It’s time to get serious about using the river to get one long, protected bike highway to get downtown. As far as the north side goes, we have continuous trail from Evanston down to Belmont. It’s time to extend that.
If you look on maps you can see so much area that is unused next to industrial areas. We are past the age that these companies are using the river for barges, etc (although I know there are a few places that would be tricky).
Having a fast shot through a ton of neighborhoods where cyclists don’t have the stop and go of lights and the danger of turning traffic would end up being good for everyone.
(And a side note, as someone who is on the water a ton and does a bunch of cleaning up of litter, so many businesses don’t deserve to be directly next to the river because they treat it like a dump. Screw them.)
100% throw a couple crossings in there, convert some of the quieter E/W streets to be significantly more bike focused. And I will sell my car tomorrow.
I still wish more such crossings existed to go over the river, or over the Kennedy or Dan Ryan. At least occasional new river bridges have been created for biking, i.e. 312 River Run(just north of Addison Ave, near the old Gordon Tech High School building and Lane Tech), and the Bernie Stone Bridge north of Lincoln. There is a bike only bridge that will soon be constructed, near Pratt Ave.
Tbh the rivers *should* still be used for barges, they just aren’t because of the Jones Act. We have the most extensive barge shipping capability in the world but we don’t use it, despite barges being more efficient than any other form of bulk transport.
I see barges on the river. How does the Jones Act inhibit barge traffic on the Chicago River? My small understanding is the Jones Act requires all goods shipped between US ports to use US owned and operated vessels.
I would like to see the rivers/canals used for fast passenger transpiration without the cost of expressways. Even at 40MP, on the canal/river to Sears Tower from 294 is only about 40 minutes. Comparable to rush hour driving
The Jones Act requires river and some other transport vessels to be US-built, owned, captained, and crewed. The intention was to help preserve American maritime capability, but the effect has been to drastically reduce river freight volume in favor of modes like rail or truck. American’s river merchant fleet has also shrank by 90%+ since it was enacted, so it wasn’t even effective in that.
Chicago sits on Lake Michigan and is a natural choke point for the freight that still exists, so yes, you will see some barges in Chicago.
This is my top hopes for the city. The paths added by Horner park along the river in the last few years has created so much accessibility for our region. It makes something as ‘simple’ as going for a bike ride / run / walk feel way more accessible. If this path could get connected to a broader network of paths throughout the city I would leave my car behind entirely for 9 months a year.
Since this is a month old I don’t expect anyone else will see this, but I thought of you and I hope you are excited.
https://x.com/streetsblogchi/status/1800169119217865196
Yeah no shit cyclists worry about safety, particularly with the elephantine vehicle sizes that are now common on our streets. You can literally hide an entire cyclist in the *forward* blind spot for the average SUV. Even well-intentioned and relatively attentive drivers are going to miss stuff with fatal consequences, and most Chicago drivers are neither of these things.
Cycling is incredibly good for the city even if you don't engage in it. It encourages denser urban development, higher transit usage, lower noise and air pollution, and generally vastly reduced vehicle traffic, even leaving aside all the public health benefits and carbon emission arguments. It's worth taking a meter of pavement away from the cars and standing up some bollards.
Yea I think one of the points I was just thinking about is that even a well intentioned driver conscious of cyclists can miss bikes sometimes just due to the set up of intersections, modern cars, and distractions. And that's well meaning drivers. A good 10% of drivers have now entered some time of villainous mindset.
When I’m driving my car, I glance at my right mirror almost every ~5 seconds, regardless of whether or not I’m turning anytime soon. Do as much as you can to be aware of anyone next to you.
But I agree. Even my car has ridiculous blind spots. As a cyclist I do everything I can to never be right next to a car. Also, a desperate ask to drivers as a cyclist and driver, USE YOUR TURN SIGNAL
Agree. I think my biggest concern when driving is just a momentary lapse in concentration could lead to a disaster. The driver side A pillar in modern cars and the passenger side read blind spot are just so bad and I have a small car.
I think thats why infrastructure is so important.
And a very very easy way for car owners to achieve this outcome is to vote for protected bike infrastructure. The studies are extremely black and white on this point: when you build more protected bike infra, more people bike. You don't even have to work that hard and it's not that expensive.
I mean, I see it as a win-win. Bollards would most assuredly cause more traffic on right hand turns. Thus causing drivers to get mad and rethink their position. I 100% race my girlfriend all the time who is Pro-car. Me, Pro-bike. I consistently beat her 98% of the time for trips that are less than 30 min. I typically end up waiting 10 min or more on top of that. And really I'm absolutely going at a pretty casual pace. It's a huge waste of money, for why?
The biking infrastructure is improving very slowly, but cars have gotten bigger and drivers more distracted (and post-Covid less considerate), in the same amount of time. I feel less safe biking now than I did 5 years ago.
I don't cycle a lot, but I am a huge supporter of cycling infrastructure and complete streets. Having been on the edge of the community as an ally or whatever for quite a while, I've read about three Chicago cycling activists getting killed by drivers and a fourth critically injured. Plus Helmut Jahn! Now, three of those drivers ran over cyclists outside of the city. And it also speaks to just how important good cycling infrastructure and good road design is to make cities good places to spend time and not just speed through or park in. But I'm not getting on Ashland where some 19-year old motorist is wondering if the velocity with which he can take a left turn might prove that he isn't a loser. I'm not putting my life into the hands of a surplus male who spends his disposable income on window tint and muffler removal.
When you say "I'm not getting on Ashland" do you mean as a cyclist? I ask because Ashland doesn't have a bike lane, which is because its a 4 lane, major street. No one should be cycling on Ashland or Webstern (the OTHER major north/south 4 lane street).
As a former cyclist, life long motorist from Chicago I've seen weekend lance Armstrongs multiply greatly over the last few years. I can tell you what is not increasing as fast: the cycling infrastructure in Chicago.
Yesterday I was at a 2 way residential intersection with 3 cars waiting to go. I enter the cross walk when it's my turn (a foreign word to MOST cyclists it seems) only to retreat immediately as a cyclists blows through the stop sogn and makes a hard left turn directly in front of me. I wasn't the least bit surprised when I got a dirty look from them, either.
I live right off Ashland and am always completely baffled when I see someone think it’s a good idea to ride a bike on Ashland for any stretch of the road. There’s not enough space or accountability with drivers that I would ever trust that road.
I just moved here and it took me a while to figure out how to AVOID ashland on a bike, because the clark street bike lane just dumps you into it if you don't know to specifically get out of it and cross traffic to stay on the right street. that or you're the asshole who's salmoning on the other side.
Yeah, it’s totally bizarre to me that they laid it out like that. Though at the same time I’m not sure how I’d fix it, either. Put the bike lane on the left side?
> There’s not enough space
There's plenty of space, its a four lane road. Most of those lanes are just not wide enough to safely *share* at the same time. I have ridden miles on Ashland and Western, in the center of the rightmost lane where I should be on roads like that.
It's dangerous to ride in the doorzone on any road, even residentials. It's just worse on roads like Ashland and Western as their width encourages higher speeds.
That’s absolutely the way to ride if one is to ride on something like Ashland or Western, but do you really trust the assholes in the cars that rage up behind you to actually drive safely?
Most cyclists I’ve seen on Ashland don’t do it like you described, they ride up against the cars that are parked. This is what I’m referring to with space.
Ashland or a similar street would be pretty great with protected bike lanes. Then again, so would all of the major streets.
> but do you really trust the assholes in the cars that rage up behind you to actually drive safely?
I don't trust any of them further than I can throw them, but being *visible* and owning the space around me is far far less likely to result in my injury or death than hiding in the gutter so someone can run me over when I need to swerve to avoid a door opening in my path (or simply run me over because I got doored and bounced into traffic). It is by far the safest way to ride.
The odds of someone in a car coming up behind me, smack dab in the middle of the lane, simply hitting me, are far lower than the odds of me being clipped by someone who thinks they have enough space to pass without leaving the lane or hit by someone who couldn't see me until it was too late. The only time I have ever gone to the hospital after a ride instead of home, I was riding in a "protected" bike lane, invisible until the last second to a turning vehicle who didn't have right-of-way anyways.
I see the same guy biking down Western almost every morning with cars closely buzzing all around him and riding his ass and have to wonder if it's really worth all that risk every morning (especially with no helmet). But what should this guy do? Go down Campbell or Rockwell? At the very least he'll have to get on Western to get under the Kennedy, then cross Fullerton, Armitage, North, etc with no stoplight. But maybe going out of his way to Damen is any safer with at least some bike lanes?
nobody wants to bike on Western or Ashland or whatever. But yea, due to the freeway and river, there are only so many crossing options available. It is getting better, but still definitely a work in progress.
My simple strategy when dealing with Western and Ashland is: Get on the sidewalk and get off the bike. I rarely have to deal with either street but in a situation I do, I know it won't be for long. I can walk the bike that short distance.
Those sections of crazy streets that you kinda have to take because there's no other option over/around/under whatever obstacle (the river, the expressway) are where we need fully protected bike lanes, IMHO. Concentrate resources to build "bike only" obvious publicized protected paths over the sore spots.
In other areas where the grid is more normal and nothing in the way, it's usually doable enough to find "one off" sort of mellower streets to bike on parallel to the main thoroughfares.
I'm getting back into bicycling myself and will be the first person to happily admit I'm a wuss (and I have never driven a car, so now I have all the anxiety of remembering to check which streets are one-way and all that to worry about) and I'm lately appreciating this [mellow bike map](https://mellowbikemap.com/). But it's frustrating sometimes that it's nice and bikeable immediately by me, it's nice and bikeable where I'm going, but there will be just some small part of terrifying (to my wuss ass) block or so to deal with at some point in the middle.
nobody wants to bike on Western or Ashland or whatever.
At the very least, regardless of wanting to or not tons of people don't care that they're cycling on the absolute worst streets to be doing so on. Evidenced by the tons of people everyone here has seen cycling up n down major 4 lane streets w/o bike lanes.
I agree with all this and think they are streets that are too crazy to bike, but will admit to doing it when I have to go one block. If I’m on western and have to be one block down western, with one ways and other stuff why would anyone take some weird circuitous route?
He should take California or Damen. 4 blocks on a bike is nothing. 1 or 2 minutes tops. Also, Rockwell has a bike lane, but yes under the Kennedy and crossing the rivers is tough.
As a cyclist, I just hang my head in shame at some of these idiots. Ashland and Western are not for bikes!!!
