Video: Morning commute on Clark Street

by Michelle Stenzel

Recently, we filmed a morning bike commute down Clark Street through Lincoln Park, from Diversey to North Avenue.

Clark Street looking north from Wrightwood. (Photo: Bike Walk Lincoln Park)

One mile of that route is designated as a Bus/Bike Only lane. Surprised? Even if you're a Lincoln Park regular, you may not even be aware that Clark Street from Diversey to Dickens is a designated Bus/Bike Only lane every weekday morning, from 7:00 AM to 9:00 AM. These rush-hour lanes are designed to help the flow of people down a busy corridor.  (more -->)

Creating a Better Clark Street workshop summary

by Michelle Stenzel

On August 20, 2013, dozens of community members came together to evaluate Clark Street from North Avenue to Armitage in a workshop co-hosted by Bike Walk Lincoln Park, 43rd Ward Alderman Michele Smith, and Active Transportation Alliance.

The many comments and suggestions have now been distilled into a document that reflects the overall assessment of the current state of the street and possibilities for changes.

Crossing Clark Street at Menomonee. (Photo: Bike Walk Lincoln Park)

You can read the full summary of the workshop here and here is the Active Transportation blog post by Brenna Conway, who lead the workshop.

The problems include:

• Unsafe to cross Clark Street;
• Speeding car traffic makes other streets users feel unwelcome;
• Confusing mix of all traffic modes makes for chaotic experience for all users.

The suggestions include:

• Right-sizing the width of the street;
• Separation of travel modes for clearer delineation of space;
• Addition of assistance for pedestrians, like refuge islands or raised crosswalks;
• Better enforcement of traffic laws.

The next step is that this document and an even more comprehensive list of all the comments and suggestions will be forwarded to the city planners at the Chicago Department of Transportation, and then we'll wait to see what they suggest to help create a better Clark Street!

It's scary riding on Clark Street right along the green expanse of Lincoln Park, but it shouldn't be.
(Photo: Bike Walk Lincoln Park)

See my Flickr photo set of the current conditions on Clark Street here.

Follow us on Twitter @BikeWalkLP

New Divvy stations are popping up everywhere

by Michelle Stenzel

Chicago's Divvy bike sharing system has been up and running now for eight weeks. At first there were only 75 stations installed, but the Divvy crew are installing more every day, and currently there are more than 160 in use citywide, with a goal of 300 stations by summer's end on September 22, 2013.

Those of us in Lincoln Park are lucky to have had a number of stations since the launch, and you may have noticed new ones popping up in the neighborhood over the past weeks. I went around and snapped pictures of a few of them.

One of the new stations is at the busy corner of Clark/Diversey/Broadway. This 11-dock station is on Diversey, on the sidewalk next to Walgreen's. This is a very busy shopping area, and I'm sure this will be a popular station for picking up or dropping off bikes. 

The Divvy bikes at Clark and Diversey are ready to roll. (Photo: Bike Walk Lincoln Park)

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Good turnout, great ideas at the Clark Street workshop

by Michelle Stenzel

The Clark Street workshop was a great success. About 45 people attended the event, which Bike Walk Lincoln Park co-hosted with Alderman Michele Smith and Active Transportation Alliance this past week. The group included neighbors from Lincoln Park, people who travel through the area on their commutes, and many representatives of the buildings bordering the area being studied.

Alderman Michele Smith addressed the crowd at the start of the workshop. (Photo: Bike Walk Lincoln Park)

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Help create a new vision for Clark Street along Lincoln Park

by Michelle Stenzel

Do you walk, bike or drive on Clark Street between North Avenue and Armitage? If so, you may have noticed a need to make the street safer for everyone on it. Well, now you have a chance to speak up: We're very excited to announce that Bike Walk Lincoln Park will be co-hosting a community workshop on how to improve this very stretch of Clark Street! 

Crossing Clark Street at Menomonee is a stressful experience. (Photo: Bike Walk Lincoln Park)

Together with Alderman Michele Smith and Active Transportation Alliance, we invite you to participate in the event on August 20. Led by Brenna Conway of ATA, we'll walk along the street to observe, discuss, and brainstorm ideas that can then be shaped into initial recommendations.  -->

What's in store for Lincoln Park under the Streets for Cycling 2020 Plan?

by Michelle Stenzel

The visually exciting news of last week was the opening of the Loop's first two-way protected bike lane on Dearborn Street, of course. Who can resist the sight of our mayor high-fiving smiling bicyclists? Well not me, that's for sure. 

