaten arrest of people riding bikes on the sidewalk along Fullerton. (Photo: Bike Walk Lincoln Park)

I noticed an entire series of signs forbidding bicycles on the sidewalk along Fullerton from Lincoln Avenue to Stockton Drive.

Proposed changes to city laws mostly favor bicyclists

by Michelle Stenzel

You may have read that last week, Mayor Emanuel proposed some changes to the laws pertaining to bicycling and driving in the city. Most of the coverage in the large media outlets of the changes was focused only on the increased fines for both bicyclists and drivers, and those are indeed part of the proposal. But after reading the full amendment (it’s only a four-page PDF, which you can download yourself from the city clerk’s website), I found there are many more changes that are interesting and important to people who ride bikes in the city, so here’s my round up:

If a person opens the door of a motor vehicle into the path of a bicyclist, there is a fine imposed of $300. If a person opens the door of a motor vehicle into the path of a bicyclist and thereby causes a collision, there is a fine of $1,000.

These fines are double from what they were before. In order to help raise awareness of how important it is to look to check for oncoming vehicles before opening a door, the city will also be requiring taxicab operators to place anti-dooring stickers on windows for passengers. 

Large-scale markings and signs reinforce the message that bicyclists are allowed to use the full lane, here on Wells Street in the Loop. (Photo: Bike Walk Lincoln Park)

People of any age are allowed to ride on a sidewalk if it is marked as a bicycle route, or if they are riding on it to get to a bike share station, or if they are using the sidewalk to enter the nearest roadway.

This is obviously in preparation for the bike share stations that we’re going to see installed in the city in the next few weeks. Due to our unfortunate parking meter lease deal, I expect that many (maybe most?) stations will be on the sidewalk, instead of on the street, and people should be able to ride conveniently to and from the stations on the sidewalk to the nearest curb cut, to get onto the street. 

Choosing the low-stress routes when riding a bike

by Michelle Stenzel

When you drive a car from one place to another on the north side of Chicago, you usually take the most direct route. This mostly involves major arterial streets like North Avenue or Halsted Street, which may have too many stoplights for your liking, but when traffic is light, you can drive fast and get to where you’re going in minimal time.

When you ride a bike from one place to another, you could also take the most direct route and use major arterials if you’d like, the same as if you were driving. However,  the advantages to a major street for a driver – fast speed of motor vehicle traffic – is a huge detriment to a person on a bicycle. Unless you’re in a bike lane that is separated from motor vehicle traffic with a physical barrier, fast-moving cars, buses and SUVs whizzing by you on the street are nerve-wracking, to say the least.

This part of Lincoln Avenue has a full-width bike lane, but in other sections, there are only "sharrow" markings, and it makes the street feel too stressful for many bike riders. (Photo: Bike Walk Lincoln Park)

To make your bike trip more pleasant and relaxing, you’d be better off choosing quieter streets with fewer vehicles that are moving at slower speeds. These might be secondary streets like Sedgwick and Webster, or better yet, very quiet neighborhood streets like Cleveland or Dickens. The route that you patch together to avoid main arterials may mean that you’ll have to cover a slightly longer distance than you would on the more direct route, but you’ll arrive in a happier, more relaxed state.

Bicyclists riding on Altgeld Street, a calm east-west route through Lincoln Park. (Photo: Bike Walk Lincoln Park)

The best route to take on a bicycle may be very different from the one you’d choose if you were driving. This seems like a very basic idea, but honestly, it took many years for it to occur to me, so I’m writing about it now in hopes of encouraging others to consider the concept, and perhaps inspiring you to plan a low-stress route yourself.

What we noticed at Halsted and Wrightwood

by Michelle Stenzel

We undertook our third Bike Walk Lincoln Park intersection evaluation last weekend, this time tackling  areas on Halsted in the northwest section of our ward, starting with the crossing at Wrightwood. I was joined by Robert Wallace and Karl Anderson of Alderman Michele Smith's staff, as well as Ryan Wallace (no relationship to Robert), a transportation engineer and observer of our city's streets. Ryan kindly provided many of the statistics and measurements that I include in the post below.

The intersection of Wrightwood and Halsted, looking southwest on Halsted.

HALSTED AND WRIGHTWOOD

Halsted is an arterial street with around 14,000 motor vehicles passing through at this intersection daily. The #8 Halsted bus stops at Wrightwood Avenue and around 500 people board or alight daily here.