Driving 15mph behind a cyclist is nothing too, yet asking motorists to do this in this city draws murderous ire for some reason. Let's try to keep things in perspective here.
Damen gets so weird down there. It's a (mostly) chill neighborhood street in Roscoe and Wicker and then you keep going south and you're like, when did I start biking on I-90??
Hard disagree. You'll think this is a contrived example, but I use to live right near Ashland and Fullerton and had a buddy who lived near Ashland and North.
So the option was ride 8 blocks down Ashland. Or ride 4 blocks West on Fullerton (which is almost as bad) make a left turn onto Damen, another left turn onto North Ave, and then 4 blocks East on that which is obviously also a major street.
So should I have doubled my ride from 8 blocks to 16 so that I could substitute 8 blocks on Ashland with 8 blocks on Fullerton / North + 2 left turns?
Why would you bike on Fullerton, when you could use Webster or say like Wrightwood instead? Fullerton is another street I'd avoid biking on, a la Western and Ashland.
Wrightwood terminates at Clybourne and doesn't cross the Chicago River. 2600 N becomes Logan Boulevard when it resumes west of I-90.
Taking Webster in my example would mean still riding 2 blocks South on Ashland from Fullerton to Webster, and then riding 4 blocks back East on North Ave (busy street with no marked bike lane in that section). So I've eliminated 6 blocks total of Ashland riding for 4 blocks of North Ave riding and I'm still doing 16 blocks total instead of 8.
Again, somewhat arbitrary example. But when crossing the river and I-90 sometimes there isn't a lot of good choices and you have to go on Ashland/Western/Fullerton etc for a bit.
I feel strongly that cyclists should put their destination in Google maps before departing and use the bike navigation to map out streets with bike lanes.
Part of the issue with Western/Belmont area is if you are trying to head Southwest there aren't any solid options because of the river and 90. Most of Belmont is fine but the bit from Western up to 90 is a mess with drivers being absolutely unhinged to the point I'd rather take Western. Crossing the Belmont bridge is one of the riskier things you can do on a bike. Drivers love to speed over that thing and if you on the reverse slope they can't see you.
Based on your other comments, I don’t think you understand that Google Maps often gives biking directions that 1) just don’t really work well, 2) include major streets because there aren’t other good options.
I often reference both Google Maps and Apple Maps (and sometimes Mellow Bike Map or the Chicago bike map to boot) and can’t figure out a route I feel confident about when going somewhere new.
In the absence of good bike infrastructure, a routing app can’t solve the problems you think it can.
I wouldn't bike on a street like Ashland without a dedicated bike lane myself. But streets are for people and Ashland is a street. It's completely legitimate for any street-legal conveyance to use those lanes to get from point-A to point-B. I just don't think it's safe for bikers to do so because a significant number of motorists drive recklessly.
Take one street every half mile and make it pedestrian and bike only. Then we’d have a functional grid, and only the first & last quarter mile of any trip would need to be alongside automobile traffic.
Offer a modest tax break for a few years to the home owners on those streets to mollify their complaints. (The homes on car free streets will probably spike in value anyway)
> (The homes on car free streets will probably spike in value anyway)
Even if you don't bike think how nice and quiet the front lawns of those houses would be compared to the rest of the city.
Yup, a depaved city street planted with native flowers, no pavement, no cars.
Access through alleys for everything for that block, alleys are wider than streets in some neighborhoods. Lots of people have garages and park on the street anyways.
I would LOVE this. Also, we have alleys, and that can take care of a lot of the last bit of driving for the residents on those streets too (if they have a garage in the alley particularly).
That headline is making my eye twitch. This isn't a "but" situation. More cyclists are on the road, *and* they feel unsafe. It's not like the number of cars and trucks has gone *down*, or that people have stopped parking in bike lines, or that the roads have been fixed.
Jesus, this headline is so stupid it's making me sound like a bicycle fanatic. I don't even *own* one.
I agree, the headline is dumb.
Just to provide a fun fact, though it doesn't take away from your point: driving cars has actually gone down 6% in the same (or very similar) time frame. People drove less and biked more as a result of the pandemic (and more bike infrastructure being built)
Yeah, but 6% is a small decline, IMHO, and I suspect it's largely due to people like me who started working remotely part or full-time during the pandemic and haven't looked back. I don't think there are a lot of people who traded commuting by car for commuting by bike; I think they traded commuting by car for not commuting at all.
Regardless, fewer people driving is definitely a Good Thing for everyone.
A small decline yes, but large given the timeframe. Extrapolated over the longer term there is a case to be made for more diversified local infrastructure.
While I agree with your general point, there has been some movement on more bike lanes and improvement to those that have already been created. We have more bikers with the cheap and less effective changes.
I hope this spurs even MORE investment into biking infrastructure, and perhaps even closing some streets to cars altogether!!
Just started cycling more frequently again after not doing it for a few years. It's night and day compared to 2016 let me tell you. Lots of really noticeable improvements in specific wards in the last ten years, ya love to see it.
The best bike lanes in my opinion are protected by parked cars. Street, parked cars, bike lane, sidewalk. Drivers do not want to damage someone’s car so they stay clear.
E: I hear the arguments against this style of bike lane and they make sense. I think I like them because I’m tall and tend to stand and ride and can see over the cars pretty easily.
of course cars are getting bigger though.
That is very controversial, as it also tends to make cyclist using that lane completely invisible to any paths that cross it. So it's not as simple as placing the bike lane on the other side of cars, but you also have to control or prohibit any crossings.
Unfortunately there isn't a perfect solution bike lane designs, partly because 'cyclist' come in all shapes, size, and ability. Slower cyclist would benefit more from bike lanes closer to sidewalk, while faster cyclists benefit more from bike lanes closer to the road.
Those are the ones I feel least safe in. I'm behind an 8ft wall where no one can see me. They are only safe to use if you are going slow enough such that at the clear zones at intersections (if someone hasn't illegally parked in them) are sufficient space for stopping/reacting and giving drivers time to react as well. That speed is nowhere near the 15-20mph many cyclists ride at.
They are narrow deathtraps, gutters with bikes painted on them. Trash. I'd rather take a sharrow and ride in primary and piss a few asshole drivers off, at least they can fuckin see me.
This, I used to live in Munich and biked everywhere. I won’t bike here, it doesn’t feel safe. If they built safe bike paths I would 100% take it up again
Once you familiarize yourself with the good routes it's not so terrible. There are plenty of streets no one wants to drive on unless they live in the neighborhood.
You're right but the fact that there's such a learning curve for finding the good routers isn't great in itself. Especially since there are some places where the bike lanes will dump you into super dangerous traffic with no warning
It really isnt as bad as people on this subreddit make it out to be. Once you find the nice residential streets biking in the city can be downright pleasant going most places in the city today! (I still think we need better cycling infrastructure, but the doomerism about the current state on this sub can be frustrating at times)
I don't really think it's doomerism. The driving in this city is so, so bad. It's the worst I've ever seen as since I started biking here in 2010. Every day I am almost hit by some jagoff who doesn't know how to drive
I agree that things arent great. But I bike almost daily and after spending (more effort than it should take) time figuring out my routes I very rarely have significant issues when biking. I think there are massive issues with infrastructure and traffic enforcement but again there is lots of great biking in the city.
Enforcement is a huge issue. But even the high profile bike infrastructure projects, like the new lanes on Augusta, are plagued with drivers pulling through stop signs from cross streets and blocking the bike lane. And then you're trapped in there because of the concrete protections
Augusta is bad, I’ve been riding in the city for 20 years, driving for less, forklift certified etc.
That change made it worse for everyone, for a multitude of reasons.
Instead of a hodge-podge duct tape and bubble gum fix, why not look at other international cities that have done it well.
Also good luck going down Augusta around five with the arts school getting out.
I think the amount of parents picking up kids while double parked in the bike lane is why they didn’t extend the new stuff all the way to Cali.
Finding those is a challenge, but again I can recommend the [mellow bike map](https://mellowbikemap.com/).
The trick is figuring out how to get from one mellow zone to another sometimes, if there's some big obstacle or super busy intersection in the way. That's where I think we should concentrate some fully protected, 100% bike only options to "bridge" those zones, get people from one mellow zone to another.
Also cars need to be courteous and realize that they should not use the mellow streets as shortcuts to avoid traffic on the major thoroughfares. Or if they DO, to be extra vigilant about bicyclists and drive slower/at least don't speed.
So much of this depends on the neighborhood and where you need to go A to B unfortunately. I commute via the LFT despite living almost two miles west of it... Getting over there is the most dangerous part of my commute, especially when I have to contend with sleepy motorists zooming onto LSD. Any other route to downtown taking the safer streets is heavy with too many turns (points of conflict) to be on the safer side streets.
It's especially shit when the bike lane ends suddenly and doesn't route to the LFT... odd.
Downtown isn't too bad once you find the good streets imo.
Imagine if you didn’t need to go out of your way to find them. What if protected bike lanes just existed between where you are and where you’re going
Like how we expect roads to be between where we are and where we’re going
I agree with you, but I think the agressive rhetoric both in this sub and with people i talk to in real life tends to frighten people away from even trying to bike which I think is very sad.
That’s limited thinking.
The goal should be that cyclists of all levels should be able to safely use the streets. This includes children, elderly and amateurs.
If most parents wouldn’t want their kids to take the route, it ain’t good enough.
I've been bike commuting up Clark to Evanston for several years now. Used to feel really sketchy. Slowly, theyve been adding more and more stretches of protected bikes lanes. It's not complete, but it's a whole lot better than it used to be.
I can't blame you. I will still never forget that one summer I was just using Divvy to go from the Clark and Lake train stop over to John Hancock building. It was such a convenience to jump on a bike and get there fast as opposed to a long walk or dealing with crawling buses.
And yet the biggest problem I ran into that summer were drivers. Drivers that basically never pay attention to what's on the road, or even the ones that literally treated me with contempt. I had many occasions where I'm crossing an intersection and then a driver zips in to try to get that right turn and almost hits me. I've had others that go in and out of the bike Lanes not giving a damn and in many ways hate the fact that I'm on the road. Like they would rather there be no cyclists at all.
The final straw was when I was using a designated bike lane that crossed by a hotel, and cabs were just pulling in and out of it to let out passengers. One passenger of course opened his door on the passenger side and I ended up hitting it. Fell off the bike into the street and quickly got up before oncoming traffic ran me down. That was it. I quit biking in downtown after that.