Somewhat overshadowed was the release on the same day of the Streets for Cycling 2020 Plan, which lays out the upgraded infrastructure that we hope to see installed citywide over the next eight years. You may remember that I was a volunteer leader of the north side Community Advisory Group, and Bike Walk Lincoln Park co-chair Michael Reynolds attended all the meetings faithfully, as did many other BWLP supporters. (You might spot yourself in a picture or two in the plan.)

Please download the plan and read it (link directly to PDF here)! Don't rely on this flimsy blog entry to summarize for you; there's just too much there. It's a beautifully done 57-page document that takes you through the process of putting together the plan, and then describes the recommendations for each area of the city. 

(More after the jump)

The scoop from Streets for Cycling 2020 Plan guru Mike Amsden

by Michelle Stenzel

If you’ve been to any of the citywide Streets for Cycling 2020 Plan meetings, you’ll probably recognize Mike Amsden, who is a Bike Program Project Manager at CDOT. He and others are working hard to create the final eight-year S4C2020 plan, and also concurrently drawing up new and upgraded Chicago bikeways to be installed this season. 

For bicyclists who are dying to know what’s next on the horizon for Chicago’s bike network, he’s THE man to talk to.

Mike Amsden presents at the north side Streets for Cycling 2020 Plan meeting in February 2012.
(Photo by Flickr user saumacus, used with permission)

He also happens to be a resident of Lincoln Park! I worked with Mike in my role as a volunteer community advisory group leader for the S4C2020 public input gathering, and he graciously agreed to answer questions recently about the ongoing bikeways being installed right now and in the coming year.

_____________________

Bike Walk Lincoln Park: There are seven miles of protected bike lanes installed in Chicago so far, almost all on the west and south sides. It seems like to date, they’re being put in where it’s easy to put them in, meaning extremely wide street width and no parking meter issues. Would you say that’s true?

Mike Amsden: Well, we began with areas in which aldermen actively expressed an interest in having them, and in which there were fewer design problems to overcome. It also gave us a chance to get experience designing them, and they give us examples within the city to show that they can be implemented successfully.

BWLP: Will the north side ever get protected bike lanes?

Clark Street near the Green City Market, revisited

by Michelle Stenzel

It's been nearly a year since we first posted on the section of Clark Street from North Avenue to Armitage, which has four lanes of fast-moving car traffic, no bike lanes, and little help for pedestrians trying to cross it. I spent a little time recently in the area during the Green City Market morning hours, to see if there are any new developments.

The good news is that more people than ever are doing the "green" thing and riding their bikes to the market. There were bikes locked up to every street pole and fence.

This also makes it very clear that we need more parking for bicycles during on Green City Market days!  Locking to a chain link fence is not ideal, since the fence links can be very easily snipped with wire cutters. Since the Green City Market has a "special events" permit, perhaps they can arrange to have bike racks placed just for the May to October market season?

Post continues after the jump --->

Data doesn’t always tell the whole story

by Michelle Stenzel

I saw a question on Twitter posed recently by @stevevance, one of the co-authors of the Chicago sustainable transportation website Grid Chicago. He asked: “Americans always call for safer streets AFTER people get hit. Why don’t we demand safer streets before people are hit?”

My non-Twitter-length reply: Because we’re focused on making decisions based solely on data, and it seems that according to the general zeitgeist, there “must” be data proving that a person has been injured or killed before a street is considered worthy of upgrades. In my opinion, that’s often a flawed belief. Looking at data to make decisions is often rational, but when we’re evaluating our streets, data doesn’t capture all factors that should be considered. 

A woman and her dog wait on eight inches of yellow paint as cabs and SUVs speed by her on a marked pedestrian crosswalk at Clark and Menomonee. (Photo: Bike Walk Lincoln Park)

Injury and fatality data doesn’t reflect factors like: Is crossing this street as a pedestrian a relatively safe and stress-free experience? Does automotive traffic regularly exceed the posted speed limit? How does the speed of the auto traffic affect people walking along or crossing the street? Do drivers follow the law and stop for people in the crosswalks? Does this street have accommodation for a person riding a bicycle? Is riding a bicycle on this street a relatively safe and stress-free experience? Do drivers follow our state’s three-feet passing law when overtaking a person riding a bicycle? How does the speed of auto traffic affect people riding bikes on this street?

