Come scout locations for potential People Spots in Lincoln Park!

by Michelle Stenzel

The Chicago Department of Transportation recently launched a new initiative aimed at making more room on our streets and sidewalks for people to sit, relax and play. The "Make Way for People" program is partnering with aldermen and neighborhood groups to transform streets, parking spots, plazas and alleys into active public spaces.

Taken from Chicago Department of Transportation's "Make Way for People" site.

We at Bike Walk Lincoln Park are very excited about this initiative and are beginning to work with Alderman Michele Smith's office to help bring these to the 43rd ward. We're planning to ride our bikes around the ward with a member of Ald. Smith's staff to scope out potential spots on Saturday, September 22, details below, and you're welcome to join us. (Details below.)

So much work to be done...

by Michelle Stenzel

There are good things happening in Chicago for people walking and biking, which we've covered in prior posts. Just this week, the city released its first-ever Pedestrian Plan, an encouraging document I'll try to highlight in a separate post. 

But this weekend, honestly, walking and riding my bike around Lincoln Park and beyond, it was just  depressing to see how far we have to go. The state of the crosswalk stripings nearly everywhere is horrendous. Sidewalks are tiny slivers of pavement. There are potholes on main streets and side streets. Where there are bike lanes, they end at every intersection. On LaSalle Street, I saw four cars parked in a No Parking/Tow Zone/bus stop area, completely blocking the curb cuts for two crosswalks. No tickets on their windshields, and I don't think the owners had any fear of actually getting towed. Pedestrians, be damned.

There are good intentions in our current administration, but there's so much work to be done. I certainly don't envy them their task of organizing the effort to fix, maintain, and right-size our streets.

I rounded up some pictures I've taken over the last month or two to illustrate.

Green City market vendor truck blocking the pedestrian crosswalk on Clark at Menomonee.  It's already a horrible place to cross, and this only makes it more dangerous.

Perfect bike/walk vacation found on Mackinac Island

by Michelle Stenzel

You can go to many cities and vacation spots nowadays and rent a bike or walk to your heart's content, including rural towns like Galena, Illinois, and big cities like New York City. But the problem is that the really safe routes on which to bike are limited, and you're often mixing it up with motorized traffic. 

But not on Mackinac Island, Michigan. Motor vehicles have been banned pretty much since they appeared on the scene, and so bicycling and walking are the main forms of individual human transport, along with horse-pulled carriages and carts for carrying larger loads. The result is a charming city well worth a visit. 

(Photo: Bike Walk Lincoln Park -- CC)

 

The main street is lined with Victorian-era hotels, shops, and lots of bikes. The bikes are parked along the side of the street, behind a white line. They're a mix of rental bikes, bikes brought onto the island by tourists, and the locals' bikes. 

New nearby bike lanes on Halsted, Elston and Clark!

In the past few weeks, new or upgraded bikeways have appeared close to Lincoln Park! It's funny that many have come near, but none are within the boundaries of our neighborhood. Below is a screen shot of the Active Transportation Alliance's ongoing bikeways tracker, taken on August 25, 2012 (I added the circle).

Blue lines = completed bikeway upgrades. Red lines = proposed/future upgrades. Purple line = bike lane
upgrade in progress. Green circle = invisible force field keeping improved bike lanes out of Lincoln Park. 

Even though none of the new bikeways are in our neighborhood, they are useful when we ride to and from other destinations, of course. I checked them all out and took a few pictures to share.

Do refuge islands discourage drivers from stopping for pedestrians?

I was on Clark Street today checking out the new bike lanes currently being installed on that street. I was on foot, so I used the pedestrian refuge island just south of North Avenue to cross Clark. Here's a vintage picture of the island from July 2011:

Pedestrian island on Clark Street at Germania Place, being used in July 2011. (Photo: Bike Walk Lincoln Park)

Since then, a "State Law/ Stop for Pedestrians in Crosswalk" sign has been installed at the southern tip of the island. You would think that the dual presence of the crosswalk and the sign would "make" drivers stop for pedestrians who are trying to cross the street. But curiously, I noticed that drivers there seem to be LESS inclined to stop.

Protected Bike Lane coming to Dearborn Street in the Loop!

by Michelle Stenzel

This news is really huge: Mayor Emanuel announced that the first protected bike lane in the Loop will be in place by the end of this year! One year ago, the Loop got its first bike lane of any sort on Madison Street (see our review of that lane in this prior post), and now we’re about to get an actual protected lane.

Here’s part of the official announcement:

By the end of this year, the Chicago Department of Transportation (CDOT) will install 34 miles of new bike facilities, including: 

• A two-way north-south protected bike route through the Loop on Dearborn Street from Polk Street to Kinzie Street.  The City will also extend the Kinzie bike route east to meet up with this new route.  The Dearborn bikeway will separate bicyclists from high-speed traffic and include bicycle signals to separate bicycle and motor vehicle conflicts.

Here’s my map with the Polk-to-Kinzie stretch marked. I measured for you: It’s 1.2 miles long:

Map showing the stretch of Dearborn that will receive a protected bike lane, from Polk Street in the south to Kinzie Street on the North.

I’ve got lots of experience riding on Dearborn already, since it’s part of my northbound bike commute home, and let me tell you, it’s the worst part of my commute. 

Bike parking, CTA service and other suggestions for the Children's site

Dear Alderman Smith,

You have expressed that the redevelopment of the Children’s Memorial site should be environmentally friendly. An important part of making a residential and commercial site sustainable is encouraging people to use bicycles, public transportation, and other sustainable modes of transportation. In order to make those choices as convenient as possible, we suggest the following:

BICYCLE PLANNING

Indoor bicycle parking considerations:

Residents of multi-unit housing need to be given an indoor, secured area where they can lock their bikes overnight or for the season, and know that it is safe from theft.

The site should provide generous amounts of secure indoor bicycle parking that can be accessed with relative ease from the street.

Outdoor bicycle parking considerations:

The new site is planned to have 85,000 square feet of commercial space, including potentially a large health club facility, in addition to restaurants, coffee shops and retail outlets. This will attract multitudes of visitors daily, in addition to employees of the business. 

 We think residents and visitors to the redeveloped Children's Memorial site would love a covered bike shelter like this one in Portland, Oregon. (Photo via CC by Flickr user Thomas Le Ngo)

In order to encourage employees and patrons to ride bicycles to the site, there should be plenty of well-placed outdoor bike racks near all the entrances/exits of the development, in particular near the retail areas and the planned health club.