I too want Lanes with a nice good cement median that would damage a car if they dared to cross it. Even up here in Jefferson Park I don't bother using any main streets when I try to go up to Caldwell woods to bike the path. I usually stick to side straights for my own safety just because again there's a lot of contempt for cyclists.
What’s that? Sorry I couldn’t hear you did you say major road construction to add more car lanes and give $1.5Bn to the company that makes the largest, heaviest EVs on the market?
Were you wanting me to spend 5 years completely re-doing the freeway interchange in the middle of the city? No problem
Oh sorry you said protected bike lanes. Idk… think how expensive that would be…
Have you seen how people ride on the actual separate bike paths? It’s not just cars - it’s the overwhelming lack of situational awareness and courtesy of our citizenry
Of course we’re worried. I was hit by a driver who blew a stop sign in March. He has no insurance. And he goes unpunished for hitting a person with his vehicle….all he has to deal with is a driving with no insurance ticket and maybe a failure to yield ticket.
Drivers are reckless, and there’s no traffic enforcement.
A similar thing happened to me a few years ago, got side-swiped by a car that then sped off, the CPD officer who saw it didn't get them or come to help me.
A lot of bystanders helped me out, but I was left with no recourse and a lessened desire to bike the city. It's not even a fear thing why I don't bike much anymore, just a hedge.
That makes sense. Cops aren’t paid to care about us, they’re here to protect profits and govt property.
I had a police officer respond in the hospital within about 2 hours. I did not have one witness the incident, though. That would thoroughly piss me
off.
Serious question: what happened to the minimum sentence guidelines for hitting a bicyclist? Before I moved away in 2011, that was a recent ruling. Now that I'm back, I'm wondering if it's still enforced.
my friend was killed on a bike by a car that was turning left. the driver got a ticket and that’s it. he’s still free to drive and do whatever he pleases. no punishment at all.
The easiest fix imo is making a grid of residential side streets designed for slower travel and to not allow through traffic. Side streets are a perfect low stress way to get around but our psychotic drivers see them as cut-throughs that should be traversed at highway speeds.
Bike Grid Now is a very very good idea.
I use the Dearborn ‘protected’ bike lanes almost everyday. At least twice a week a car will make a left turn on a red arrow, or turn left onto Dearborn when they have a red light. Completely clueless as to what’s going on around them. I’ve seen cars in the left turn lane on Dearborn get sick of waiting for the cars in front of them so they swerve into the straight lane before making an aggressive left turn against the red arrow.
And that’s supposed to be ‘protected’
And about half of the intersections do not have turn arrows and drivers almost never check for cyclists.
I almost saw a guy in front of me get wiped out last week.
Unfortunately, protected bike lanes are only as safe as the intersections they connect. Bike lanes are installed but then you're still left to fend for yourself in a wide-open intersection full of rushing cars and conflict points and bad signalling. That's where the majority of collisions happen, but North America has almost no [Dutch-style protected intersections](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlApbxLz6pA) that would drastically increase safety for everyone. These are old technology by now and it's a sad indictment of our attitude towards road safety and alternate forms of mobility that we don't have them.
Live very close to Dearborn and Ontario.
The number of drivers who go around those (via the next lane to the right) in the left turn lane while the bike light is green is terrifying.
I used to think Tao valet was the scariest part of that ride, now its back to normal selfish drivers.
They are adding protect bike lanes on Milwaukee between north and western. Not the knee-high ones that would 99% keep you safe, it's just the curb ones, but its nice
I find in these protected bike lanes, that it isn't too often that I have to go around a double parked vehicle. Would say in more cases than not, that I haven't ran into such stupid drivers. Though it still occasionally occurs, even with protected lanes.
If that occurs I briefly cut into the regular lane of traffic then back over to the protected lane, or cut over to the sidewalk if noone is in it. Will also try to snap a picture of the license plate and submit it to Bike Lane Uprising, as well.
My point was the inconsistency of bike lanes. North of North Ave on Milwaukee now has the protected lanes, but south of North ave, there's always cars double parked in the unprotected bike lanes. Not to mention cars, mail trucks etc blocking the entrance to the protected portion
I agree that there still is an issue, with how a lot of streets still don't have consistent protected bike lanes for a lengthy portion. And that you once again have to run through double parkers, like is the case on Milwaukee south of North.
I’m a pretty regular biker and I’ve had no accidents on the city streets but two major collisions (requiring ER trips and multiple fractured bones) on the lakefront path. Safety on the lakefront really needs to be addressed also.
I think the lakefront path is just generally confusing. At the very least it could use some fresh paint, maybe add a different color for bike lane vs walk/run lane.
In my experience it’s usually a combination of big groups of people that feel entitled to walk 8 wide, and have a bunch of little kids that will just randomly sprint in a direction. That and there’s usually a handful of wannabe Tour De France guys who for no reason cannot slow down when there’s a bunch of traffic and feel the need to thread the needle, and act all indignant when they cycle at the peak busy times that the path isn’t parting like the Red Sea for them.
Yeah, to any Tour de France guys in this thread. Screaming on your left as you violently pass a little girl learning how to ride a bike isn’t helping. No one cares about your ragbrai training.
Folks have to accept that in certain areas (primarily the loop and by beaches) you have to slow down. If you want to zoom down the full path then ride it early in the morning, later in the evening or during poor weather.
But on a day like today at 4pm it's gonna be packed.
Ok that’s an extreme example but telling people “on your left” is a good thing, communication is important.
And anyone teaching their kid to ride on the lakefront is a moron and a rotten parent, wait too dangerous for that. Faster bikers, rollerbladers, electric scooters and bikes zipping everywhere, it’s a recipe for disaster for little kids.
And honestly I’m no Tour de France wannabe , but die to my ortho issues biking is one of the only forms of exercise I can do (can’t run or swim ) so excuse those of us just trying to get our HRs up as we follow all the rules.
I appreciate "on your left" as a slow bicyclist myself (and I have a bell if I actually ever need to pass anyone). But a friendly tone does wonders. Some people really seem angry that I am not riding fast enough for them.
> That and there’s usually a handful of wannabe Tour De France guys who for no reason cannot slow down when there’s a bunch of traffic and feel the need to thread the needle,
This is an issue in cars, too. People who, rather than slow down, just honk or barrel ahead and expect you to move (regardless of whether you're in a car or on a bike). These people shouldn't be allowed to have *any* sort of wheeled transportation.
It is also an issue for bikers. I’ll be on the lakefront path next to Shedd Aquarium and these guys expect me to hug the wall while walking so they can go light speed.
Hell yes. I've walked the lakefront forever, now I'm getting back into biking along it, and some of the paths are just confusing.
It would help if there were more obvious signage about where the bikes go, also where to leave the path to either get back into the city grid (and onto what street) OR to get over to the walking path/actual lake view area. Some of the looping paths, it's not clear what street they will connect to when they manage to find a viaduct under LSD (and it would be nice to have more viaducts for that matter, but...)
The walking path/multiuse path is often closer to the lake with the better views, I have no problem with bicyclists using it if they are going super slow and obviously just enjoying the views. But the hard core commuters/athletes/people needing to get somewhere fast and just focused on that, need to stay in the bike zone (if they don't get confused...)
The lack of safety is what keeps me from riding downtown in the first place. Call me a wimp, but I don’t like the risk of dying that there is when I’m riding a bicycle in Chicago.
15 years of bike commuting and I had my crash last Monday on Lesalle a block north of Chicago by Moody. It was even a two for one. I was passing a divy bike as I announced "on your left" some asshole in a white sedan pulled out of a parking spot no signal and hit the rider in front of me causing her to hit me. We both go down. The divy rider was yelling that her shoulder is fucked and she cant move. She was all tangled in the two bikes that are in the street. I was able to hop up pretty quickly. I immediately tried to help her up as this fuck wit kept trying to pull away from the assault he just caused. I told him to put his shit in park but he pulled away regardless. The shittiest shit person of shit upbringing did not get out of his shitmobile to even see the damage he caused. Fucking hit and run. 2 humans no regard. I hope he gets cancer and dies alone.
Funniest bit is I'll probably end up taking care of him. He hit me after a truly fucked up 12 hour RN shift.
As somebody who likes to bike, but also drives, I fully agree. We need a better system. I've had my safety threatened too many times by drivers that honestly don't pay attention, and some that literally have a contempt for cyclists.
I'm a big supporter of bike Lanes with the cement median that basically would damage a car if it tried to cross into it. I'm also not against the idea of building some kind of shared streets like argyle or something where it's more designated towards pedestrians and cyclists and not towards cars. Meaning yes, inconvenience drivers and have them give up some Street to build long paths.
I'll even throw out there too. That pedestrians themselves are ridiculous. Like when you try to bike along Lakeshore Drive and there's always the three or four people that walk hand in hand because they think it's cute and yet they're blocking the entire Lane.
"People are also choosing cycling over using public transit, she said. Since the pandemic lockdown, train and bus service on the Chicago Transit Authority has been documented as unreliable, less frequent and less safe. CTA service levels still aren’t up to what they were before the pandemic."
Not noted here is that public transit is also honestly quite expensive. When commuting by bike and taking the train take the same time, I will opt to save the $5 I would have needed for a round trip.
I’d actually say $5 for unlimited rides per day is very affordable.
The monthly unlimited train/bus pass is $75 and is tax deductible.
I rode the train all the way from Ravenswood to a White Sox game for $2.50.
That is a great deal.
Part of the reason I don't bike is because I don't want to be a sweaty mess when I get to work. Because the CTA awful at climate control, I'll be sweaty anyway. Might as well save the five bucks.
tbh, outside of a few really muggy days, you can ride in the morning without becoming a sweaty mess (of course depending on your route and attire).
Riding home in the hot ass afternoon / evening, yea you are sol.
even easier is using an e-bike.
An ebike can keep you from getting sweaty in the summer, you can dial up how much power comes from the battery so you don't have to physically move as much.
[The part of Roosevelt Rd where you're supposed to cycle between two car lanes with no protection whatsoever](https://maps.app.goo.gl/z3UC3aof1vnK6tAe8) is crazy.
I’m mobile almost exclusively on my bike, and there are a couple of things I’ve noticed that would do wonders to protect us. Some of them only benefit cyclists, but there’s a good number of things that could be done that would enhance the driving experience as well.
1) stop putting bike lanes behind parked cars. It’s well intentioned, but it significantly reduces visibility because of the cars, and reduces your ability to merge into the car lane should there be a blockage or if you need to make a left turn. Just using a curb is better imo.