Make Clark a Liveable Street!

Members of Bike Walk Lincoln Park are starting to advocate for improvements in the 43rd ward to help make walking and biking safer and more pleasant! Alderman Michele Smith is also very concerned about safety issues, and shares our enthusiasm for making improvements. 

One of the first projects we'll focus on is one that we used to kick off this blog: improving Clark Street from North Avenue to Armitage. In another post, we compared crossing Clark Street to playing the game of Frogger.

Four wide lanes of auto traffic on Clark Street at the Lincoln Avenue intersection.
(Photo: Bike Walk Lincoln Park)

Why make any changes? The southeast corner of the Lincoln Park neighborhood is one of the most walkable areas of the city, and yet this half-mile section of Clark Street is not friendly to anything but motorized traffic.

If you've ever walked or biked this stretch, you know already that some of the current problems include:

• Wide lanes of car traffic moving at speeds in excess of the speed limit
• Poorly marked pedestrian crossings that span six lanes of street with no safe haven
• Long distances between safe crosswalks
• Absence of bike lanes means bicyclists are squeezed between fast-moving cars and parked cars
• Excessive noise from fast-moving cars is unpleasant and makes it hard to enjoy parks and restaurants
• Lack of wayfinding or historic signage and nowhere to sit in the park

Pedestrians at Clark and Wisconsin crossing six lanes of street with no safe haven.
(Photo: Bike Walk Lincoln Park)

What can be done to improve?

• Reduce moving lanes for motorized traffic from four lanes to two
• Install protected bike lanes
• Widen the east sidewalk
• Install well-marked pedestrian crossings and new crosswalks where needed
• Add signage, landscaping and benches

What will the result be?

• Traffic calmed to safer speeds
• Less traffic noise
• Easier and safer for pedestrians to cross the street along the entire half-mile stretch
• Safe bike route for bicyclists of all abilities
• Easier for neighbors and visitors to enjoy existing parks, plazas, and restaurants
• Clark Street from North Avenue to Armitage Avene becomes a pleasure, not a hazard!

This lovely park at Clark and Wisconsin will be more enjoyable when traffic noise is reduced.
(Photo: Bike Walk Lincoln Park)

The points listed above are only excerpts from our full list of ideas.

You can read the full details on our information sheet about the project here.

And take a look at our visual presentation of Clark Street as it is currently, and our ideas for changes.

We'll be holding a public meeting in the near future open to all to share ideas and discuss the proposal. Keep checking this blog for more information, or e-mail us at bikewalklincolnpark@gmail.com to join our mailing list. Feel free to leave your comments and suggestions below! We welcome your input.

Playing Frogger to cross Clark Street

Remember the video game Frogger, where the frog has to hop across multiple lanes of highway without being squashed? That was a lot of fun to play in the virtual world, but it's not so fun in real life. Our last post celebrated that Chicago was rated fourth most walkable city in the nation, and although that may be true, there are many Chicago streets and intersections that still need help, to avoid "Frogger" scenarios.

Menomonee Street at 1700 N. Clark is a marked crosswalk, although the lines are pretty faded.

With six lanes of traffic to cross and no median, here's the view:

That four inches of space between the yellow lines is not a fun place to be stranded when you make it half way across, and cars start barrelling toward you at speeds. 

This man had left Green City Market and was crossing westbound:

We watched as cars, buses, taxis all blew by him at top speeds as he was at each part of the crosswalk.

No one stopped for him, as is required by Illinois law for pedestrians in crosswalks.

Sadly, this scene occurs each day. It's so hazardous crossing Clark at the intersections of Menonomee and Wisconsin that many families with strollers, elderly people, or people in wheelchairs avoid them entirely. Is this the best we can do for Clark Street? It needs to be transformed to a more liveable street.
Contact us if you'd like to join the effort. BikeWalkLincolnPark@gmail.com

Clark Street Needs a Road Diet

The section of Clark Street from North Avenue to Armitage Avenue needs to be made safer for pedestrians and bicyclists.

South of North Avenue, Clark is a nice two-lane street that runs through the Sandburg Village/Gold Coast area. There are plenty of stop lights, each one with pedestrian crosswalks. Since it's only one lane in each direction, with parked cars on each side, it feels narrow to drivers, who therefore roll along at moderate speeds. There was even a pedestrian island at Clark and Germania installed a few years ago.

