Fun new bike racks along Clark Street

Have you seen the new bike racks at two corners of Clark and Fullerton? There's a green one at the southwest corner, next to Five Guys.

Photo: Bike Walk Lincoln Park

There's also a yellow one on the northeast corner, in front of Bank of America.

(Photo: Bike Walk Lincoln Park)

These are a nice addition to the neighborhood! As you can see, they're already being very well used. We love the colors, and their urban-architecture theme. On a practical note, the design of the rack allows a user to lock up at various heights, which is a key feature to making a bike rack truly useable.  (More-->)

Improved crosswalk installed on Stockton!

by Michelle Stenzel

Have you noticed the upgraded crosswalk on Stockton Drive at Belden? It's between the Shakespeare statue and the Lincoln Park Conservatory. This is a very busy crossing for joggers, walkers, guests of the Belden-Stratford Hotel, visitors to the zoo, and many others.

The improved crosswalk on Stockton Drive at Belden. (Photo: Bike Walk Lincoln Park)

Do you remember what it looked like before? Here's a picture to remind you of its sorry original state:

This "Before" pic shows that the marked crosswalk was very wide, and nearly invisible.
(Photo: Bike Walk Lincoln Park)

The improvements include re-painting of the "zebra-style crosswalk markings, of course. However, what makes the most difference is the wide curb bump-outs that narrow the distance that pedestrians are in the roadway.  (More -->)

Successful first Lincoln Park Kidical Mass!

by Michelle Stenzel

Dozens of families participated last weekend in a festive inaugural Lincoln Park Kidical Mass family bike ride! 

Lincoln Park Kidical Mass sets out. (Photo credit: Chicago Kidical Mass via Facebook)

It was perfect weather on a quiet Sunday morning to gather in Oz Park for a little socializing before heading out onto the ride.

We were joined by Alderman Michele Smith, who greeted the families and expressed support for family bicycling in the ward.

Alderman Michele Smith expressed support for family bicycling in Lincoln Park. (Photo: Bike Walk Lincoln Park)

There were kids as young as a few months old in a cargo bike, all the way to grade-school aged kids riding strong on their own bikes. 

Lincoln Park Kidical Mass waits for the green light on Belden at Lincoln. (Photo: Bike Walk Lincoln Park)

Here's the route we took:

You can see a set of 11 pictures on Flickr at this link.

Many thanks to Lacey Cordero for organizing the event, Alderman Smith and her staff for supporting the ride, Chicago Kidical Mass founder Ash Lottes for joining our ride, Performance Bicycles Lincoln Park's Micah and Jakub for providing free pre-ride adjustments as well as ride support, Active Transportation Alliance for providing tattoos for the kids, DNA Info Chicago and many others for helping to publicize the event!

If you want to know about future Lincoln Park Kidical Mass rides, do any or all of the following:

• e-mail Lacey at LPkidicalmass@gmail.com to be added to the e-mail list;
• "Like" Chicago Kidical Mass on Facebook;
• Bookmark the Chicago Kidical Mass website and check the calendar regularly.

You can also follow @BikeWalkLP on Twitter and we'll definitely tweet notices of any future rides. We'll participate whenever possible, but the rides will be under the umbrella of the Chicago Kidical Mass movement! 

Help count bicyclists to document demand for better bike lanes!

by Michelle Stenzel

The Chicago Department of Transportation conducts monthly and quarterly counts of bicyclists, in order to gather data on current levels of bicycling, and to produce cool graphics like this:

Chicago Department of Transportation graphic.

Look at that! Lincoln Park had the location with the second-largest volume of bicyclists counted last month. That location is at the intersection of Wells, Clark and Lincoln, three very popular bike commuting routes. A total of 1,239 bicyclists passed through that intersection in just four hours.

As better lanes are installed, it will be interesting to watch the numbers rise even higher. These counts are done with actual humans, who sit or stand at a designated spot with a clip board, and count riders. Although CDOT staff, interns, and contractors do plenty of the work, they also rely on citizen volunteers to pitch in as well, especially for the quarterly downtown count, because they need people at so many different sites simultaneously.

You can see more bike count data at this CDOT page.

Maybe you can volunteer for one two-hour shift? I've been doing this for a few years, and it's truly easy and fun. You're given a few instructions on line, print out the count sheets, go to your assigned spot, count bikes, and turn in your data sheets. CDOT needs more people for three different shifts during the week of July 23rd. Details are in the flyer above. (If you can't read it, volunteer by e-mailing david dot smith at tylin dot com) Please consider signing up!

Join the inaugural Lincoln Park Kidical Mass on July 14th!

by Michelle Stenzel

The first Lincoln Park Kidical Mass bike ride will be held on Sunday, July 14, 2013, and we hope you'll join us! 

Kidical Mass is a nationwide movement of people organizing family events to encourage parents and children to ride bikes. There are already organized monthly rides in Logan Square, Hyde Park, and Lincoln Square, and you can get information and see a video on the Chicago Kidical Mass website or check out the photos on the Kidical Mass Chicago Facebook page.  The rides are slow-paced and designed to allow children of all ages to participate. Kids can be on their own bikes, or riding along in a trailer, on a seat on their caregiver's bike, or any other bike-related means of conveyance. 

We're helping to bring this event to Lincoln Park through the vision of Bike Walk Lincoln Park supporter and Lincoln Park mom Lacey Cordero. We'll meet up in the Oz Park playground starting at 9:30 am, and plan for a 10:00 am departure.  We'll take quiet side streets and have extra adults on hand to help keep everyone together! 

If you have questions, please e-mail Lacey at lpkidicalmass at gmail dot com or post them below.

See you on Sunday at Oz Park!

Divvy bike share starts up in Lincoln Park

by Michelle Stenzel

Bike share is now available in Lincoln Park! As of Thursday, June 27th, there were a handful of bike share stations that had bikes available to use for people who had either signed up for a yearly membership ($75) or a 24-hour pass ($7). I've used the bikes now twice and took a ride around today to visit the six activated stations. 

Divvy bike share station on Lincoln Avenue south of Armitage. (Photo: Bike Walk Lincoln Park)

You can sign up for a membership or check where there are currently functioning stations on the Divvy Bike website. You can also use the free CycleFinder app to see real time information about how many bikes are currently available at each station. However, at each of the six stations, the actual number of bikes available was always higher than the CycleFinder app stated. For example, the map said that the Lincoln Avenue station above had six bikes available, when there were actually 12 when I arrived.  I guess it's better to have more available than the map says, but this is something that CDOT/Divvy/CycleFinder needs to improve. For people to use the app, we have to feel that it's reliably accurate information.  (more -->)

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)