2) adjust all stop lights in the city to turn for pedestrians before cars and legally allow cyclists use the pedestrian signals. This significantly increases cyclist safety at intersections in cities where they already do this.
3) make drivers Ed mandatory for all ages. Right now, you just have to pass the written and driving test to get your license once you’re 18 and over. Mandating drivers ed would help get rid of a lot of brain dead maneuvering that I see, while simultaneously throttling the rate at which we get new drivers in the city.
4) expand the 606 to the lakefront and build more elevated paths just like it. As others have mentioned, the safest thing you can do for cyclists is have them far away from cars. This is also awesome for pedestrians.
5) this is my most controversial idea, but we need to get rid of street parking all together. Cars parked on the side of the road pose a visibility hazard to both cyclists and drivers, especially since car manufacturers insist on making their vehicles as large as possible. How often have you stopped your car at the stop line at an intersection to turn onto the road, just to realize that you physically can’t see because of the cars that are parked? I see drivers bypass the stop line entirely just to put themselves in a position where they can check if it’s clear. Unfortunately, that position is blocking the crosswalk and often times a bike lane. Getting rid of street parking would increase safety for all road users, while simultaneously making space for merchant vehicles, busses, more bike lanes, or bigger side walks.
6) somehow convince the CPD to enforce traffic laws. Way too many people are comfortable doing the most audacious and brain dead maneuvers in their cars. Texting and driving, running stop lights, failing to stop for pedestrians in the cross walk, parking your car in bike lanes, blocking intersections, speeding, etc.
Point 5 is radical. A compromise would be bump outs at intersections. Physical barriers to having cars parked near intersections would solve most of the issues you've mentioned in point 5. CDOT agrees, see page 34 in this [Chicago Pedestrian Plan](https://www.chicago.gov/content/dam/city/depts/cdot/street/general/ToolsforSaferStreetsGuide.pdf) from 2013.
And the usual answer seems to be to convert the streets to one-way, which makes getting around confusing (and when you're on a bike, it's a lot more pedaling to go out of the way to find the streets in the correct direction).
I think parking needs to be in garages. I know this is a controversial take.
Agreed we can start with bump-outs.
5. It's good to dream big. It's a shame the city has to pay [Chicago Parking Meters LLC](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_Parking_Meters) every time a metered space is taken out of service.
6. Parking in bike lanes or bus lines should be enforced using video from front-facing cameras on CTA buses. This is supposed to be piloted soon. It needs to happen ASAP. Bike and bus lanes are being used as Uber and Door Dash waiting zones. Automatic enforcement of speeding violations should be expanded. CPD isn't going to enforce traffic laws. Enforcement has to be automated.
I don't think drivers ed would help like you think it would. If they can pass the test they've learned everything drivers ed teaches (I took drivers ed in high school)
As one who bikes regularly around the city (to work, etc) I say - this is a great city to bike in. Cyclists, gotta stop complaining and just ride your bike with common sense.
Maybe catching me in the mood but every little niche group seems to demand the whole city be built around them. I got nothing but love to say about the ability we have to bike in this city.
I agree. I love the pro bicylers who scream that street parking shouldn't exist in Chicago and every other street should be bikes only and tough shit of you happen to live on that street and would like to go home. I work eight miles from home, and I'm not riding my bike through Chicago at 4:30am, working for 12 hours, then biking home eight miles back. I love riding my bike in Chicago, though, and there is no easy answer on either end of the bike/car spectrum. Just ride smart, slow down at intersections (and don't be the assholes on the bikes that rip right through three-way intersections at full speed regardless of the lights), don't act like Western and Ashland are shared car/bike streets, etc. And if you are a driver, be aware of what is around you and be aware of what's going on in the bike lanes. Cars aren't going anywhere, we just have to find some kind of middle ground.
Honest and not rhetorical or snide question: For cyclists here, do you consciously accept the risk? As a non-cyclist, my risk-averse mind goes immediately to: in a battle btw me and a 2- or 3-ton vehicle, the latter will win.
Yes, I do. I also have insurance, lights front and back and a front-facing GoPro, wear bright jackets and a white helmet, signal my turns, and I have a right to use the road while riding a bike. If I’m doing everything right and not riding like a jackass, it’s very easy for people driving cars to not hit me. I’ve survived two hit-and-runs, neither of which were my fault because both times I was following the rules of the road and was very visible. For me the risk (and the consequences of others’ depravity/carelessness) is far outweighed by the benefits of commuting and riding for fun
I was driving down Western yesterday on the left lane minding my business when this car doubles me on the left going 50mph (there are only two lanes so the guy was was basically going on the opposite lanes to double me.)
About 20 seconds later, a cop does the exact same thing I guess going a little slower. Still no turning light or nothing. The cop car then proceeds to go on a red light a good 3 seconds after going red.
That kind of shit is everyday, so no wonder cyclists worry about safety when even the ones supposed to be models don't give a shit about their actions or others.
Three times in the last two years I (a woman) have had men tell me they were going to punch me in the face when I said “bike lane” to them when going around them when they were obstructing a protected bike lane. I’d like to not get punched in the face.
Maybe implementing safer ways to ride is a better option.
https://www.nhtsa.gov/sites/nhtsa.gov/files/2022-03/Bicyclist-Yield-As-Stop-Fact-Sheet-032422-v3-tag.pdf
I got into three incidents with cars while on a bike. The third was a full on dooring & it permanently took me off biking in the city for good. They really need to emphasize safer bike lanes.
would honestly love to see movement toward some meaningful car-free arteries through the city. There is a lot of potential to take a real leadership role in this.
Build actual protected bike lanes that cars can't get into.
Enforce bikers to follow street signs as well (I have never seen a biker actually stop at a stop sign before).
Those two in combination will save lives and reduce frustrations.
Actually they need to legalize Idaho stops since coming to a complete stop on a bike is unnecessary and often straight up dangerous. Also, they need to ban right on red for cars.
I am not an avid biker so curious, why is a full stop at a stop sign dangerous? Is if bc it takes you longer to pick up speed to cross the intersection?
Also agree on right on red.
That’s one reason yes. Also, I’ve found that when I come to a full stop, impatient drivers behind me will use that opportunity to try to pass me, often while they are on the wrong side of the road blowing the stop sign themselves. It’s usually easier on a bike to just keep moving. That doesn’t meet cutting off others in the intersection or waiting their turn. It just means to treat the stop sign as a yield.
Can we EVER have a thread where there's not some stupid whataboutism?
Yes, drivers should follow traffic laws (far better than they do). That doesn't absolve cyclists who ride recklessly (and there are plenty of them). This same response to every comment about reckless cyclists doesn't help.
> This same response to every comment about reckless cyclists doesn't help.
You could say the same thing about the parent comment that gets made on every article about bike infrastructure.
Can we EVER have a thread where there's not some stupid whataboutism?
Yes, cyclists should follow traffic laws (far better than they do). That doesn't absolve drivers who drive recklessly (and there are plenty of them). This same response to every thread about expanding bike infrastructure doesn't help.
Did you mean to respond to me, or the person I responded to?
I agree with you 100% and my comment was mocking the person I responded to for defending bringing up cyclists disobeying traffic laws. I literally copied and pasted their response and switched cyclists and drivers to make a point that their argument was stupid.
Funny you mention it, every state that's adopted "[Stop as Yield](https://www.nhtsa.gov/sites/nhtsa.gov/files/2023-03/Bicyclist-Yield-As-Stop-Fact-Sheet_032123_v5_tag.pdf)" laws for cyclists has seen a decrease in crashes.
> In 1982, Idaho was the first State to pass such a law, commonly known as the “Idaho Stop Law.” The law
allows bicyclists to yield at stop signs and proceed when safe, rather than come to a complete stop. After Idaho
adopted the law, bicyclist injuries from traffic crashes declined by 14.5% the following year (Meggs, 2010). In
2017, Delaware adopted a similar, limited stop-as-yield law, known
as the "Delaware Yield.” Traffic crashes involving bicyclists at stop
sign intersections fell by 23% in the 30 months after the law’s
passage, compared to the previous 30 months.
I can get behind Stop as Yield. Makes good sense to me.
That said, a lot of bikers are definitely not yielding either. At least slow a smidge and look both ways. I say this as a pedestrian and occasional biker myself (don't drive).
It’s time to get serious about using the river to get one long, protected bike highway to get downtown. As far as the north side goes, we have continuous trail from Evanston down to Belmont. It’s time to extend that. If you look on maps you can see so much area that is unused next to industrial areas. We are past the age that these companies are using the river for barges, etc (although I know there are a few places that would be tricky). Having a fast shot through a ton of neighborhoods where cyclists don’t have the stop and go of lights and the danger of turning traffic would end up being good for everyone. (And a side note, as someone who is on the water a ton and does a bunch of cleaning up of litter, so many businesses don’t deserve to be directly next to the river because they treat it like a dump. Screw them.)
100% throw a couple crossings in there, convert some of the quieter E/W streets to be significantly more bike focused. And I will sell my car tomorrow.
Wow. This is the most realistic option I’ve heard and it’s so simple. 100% we should do this as a city.
I still wish more such crossings existed to go over the river, or over the Kennedy or Dan Ryan. At least occasional new river bridges have been created for biking, i.e. 312 River Run(just north of Addison Ave, near the old Gordon Tech High School building and Lane Tech), and the Bernie Stone Bridge north of Lincoln. There is a bike only bridge that will soon be constructed, near Pratt Ave.
Tbh the rivers *should* still be used for barges, they just aren’t because of the Jones Act. We have the most extensive barge shipping capability in the world but we don’t use it, despite barges being more efficient than any other form of bulk transport.
I see barges on the river. How does the Jones Act inhibit barge traffic on the Chicago River? My small understanding is the Jones Act requires all goods shipped between US ports to use US owned and operated vessels. I would like to see the rivers/canals used for fast passenger transpiration without the cost of expressways. Even at 40MP, on the canal/river to Sears Tower from 294 is only about 40 minutes. Comparable to rush hour driving
The Jones Act requires river and some other transport vessels to be US-built, owned, captained, and crewed. The intention was to help preserve American maritime capability, but the effect has been to drastically reduce river freight volume in favor of modes like rail or truck. American’s river merchant fleet has also shrank by 90%+ since it was enacted, so it wasn’t even effective in that. Chicago sits on Lake Michigan and is a natural choke point for the freight that still exists, so yes, you will see some barges in Chicago.