A pedestrian island at Clark Street and Germania Place helps pedestrians cross safely.
(Photo: BikeWalkLincolnPark.com)

That calm feeling all changes at the intersection of Clark and North Avenue. A motorist heading northbound suddenly notices between the Chicago History Museum and the Moody Church that there are now four lanes for moving traffic, plus additional lanes on either side for loading. This wide-open feel is an invitation to step on the gas, and usually, the driver does.

Clark Street suddenly widens to a six-lane "superhighway" at North Avenue.
(Photo: BikeWalkLincolnPark.com)

Sometimes the vehicle is "caught" at the red light at LaSalle Drive. But after that, it's hit the gas again. Now there are four wide lanes for moving traffic, no median, and no marked bike lane. There is a pedestrian crosswalk at Menomonee, but given the speeds taken and the width of the street, motorists barely take notice.

The crosswalk at Clark Street at Menomonee is treacherous for pedestrians.
(Photo: GoogleMaps Streetview)

Motorists will drive as fast as the road "tells" them to drive. On this stretch north of LaSalle, I've seen taxis and other vehicles reach speeds I would guess to be 40 or 50 MPH. Sometimes they blow through the red light at Lincoln, nearly taking out pedestrians at the crosswalk.

Bicycling on this portion of Clark is not enjoyable, as you can imagine. There's not even a shared bike lane, and with the high speeds of passing cars sometimes inches away, it's no wonder that many bicyclists choose to ride (illegally) on the sidewalk for this entire stretch. That, in turn, endangers pedestrians.

There is a marked crosswalk at Wisconsin, but it's not even a "zebra stripe", just two thin, barely visible lines.

Clark Street at Wisconsin Avenue, looking south. There is a crosswalk just in front of the van, but it's so thin and faded as to be invisible in this photo.
(Photo: BikeWalkLincolnPark.com)

Besides, any pedestrian who wishes to cross there has to go traverse six lanes of street to make it to the other side. It's a marked crosswalk, so under Illinois law, all drivers must stop for pedestrians who are crossing, but what are the chances of having three for four approaching vehicles all stop? Next to nothing. So, no sane pedestrian crosses until all four lanes of moving traffic are completely clear. This takes a long time. Pedestrians deserve more respect.

Luckily, at Armitage, things improve for pedestrians and bicyclists. Most importantly, two lanes for motorized traffic disappear -- although motorists don't even notice this -- and therefore cars reduce speeds naturally.

For bicyclists, traffic is calmer, and a stripe appears at Belden that gives them either a continuous full or shared bike lane, all the way up to Wilson Avenue at 4600 North.

North of Armitage, pedestrians have to cross two fewer lanes at crosswalks. Some of the crosswalks even have red brick stamping, which visually cues drivers to slow down and watch for pedestrians. Clark Street becomes safer and more charming.

Stamped brick crosswalks on Clark Street at Dickens Avenue.
(Photo: BikeWalkLincolnPark.com)

So what can be done to help the half-mile of Clark Street from North Avenue to Armitage? The Clark Street Road Diet.

We should remove one lane of traffic each way. If you're unfamiliar with "road diets", I recommend that you watch this four-minute video by Streetfilm that introduces the concept. Importantly, it addresses the common concern that removing a lane of traffic will "clog up" a road. In fact, it has the effect of doing the opposite.

Removing a lane of moving traffic on each side gives our city's Department of Transportation planners plenty of room to improve the street for the better for all users. For pedestrians, we could have pedestrian islands. For bicyclists, we could have a protected bike lane. For all users, we could add planters or other features to enhance the beauty of the area. This half-mile is the de facto gateway for pedestrians to the green fields of southern Lincoln Park; shouldn't its Clark Street border be human-scale and inviting?

Veggie burgers and pickled asparagus at the Green City Market.
(Photo: BikeWalkLincolnPark.com)

There are many stakeholders who would benefit from increasing the safety and livability of this part of Clark Street. Wouldn't it be nice if visitors leaving the Chicago History Museum after learning that our official motto is "City in a Garden"could step out onto a beautiful street instead of a barren expressway? I think patrons of Equinox health club would appreciate not having to play Frogger to cross the street to go work out. Green City Market could enhance their mission of sustainability by encouraging more people to bike to the market instead of driving. Perennial Virant would benefit by having more pedestrians and bicyclists visible to those enjoying their dinners, and fewer cars racing by at 45 MPH.

Everyone would be safer. The possibilities are endless. Do you agree?