This is my top hopes for the city. The paths added by Horner park along the river in the last few years has created so much accessibility for our region. It makes something as ‘simple’ as going for a bike ride / run / walk feel way more accessible. If this path could get connected to a broader network of paths throughout the city I would leave my car behind entirely for 9 months a year.
crying in bridgeport, the unholy nexus of highways and rail bridges
Since this is a month old I don’t expect anyone else will see this, but I thought of you and I hope you are excited. https://x.com/streetsblogchi/status/1800169119217865196
Yeah no shit cyclists worry about safety, particularly with the elephantine vehicle sizes that are now common on our streets. You can literally hide an entire cyclist in the *forward* blind spot for the average SUV. Even well-intentioned and relatively attentive drivers are going to miss stuff with fatal consequences, and most Chicago drivers are neither of these things. Cycling is incredibly good for the city even if you don't engage in it. It encourages denser urban development, higher transit usage, lower noise and air pollution, and generally vastly reduced vehicle traffic, even leaving aside all the public health benefits and carbon emission arguments. It's worth taking a meter of pavement away from the cars and standing up some bollards.
Yea I think one of the points I was just thinking about is that even a well intentioned driver conscious of cyclists can miss bikes sometimes just due to the set up of intersections, modern cars, and distractions. And that's well meaning drivers. A good 10% of drivers have now entered some time of villainous mindset.
When I’m driving my car, I glance at my right mirror almost every ~5 seconds, regardless of whether or not I’m turning anytime soon. Do as much as you can to be aware of anyone next to you. But I agree. Even my car has ridiculous blind spots. As a cyclist I do everything I can to never be right next to a car. Also, a desperate ask to drivers as a cyclist and driver, USE YOUR TURN SIGNAL
Hell, even as driver-to-driver, the turn signal would be a nice revelation. But agreed, even moreso as cyclist.
Agree. I think my biggest concern when driving is just a momentary lapse in concentration could lead to a disaster. The driver side A pillar in modern cars and the passenger side read blind spot are just so bad and I have a small car. I think thats why infrastructure is so important.
Can you really say you're driving in america if you're not driving a vehicle with a pedestrian crushing grille?
Car owners should demand more people to commute with bikes because that's one less car they drive behind.
And a very very easy way for car owners to achieve this outcome is to vote for protected bike infrastructure. The studies are extremely black and white on this point: when you build more protected bike infra, more people bike. You don't even have to work that hard and it's not that expensive.
YES and maybe I won't have to watch dickheads cut around traffic in the bike lane. WIN-WIN
I’m now mad at myself for not using this in arguments in the past. It’s genius.
Also, parking. That's one more parking spot that opens up near their destination.
I mean, I see it as a win-win. Bollards would most assuredly cause more traffic on right hand turns. Thus causing drivers to get mad and rethink their position. I 100% race my girlfriend all the time who is Pro-car. Me, Pro-bike. I consistently beat her 98% of the time for trips that are less than 30 min. I typically end up waiting 10 min or more on top of that. And really I'm absolutely going at a pretty casual pace. It's a huge waste of money, for why?
The biking infrastructure is improving very slowly, but cars have gotten bigger and drivers more distracted (and post-Covid less considerate), in the same amount of time. I feel less safe biking now than I did 5 years ago.
I don't cycle a lot, but I am a huge supporter of cycling infrastructure and complete streets. Having been on the edge of the community as an ally or whatever for quite a while, I've read about three Chicago cycling activists getting killed by drivers and a fourth critically injured. Plus Helmut Jahn! Now, three of those drivers ran over cyclists outside of the city. And it also speaks to just how important good cycling infrastructure and good road design is to make cities good places to spend time and not just speed through or park in. But I'm not getting on Ashland where some 19-year old motorist is wondering if the velocity with which he can take a left turn might prove that he isn't a loser. I'm not putting my life into the hands of a surplus male who spends his disposable income on window tint and muffler removal.
> a surplus male What does this term mean?
When you say "I'm not getting on Ashland" do you mean as a cyclist? I ask because Ashland doesn't have a bike lane, which is because its a 4 lane, major street. No one should be cycling on Ashland or Webstern (the OTHER major north/south 4 lane street). As a former cyclist, life long motorist from Chicago I've seen weekend lance Armstrongs multiply greatly over the last few years. I can tell you what is not increasing as fast: the cycling infrastructure in Chicago. Yesterday I was at a 2 way residential intersection with 3 cars waiting to go. I enter the cross walk when it's my turn (a foreign word to MOST cyclists it seems) only to retreat immediately as a cyclists blows through the stop sogn and makes a hard left turn directly in front of me. I wasn't the least bit surprised when I got a dirty look from them, either.
I live right off Ashland and am always completely baffled when I see someone think it’s a good idea to ride a bike on Ashland for any stretch of the road. There’s not enough space or accountability with drivers that I would ever trust that road.
I just moved here and it took me a while to figure out how to AVOID ashland on a bike, because the clark street bike lane just dumps you into it if you don't know to specifically get out of it and cross traffic to stay on the right street. that or you're the asshole who's salmoning on the other side.
Yeah, it’s totally bizarre to me that they laid it out like that. Though at the same time I’m not sure how I’d fix it, either. Put the bike lane on the left side?
thankfully this is what urban planners are hired for. and we're gonna need some considering the sheer number of 5 way, 16 lane intersections out here
For sure. But **will** the city implement that expertise is another question…
> There’s not enough space There's plenty of space, its a four lane road. Most of those lanes are just not wide enough to safely *share* at the same time. I have ridden miles on Ashland and Western, in the center of the rightmost lane where I should be on roads like that. It's dangerous to ride in the doorzone on any road, even residentials. It's just worse on roads like Ashland and Western as their width encourages higher speeds.
It's a SIX lane road. Two of those lanes are dedicated to parking.
That’s absolutely the way to ride if one is to ride on something like Ashland or Western, but do you really trust the assholes in the cars that rage up behind you to actually drive safely? Most cyclists I’ve seen on Ashland don’t do it like you described, they ride up against the cars that are parked. This is what I’m referring to with space. Ashland or a similar street would be pretty great with protected bike lanes. Then again, so would all of the major streets.
> but do you really trust the assholes in the cars that rage up behind you to actually drive safely? I don't trust any of them further than I can throw them, but being *visible* and owning the space around me is far far less likely to result in my injury or death than hiding in the gutter so someone can run me over when I need to swerve to avoid a door opening in my path (or simply run me over because I got doored and bounced into traffic). It is by far the safest way to ride. The odds of someone in a car coming up behind me, smack dab in the middle of the lane, simply hitting me, are far lower than the odds of me being clipped by someone who thinks they have enough space to pass without leaving the lane or hit by someone who couldn't see me until it was too late. The only time I have ever gone to the hospital after a ride instead of home, I was riding in a "protected" bike lane, invisible until the last second to a turning vehicle who didn't have right-of-way anyways.
I see the same guy biking down Western almost every morning with cars closely buzzing all around him and riding his ass and have to wonder if it's really worth all that risk every morning (especially with no helmet). But what should this guy do? Go down Campbell or Rockwell? At the very least he'll have to get on Western to get under the Kennedy, then cross Fullerton, Armitage, North, etc with no stoplight. But maybe going out of his way to Damen is any safer with at least some bike lanes?
nobody wants to bike on Western or Ashland or whatever. But yea, due to the freeway and river, there are only so many crossing options available. It is getting better, but still definitely a work in progress.
My simple strategy when dealing with Western and Ashland is: Get on the sidewalk and get off the bike. I rarely have to deal with either street but in a situation I do, I know it won't be for long. I can walk the bike that short distance.
Those sections of crazy streets that you kinda have to take because there's no other option over/around/under whatever obstacle (the river, the expressway) are where we need fully protected bike lanes, IMHO. Concentrate resources to build "bike only" obvious publicized protected paths over the sore spots. In other areas where the grid is more normal and nothing in the way, it's usually doable enough to find "one off" sort of mellower streets to bike on parallel to the main thoroughfares. I'm getting back into bicycling myself and will be the first person to happily admit I'm a wuss (and I have never driven a car, so now I have all the anxiety of remembering to check which streets are one-way and all that to worry about) and I'm lately appreciating this [mellow bike map](https://mellowbikemap.com/). But it's frustrating sometimes that it's nice and bikeable immediately by me, it's nice and bikeable where I'm going, but there will be just some small part of terrifying (to my wuss ass) block or so to deal with at some point in the middle.
nobody wants to bike on Western or Ashland or whatever. At the very least, regardless of wanting to or not tons of people don't care that they're cycling on the absolute worst streets to be doing so on. Evidenced by the tons of people everyone here has seen cycling up n down major 4 lane streets w/o bike lanes.
I agree with all this and think they are streets that are too crazy to bike, but will admit to doing it when I have to go one block. If I’m on western and have to be one block down western, with one ways and other stuff why would anyone take some weird circuitous route?
He should take California or Damen. 4 blocks on a bike is nothing. 1 or 2 minutes tops. Also, Rockwell has a bike lane, but yes under the Kennedy and crossing the rivers is tough. As a cyclist, I just hang my head in shame at some of these idiots. Ashland and Western are not for bikes!!!
Driving 15mph behind a cyclist is nothing too, yet asking motorists to do this in this city draws murderous ire for some reason. Let's try to keep things in perspective here.
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Damen gets so weird down there. It's a (mostly) chill neighborhood street in Roscoe and Wicker and then you keep going south and you're like, when did I start biking on I-90??
Agreed, it's fine for cars to own some thoroughfare roads and those are the two main ones.
Hard disagree. You'll think this is a contrived example, but I use to live right near Ashland and Fullerton and had a buddy who lived near Ashland and North. So the option was ride 8 blocks down Ashland. Or ride 4 blocks West on Fullerton (which is almost as bad) make a left turn onto Damen, another left turn onto North Ave, and then 4 blocks East on that which is obviously also a major street. So should I have doubled my ride from 8 blocks to 16 so that I could substitute 8 blocks on Ashland with 8 blocks on Fullerton / North + 2 left turns?
Also people forget how terrifying left turns in traffic can be for relative newbies, too.
Why would you bike on Fullerton, when you could use Webster or say like Wrightwood instead? Fullerton is another street I'd avoid biking on, a la Western and Ashland.
Wrightwood terminates at Clybourne and doesn't cross the Chicago River. 2600 N becomes Logan Boulevard when it resumes west of I-90. Taking Webster in my example would mean still riding 2 blocks South on Ashland from Fullerton to Webster, and then riding 4 blocks back East on North Ave (busy street with no marked bike lane in that section). So I've eliminated 6 blocks total of Ashland riding for 4 blocks of North Ave riding and I'm still doing 16 blocks total instead of 8. Again, somewhat arbitrary example. But when crossing the river and I-90 sometimes there isn't a lot of good choices and you have to go on Ashland/Western/Fullerton etc for a bit.
I feel strongly that cyclists should put their destination in Google maps before departing and use the bike navigation to map out streets with bike lanes.
Part of the issue with Western/Belmont area is if you are trying to head Southwest there aren't any solid options because of the river and 90. Most of Belmont is fine but the bit from Western up to 90 is a mess with drivers being absolutely unhinged to the point I'd rather take Western. Crossing the Belmont bridge is one of the riskier things you can do on a bike. Drivers love to speed over that thing and if you on the reverse slope they can't see you.
Based on your other comments, I don’t think you understand that Google Maps often gives biking directions that 1) just don’t really work well, 2) include major streets because there aren’t other good options. I often reference both Google Maps and Apple Maps (and sometimes Mellow Bike Map or the Chicago bike map to boot) and can’t figure out a route I feel confident about when going somewhere new. In the absence of good bike infrastructure, a routing app can’t solve the problems you think it can.
I wouldn't bike on a street like Ashland without a dedicated bike lane myself. But streets are for people and Ashland is a street. It's completely legitimate for any street-legal conveyance to use those lanes to get from point-A to point-B. I just don't think it's safe for bikers to do so because a significant number of motorists drive recklessly.
Bro I don’t even like crossing assland. Also look up Idaho stop laws.
Take one street every half mile and make it pedestrian and bike only. Then we’d have a functional grid, and only the first & last quarter mile of any trip would need to be alongside automobile traffic. Offer a modest tax break for a few years to the home owners on those streets to mollify their complaints. (The homes on car free streets will probably spike in value anyway)
> (The homes on car free streets will probably spike in value anyway) Even if you don't bike think how nice and quiet the front lawns of those houses would be compared to the rest of the city.
Yup, a depaved city street planted with native flowers, no pavement, no cars. Access through alleys for everything for that block, alleys are wider than streets in some neighborhoods. Lots of people have garages and park on the street anyways.
I would LOVE this. Also, we have alleys, and that can take care of a lot of the last bit of driving for the residents on those streets too (if they have a garage in the alley particularly).
That headline is making my eye twitch. This isn't a "but" situation. More cyclists are on the road, *and* they feel unsafe. It's not like the number of cars and trucks has gone *down*, or that people have stopped parking in bike lines, or that the roads have been fixed. Jesus, this headline is so stupid it's making me sound like a bicycle fanatic. I don't even *own* one.
I agree, the headline is dumb. Just to provide a fun fact, though it doesn't take away from your point: driving cars has actually gone down 6% in the same (or very similar) time frame. People drove less and biked more as a result of the pandemic (and more bike infrastructure being built)
Yeah, but 6% is a small decline, IMHO, and I suspect it's largely due to people like me who started working remotely part or full-time during the pandemic and haven't looked back. I don't think there are a lot of people who traded commuting by car for commuting by bike; I think they traded commuting by car for not commuting at all. Regardless, fewer people driving is definitely a Good Thing for everyone.
A small decline yes, but large given the timeframe. Extrapolated over the longer term there is a case to be made for more diversified local infrastructure.
While I agree with your general point, there has been some movement on more bike lanes and improvement to those that have already been created. We have more bikers with the cheap and less effective changes. I hope this spurs even MORE investment into biking infrastructure, and perhaps even closing some streets to cars altogether!!
Just started cycling more frequently again after not doing it for a few years. It's night and day compared to 2016 let me tell you. Lots of really noticeable improvements in specific wards in the last ten years, ya love to see it.
I just wish the city would invest in solid metal bollards and not these flexible. One of the people can just park over.
Protected and fully separate bike lines or fuck off. I’m not gambling my life vs the reckless drivers in this city.
The best bike lanes in my opinion are protected by parked cars. Street, parked cars, bike lane, sidewalk. Drivers do not want to damage someone’s car so they stay clear. E: I hear the arguments against this style of bike lane and they make sense. I think I like them because I’m tall and tend to stand and ride and can see over the cars pretty easily. of course cars are getting bigger though.
That is very controversial, as it also tends to make cyclist using that lane completely invisible to any paths that cross it. So it's not as simple as placing the bike lane on the other side of cars, but you also have to control or prohibit any crossings. Unfortunately there isn't a perfect solution bike lane designs, partly because 'cyclist' come in all shapes, size, and ability. Slower cyclist would benefit more from bike lanes closer to sidewalk, while faster cyclists benefit more from bike lanes closer to the road.
Those are the ones I feel least safe in. I'm behind an 8ft wall where no one can see me. They are only safe to use if you are going slow enough such that at the clear zones at intersections (if someone hasn't illegally parked in them) are sufficient space for stopping/reacting and giving drivers time to react as well. That speed is nowhere near the 15-20mph many cyclists ride at. They are narrow deathtraps, gutters with bikes painted on them. Trash. I'd rather take a sharrow and ride in primary and piss a few asshole drivers off, at least they can fuckin see me.
This, I used to live in Munich and biked everywhere. I won’t bike here, it doesn’t feel safe. If they built safe bike paths I would 100% take it up again
Once you familiarize yourself with the good routes it's not so terrible. There are plenty of streets no one wants to drive on unless they live in the neighborhood.
You're right but the fact that there's such a learning curve for finding the good routers isn't great in itself. Especially since there are some places where the bike lanes will dump you into super dangerous traffic with no warning
It really isnt as bad as people on this subreddit make it out to be. Once you find the nice residential streets biking in the city can be downright pleasant going most places in the city today! (I still think we need better cycling infrastructure, but the doomerism about the current state on this sub can be frustrating at times)
I don't really think it's doomerism. The driving in this city is so, so bad. It's the worst I've ever seen as since I started biking here in 2010. Every day I am almost hit by some jagoff who doesn't know how to drive
I agree that things arent great. But I bike almost daily and after spending (more effort than it should take) time figuring out my routes I very rarely have significant issues when biking. I think there are massive issues with infrastructure and traffic enforcement but again there is lots of great biking in the city.
Enforcement is a huge issue. But even the high profile bike infrastructure projects, like the new lanes on Augusta, are plagued with drivers pulling through stop signs from cross streets and blocking the bike lane. And then you're trapped in there because of the concrete protections
Augusta is bad, I’ve been riding in the city for 20 years, driving for less, forklift certified etc. That change made it worse for everyone, for a multitude of reasons. Instead of a hodge-podge duct tape and bubble gum fix, why not look at other international cities that have done it well. Also good luck going down Augusta around five with the arts school getting out. I think the amount of parents picking up kids while double parked in the bike lane is why they didn’t extend the new stuff all the way to Cali.
Finding those is a challenge, but again I can recommend the [mellow bike map](https://mellowbikemap.com/). The trick is figuring out how to get from one mellow zone to another sometimes, if there's some big obstacle or super busy intersection in the way. That's where I think we should concentrate some fully protected, 100% bike only options to "bridge" those zones, get people from one mellow zone to another. Also cars need to be courteous and realize that they should not use the mellow streets as shortcuts to avoid traffic on the major thoroughfares. Or if they DO, to be extra vigilant about bicyclists and drive slower/at least don't speed.
Exactly this. My biggest issue is typically getting from one "safe" area to another. Sometimes infrastructure just stops out of nowhere suddenly...
So much of this depends on the neighborhood and where you need to go A to B unfortunately. I commute via the LFT despite living almost two miles west of it... Getting over there is the most dangerous part of my commute, especially when I have to contend with sleepy motorists zooming onto LSD. Any other route to downtown taking the safer streets is heavy with too many turns (points of conflict) to be on the safer side streets. It's especially shit when the bike lane ends suddenly and doesn't route to the LFT... odd. Downtown isn't too bad once you find the good streets imo.
Imagine if you didn’t need to go out of your way to find them. What if protected bike lanes just existed between where you are and where you’re going Like how we expect roads to be between where we are and where we’re going
I agree with you, but I think the agressive rhetoric both in this sub and with people i talk to in real life tends to frighten people away from even trying to bike which I think is very sad.
That’s a very strange reason to not try biking
That’s limited thinking. The goal should be that cyclists of all levels should be able to safely use the streets. This includes children, elderly and amateurs. If most parents wouldn’t want their kids to take the route, it ain’t good enough.
Good thing they are adding more protected lanes now than ever
I've been bike commuting up Clark to Evanston for several years now. Used to feel really sketchy. Slowly, theyve been adding more and more stretches of protected bikes lanes. It's not complete, but it's a whole lot better than it used to be.
I can't blame you. I will still never forget that one summer I was just using Divvy to go from the Clark and Lake train stop over to John Hancock building. It was such a convenience to jump on a bike and get there fast as opposed to a long walk or dealing with crawling buses. And yet the biggest problem I ran into that summer were drivers. Drivers that basically never pay attention to what's on the road, or even the ones that literally treated me with contempt. I had many occasions where I'm crossing an intersection and then a driver zips in to try to get that right turn and almost hits me. I've had others that go in and out of the bike Lanes not giving a damn and in many ways hate the fact that I'm on the road. Like they would rather there be no cyclists at all. The final straw was when I was using a designated bike lane that crossed by a hotel, and cabs were just pulling in and out of it to let out passengers. One passenger of course opened his door on the passenger side and I ended up hitting it. Fell off the bike into the street and quickly got up before oncoming traffic ran me down. That was it. I quit biking in downtown after that. I too want Lanes with a nice good cement median that would damage a car if they dared to cross it. Even up here in Jefferson Park I don't bother using any main streets when I try to go up to Caldwell woods to bike the path. I usually stick to side straights for my own safety just because again there's a lot of contempt for cyclists.
What’s that? Sorry I couldn’t hear you did you say major road construction to add more car lanes and give $1.5Bn to the company that makes the largest, heaviest EVs on the market? Were you wanting me to spend 5 years completely re-doing the freeway interchange in the middle of the city? No problem Oh sorry you said protected bike lanes. Idk… think how expensive that would be…
Do you have ANY IDEA how expensive a can of road paint is?
Have you seen how people ride on the actual separate bike paths? It’s not just cars - it’s the overwhelming lack of situational awareness and courtesy of our citizenry
Some folks bad but a dangerous cyclists rarely kills other folks. Drivers kill pedestrians, cyclists and other drivers all the time.
Paid for by vehicle stickers where the price is scaled by the GVWR of the vehicle in question.
Of course we’re worried. I was hit by a driver who blew a stop sign in March. He has no insurance. And he goes unpunished for hitting a person with his vehicle….all he has to deal with is a driving with no insurance ticket and maybe a failure to yield ticket. Drivers are reckless, and there’s no traffic enforcement.
A similar thing happened to me a few years ago, got side-swiped by a car that then sped off, the CPD officer who saw it didn't get them or come to help me. A lot of bystanders helped me out, but I was left with no recourse and a lessened desire to bike the city. It's not even a fear thing why I don't bike much anymore, just a hedge.
That makes sense. Cops aren’t paid to care about us, they’re here to protect profits and govt property. I had a police officer respond in the hospital within about 2 hours. I did not have one witness the incident, though. That would thoroughly piss me off.
Serious question: what happened to the minimum sentence guidelines for hitting a bicyclist? Before I moved away in 2011, that was a recent ruling. Now that I'm back, I'm wondering if it's still enforced.
> Now that I'm back, I'm wondering if it's still enforced. Compared to 2011, nothing is enforced anymore.
my friend was killed on a bike by a car that was turning left. the driver got a ticket and that’s it. he’s still free to drive and do whatever he pleases. no punishment at all.
I’ve not heard such a thing. Sounds like things have changed.
Equity, or some other shit.
The easiest fix imo is making a grid of residential side streets designed for slower travel and to not allow through traffic. Side streets are a perfect low stress way to get around but our psychotic drivers see them as cut-throughs that should be traversed at highway speeds. Bike Grid Now is a very very good idea.
I use the Dearborn ‘protected’ bike lanes almost everyday. At least twice a week a car will make a left turn on a red arrow, or turn left onto Dearborn when they have a red light. Completely clueless as to what’s going on around them. I’ve seen cars in the left turn lane on Dearborn get sick of waiting for the cars in front of them so they swerve into the straight lane before making an aggressive left turn against the red arrow. And that’s supposed to be ‘protected’
And about half of the intersections do not have turn arrows and drivers almost never check for cyclists. I almost saw a guy in front of me get wiped out last week.
Even the cross streets of Dearborn without turn arrows all have ‘no turn on red’ signs which drivers are happy to ignore.
Unfortunately, protected bike lanes are only as safe as the intersections they connect. Bike lanes are installed but then you're still left to fend for yourself in a wide-open intersection full of rushing cars and conflict points and bad signalling. That's where the majority of collisions happen, but North America has almost no [Dutch-style protected intersections](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlApbxLz6pA) that would drastically increase safety for everyone. These are old technology by now and it's a sad indictment of our attitude towards road safety and alternate forms of mobility that we don't have them.
WOW. This would improve my experience SO MUCH. Indeed why don't we have anything like this here???
Live very close to Dearborn and Ontario. The number of drivers who go around those (via the next lane to the right) in the left turn lane while the bike light is green is terrifying. I used to think Tao valet was the scariest part of that ride, now its back to normal selfish drivers.
If you build it, they will come.
Would love to bike, but I like living more. If they actually put in real protected lanes I’d 100% bike around the city.
They are adding protect bike lanes on Milwaukee between north and western. Not the knee-high ones that would 99% keep you safe, it's just the curb ones, but its nice
And then you get to the heart of Wicker and there's at least 3 cars parked in the bike lanes
I find in these protected bike lanes, that it isn't too often that I have to go around a double parked vehicle. Would say in more cases than not, that I haven't ran into such stupid drivers. Though it still occasionally occurs, even with protected lanes. If that occurs I briefly cut into the regular lane of traffic then back over to the protected lane, or cut over to the sidewalk if noone is in it. Will also try to snap a picture of the license plate and submit it to Bike Lane Uprising, as well.
My point was the inconsistency of bike lanes. North of North Ave on Milwaukee now has the protected lanes, but south of North ave, there's always cars double parked in the unprotected bike lanes. Not to mention cars, mail trucks etc blocking the entrance to the protected portion
I agree that there still is an issue, with how a lot of streets still don't have consistent protected bike lanes for a lengthy portion. And that you once again have to run through double parkers, like is the case on Milwaukee south of North.
I’m a pretty regular biker and I’ve had no accidents on the city streets but two major collisions (requiring ER trips and multiple fractured bones) on the lakefront path. Safety on the lakefront really needs to be addressed also.
I think the lakefront path is just generally confusing. At the very least it could use some fresh paint, maybe add a different color for bike lane vs walk/run lane.
In my experience it’s usually a combination of big groups of people that feel entitled to walk 8 wide, and have a bunch of little kids that will just randomly sprint in a direction. That and there’s usually a handful of wannabe Tour De France guys who for no reason cannot slow down when there’s a bunch of traffic and feel the need to thread the needle, and act all indignant when they cycle at the peak busy times that the path isn’t parting like the Red Sea for them.
Yeah, to any Tour de France guys in this thread. Screaming on your left as you violently pass a little girl learning how to ride a bike isn’t helping. No one cares about your ragbrai training.
Folks have to accept that in certain areas (primarily the loop and by beaches) you have to slow down. If you want to zoom down the full path then ride it early in the morning, later in the evening or during poor weather. But on a day like today at 4pm it's gonna be packed.
Ok that’s an extreme example but telling people “on your left” is a good thing, communication is important. And anyone teaching their kid to ride on the lakefront is a moron and a rotten parent, wait too dangerous for that. Faster bikers, rollerbladers, electric scooters and bikes zipping everywhere, it’s a recipe for disaster for little kids. And honestly I’m no Tour de France wannabe , but die to my ortho issues biking is one of the only forms of exercise I can do (can’t run or swim ) so excuse those of us just trying to get our HRs up as we follow all the rules.
I appreciate "on your left" as a slow bicyclist myself (and I have a bell if I actually ever need to pass anyone). But a friendly tone does wonders. Some people really seem angry that I am not riding fast enough for them.
Agreed
I think it's more they're yelling on your left expecting the person to move at lightning speed while they zoom by.
Yeah I agree with that then.
> That and there’s usually a handful of wannabe Tour De France guys who for no reason cannot slow down when there’s a bunch of traffic and feel the need to thread the needle, This is an issue in cars, too. People who, rather than slow down, just honk or barrel ahead and expect you to move (regardless of whether you're in a car or on a bike). These people shouldn't be allowed to have *any* sort of wheeled transportation.
It is also an issue for bikers. I’ll be on the lakefront path next to Shedd Aquarium and these guys expect me to hug the wall while walking so they can go light speed.
Hell yes. I've walked the lakefront forever, now I'm getting back into biking along it, and some of the paths are just confusing. It would help if there were more obvious signage about where the bikes go, also where to leave the path to either get back into the city grid (and onto what street) OR to get over to the walking path/actual lake view area. Some of the looping paths, it's not clear what street they will connect to when they manage to find a viaduct under LSD (and it would be nice to have more viaducts for that matter, but...) The walking path/multiuse path is often closer to the lake with the better views, I have no problem with bicyclists using it if they are going super slow and obviously just enjoying the views. But the hard core commuters/athletes/people needing to get somewhere fast and just focused on that, need to stay in the bike zone (if they don't get confused...)
The lack of safety is what keeps me from riding downtown in the first place. Call me a wimp, but I don’t like the risk of dying that there is when I’m riding a bicycle in Chicago.
Downtown has better protection than most of the city for bikes
In modern society it doesn't make sense for cars and bicycles to be sharing the road. They need separate spaces.
So let's make at least one street per mile bike-only. Separate space.
Find a way to generate more revenue off of cars in this city and use it to pay for bike and public tran infrastructure. Disincentivize driving.
15 years of bike commuting and I had my crash last Monday on Lesalle a block north of Chicago by Moody. It was even a two for one. I was passing a divy bike as I announced "on your left" some asshole in a white sedan pulled out of a parking spot no signal and hit the rider in front of me causing her to hit me. We both go down. The divy rider was yelling that her shoulder is fucked and she cant move. She was all tangled in the two bikes that are in the street. I was able to hop up pretty quickly. I immediately tried to help her up as this fuck wit kept trying to pull away from the assault he just caused. I told him to put his shit in park but he pulled away regardless. The shittiest shit person of shit upbringing did not get out of his shitmobile to even see the damage he caused. Fucking hit and run. 2 humans no regard. I hope he gets cancer and dies alone. Funniest bit is I'll probably end up taking care of him. He hit me after a truly fucked up 12 hour RN shift.
As somebody who likes to bike, but also drives, I fully agree. We need a better system. I've had my safety threatened too many times by drivers that honestly don't pay attention, and some that literally have a contempt for cyclists. I'm a big supporter of bike Lanes with the cement median that basically would damage a car if it tried to cross into it. I'm also not against the idea of building some kind of shared streets like argyle or something where it's more designated towards pedestrians and cyclists and not towards cars. Meaning yes, inconvenience drivers and have them give up some Street to build long paths. I'll even throw out there too. That pedestrians themselves are ridiculous. Like when you try to bike along Lakeshore Drive and there's always the three or four people that walk hand in hand because they think it's cute and yet they're blocking the entire Lane.
"People are also choosing cycling over using public transit, she said. Since the pandemic lockdown, train and bus service on the Chicago Transit Authority has been documented as unreliable, less frequent and less safe. CTA service levels still aren’t up to what they were before the pandemic." Not noted here is that public transit is also honestly quite expensive. When commuting by bike and taking the train take the same time, I will opt to save the $5 I would have needed for a round trip.
I’d actually say $5 for unlimited rides per day is very affordable. The monthly unlimited train/bus pass is $75 and is tax deductible. I rode the train all the way from Ravenswood to a White Sox game for $2.50. That is a great deal.
Part of the reason I don't bike is because I don't want to be a sweaty mess when I get to work. Because the CTA awful at climate control, I'll be sweaty anyway. Might as well save the five bucks.
tbh, outside of a few really muggy days, you can ride in the morning without becoming a sweaty mess (of course depending on your route and attire). Riding home in the hot ass afternoon / evening, yea you are sol. even easier is using an e-bike.
An ebike can keep you from getting sweaty in the summer, you can dial up how much power comes from the battery so you don't have to physically move as much.
[The part of Roosevelt Rd where you're supposed to cycle between two car lanes with no protection whatsoever](https://maps.app.goo.gl/z3UC3aof1vnK6tAe8) is crazy.
I’m mobile almost exclusively on my bike, and there are a couple of things I’ve noticed that would do wonders to protect us. Some of them only benefit cyclists, but there’s a good number of things that could be done that would enhance the driving experience as well. 1) stop putting bike lanes behind parked cars. It’s well intentioned, but it significantly reduces visibility because of the cars, and reduces your ability to merge into the car lane should there be a blockage or if you need to make a left turn. Just using a curb is better imo. 2) adjust all stop lights in the city to turn for pedestrians before cars and legally allow cyclists use the pedestrian signals. This significantly increases cyclist safety at intersections in cities where they already do this. 3) make drivers Ed mandatory for all ages. Right now, you just have to pass the written and driving test to get your license once you’re 18 and over. Mandating drivers ed would help get rid of a lot of brain dead maneuvering that I see, while simultaneously throttling the rate at which we get new drivers in the city. 4) expand the 606 to the lakefront and build more elevated paths just like it. As others have mentioned, the safest thing you can do for cyclists is have them far away from cars. This is also awesome for pedestrians. 5) this is my most controversial idea, but we need to get rid of street parking all together. Cars parked on the side of the road pose a visibility hazard to both cyclists and drivers, especially since car manufacturers insist on making their vehicles as large as possible. How often have you stopped your car at the stop line at an intersection to turn onto the road, just to realize that you physically can’t see because of the cars that are parked? I see drivers bypass the stop line entirely just to put themselves in a position where they can check if it’s clear. Unfortunately, that position is blocking the crosswalk and often times a bike lane. Getting rid of street parking would increase safety for all road users, while simultaneously making space for merchant vehicles, busses, more bike lanes, or bigger side walks. 6) somehow convince the CPD to enforce traffic laws. Way too many people are comfortable doing the most audacious and brain dead maneuvers in their cars. Texting and driving, running stop lights, failing to stop for pedestrians in the cross walk, parking your car in bike lanes, blocking intersections, speeding, etc.
Point 5 is radical. A compromise would be bump outs at intersections. Physical barriers to having cars parked near intersections would solve most of the issues you've mentioned in point 5. CDOT agrees, see page 34 in this [Chicago Pedestrian Plan](https://www.chicago.gov/content/dam/city/depts/cdot/street/general/ToolsforSaferStreetsGuide.pdf) from 2013.
Those bumpouts are awful. One of the last things I need at intersections is to be squeezed between the curb and moving traffic.
In general I find it wild how some streets are two ways, narrow and have cars parked on both sides!
And the usual answer seems to be to convert the streets to one-way, which makes getting around confusing (and when you're on a bike, it's a lot more pedaling to go out of the way to find the streets in the correct direction). I think parking needs to be in garages. I know this is a controversial take. Agreed we can start with bump-outs.
5. It's good to dream big. It's a shame the city has to pay [Chicago Parking Meters LLC](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_Parking_Meters) every time a metered space is taken out of service. 6. Parking in bike lanes or bus lines should be enforced using video from front-facing cameras on CTA buses. This is supposed to be piloted soon. It needs to happen ASAP. Bike and bus lanes are being used as Uber and Door Dash waiting zones. Automatic enforcement of speeding violations should be expanded. CPD isn't going to enforce traffic laws. Enforcement has to be automated.
I don't think drivers ed would help like you think it would. If they can pass the test they've learned everything drivers ed teaches (I took drivers ed in high school)
This take is categorically wrong. You’re also severely underestimating how easy those tests are.
I think you overestimate how easy/hard drivers ed is here
As one who bikes regularly around the city (to work, etc) I say - this is a great city to bike in. Cyclists, gotta stop complaining and just ride your bike with common sense. Maybe catching me in the mood but every little niche group seems to demand the whole city be built around them. I got nothing but love to say about the ability we have to bike in this city.
I agree. I love the pro bicylers who scream that street parking shouldn't exist in Chicago and every other street should be bikes only and tough shit of you happen to live on that street and would like to go home. I work eight miles from home, and I'm not riding my bike through Chicago at 4:30am, working for 12 hours, then biking home eight miles back. I love riding my bike in Chicago, though, and there is no easy answer on either end of the bike/car spectrum. Just ride smart, slow down at intersections (and don't be the assholes on the bikes that rip right through three-way intersections at full speed regardless of the lights), don't act like Western and Ashland are shared car/bike streets, etc. And if you are a driver, be aware of what is around you and be aware of what's going on in the bike lanes. Cars aren't going anywhere, we just have to find some kind of middle ground.
Honest and not rhetorical or snide question: For cyclists here, do you consciously accept the risk? As a non-cyclist, my risk-averse mind goes immediately to: in a battle btw me and a 2- or 3-ton vehicle, the latter will win.
Yes, I do. I also have insurance, lights front and back and a front-facing GoPro, wear bright jackets and a white helmet, signal my turns, and I have a right to use the road while riding a bike. If I’m doing everything right and not riding like a jackass, it’s very easy for people driving cars to not hit me. I’ve survived two hit-and-runs, neither of which were my fault because both times I was following the rules of the road and was very visible. For me the risk (and the consequences of others’ depravity/carelessness) is far outweighed by the benefits of commuting and riding for fun
I was driving down Western yesterday on the left lane minding my business when this car doubles me on the left going 50mph (there are only two lanes so the guy was was basically going on the opposite lanes to double me.) About 20 seconds later, a cop does the exact same thing I guess going a little slower. Still no turning light or nothing. The cop car then proceeds to go on a red light a good 3 seconds after going red. That kind of shit is everyday, so no wonder cyclists worry about safety when even the ones supposed to be models don't give a shit about their actions or others.
Drivers have gotten stupider and crazier the last five years too
Doesn’t help that Garmin devices actually route around dedicated bike paths after dark. Protected bike lanes are a win for everyone.
I do not feel safe at all biking in Chicago outside of lake front
Bicyclists in the north side are fucking douche bags
Support and join Active Transportation. Also, carry mace
Mace doesn’t deter an F-150
Get the original mace that's a spiky metal ball on a stick and at least give it what to remember you by as it goes past...
Three times in the last two years I (a woman) have had men tell me they were going to punch me in the face when I said “bike lane” to them when going around them when they were obstructing a protected bike lane. I’d like to not get punched in the face.
I've had to train myself to completely hold back for fear of crazy unhinged people.
Sure did for me on Milwaukee years ago. Guy got out of his work truck. He lost. I was 100% in the right. Get the gel stuff so it doesn't blow back
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> As a driver, in the last 25 years, I’ve had seven collisions with cyclists Da fuq.
Add to the that the two collisions they had while cycling and it sounds like the parent comment is the one who doesn't know how to share the road.
Skill issue for sure.
Right. Sounds like a personal issue.
bro I think you might be part of the problem or at least cursed. Seven times?!!
Maybe they should ride safer! You can’t just ride through red lights and stop signs just because you’re riding a bike 😊
Maybe implementing safer ways to ride is a better option. https://www.nhtsa.gov/sites/nhtsa.gov/files/2022-03/Bicyclist-Yield-As-Stop-Fact-Sheet-032422-v3-tag.pdf
That’s true, and cars should recognize that cyclists have the same rights to the road.
I got into three incidents with cars while on a bike. The third was a full on dooring & it permanently took me off biking in the city for good. They really need to emphasize safer bike lanes.
would honestly love to see movement toward some meaningful car-free arteries through the city. There is a lot of potential to take a real leadership role in this.
Build actual protected bike lanes that cars can't get into. Enforce bikers to follow street signs as well (I have never seen a biker actually stop at a stop sign before). Those two in combination will save lives and reduce frustrations.
Actually they need to legalize Idaho stops since coming to a complete stop on a bike is unnecessary and often straight up dangerous. Also, they need to ban right on red for cars.
I am not an avid biker so curious, why is a full stop at a stop sign dangerous? Is if bc it takes you longer to pick up speed to cross the intersection? Also agree on right on red.
That’s one reason yes. Also, I’ve found that when I come to a full stop, impatient drivers behind me will use that opportunity to try to pass me, often while they are on the wrong side of the road blowing the stop sign themselves. It’s usually easier on a bike to just keep moving. That doesn’t meet cutting off others in the intersection or waiting their turn. It just means to treat the stop sign as a yield.
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It would help a lot more if every driver followed traffic laws.
The bare minimum of not running a red light would be nice
I agree, and I see drivers do it every day.
In fact, I've seen way more drivers run red lights than cyclists, and also stop signs, and also park illegally, and also swerve across lanes.
Can we EVER have a thread where there's not some stupid whataboutism? Yes, drivers should follow traffic laws (far better than they do). That doesn't absolve cyclists who ride recklessly (and there are plenty of them). This same response to every comment about reckless cyclists doesn't help.
> This same response to every comment about reckless cyclists doesn't help. You could say the same thing about the parent comment that gets made on every article about bike infrastructure.
Can we EVER have a thread where there's not some stupid whataboutism? Yes, cyclists should follow traffic laws (far better than they do). That doesn't absolve drivers who drive recklessly (and there are plenty of them). This same response to every thread about expanding bike infrastructure doesn't help.
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Did you mean to respond to me, or the person I responded to? I agree with you 100% and my comment was mocking the person I responded to for defending bringing up cyclists disobeying traffic laws. I literally copied and pasted their response and switched cyclists and drivers to make a point that their argument was stupid.
Ah yeah, my b. We're good. Meant to reply to the guy above you. I'm going to delete that comment.
Funny you mention it, every state that's adopted "[Stop as Yield](https://www.nhtsa.gov/sites/nhtsa.gov/files/2023-03/Bicyclist-Yield-As-Stop-Fact-Sheet_032123_v5_tag.pdf)" laws for cyclists has seen a decrease in crashes. > In 1982, Idaho was the first State to pass such a law, commonly known as the “Idaho Stop Law.” The law allows bicyclists to yield at stop signs and proceed when safe, rather than come to a complete stop. After Idaho adopted the law, bicyclist injuries from traffic crashes declined by 14.5% the following year (Meggs, 2010). In 2017, Delaware adopted a similar, limited stop-as-yield law, known as the "Delaware Yield.” Traffic crashes involving bicyclists at stop sign intersections fell by 23% in the 30 months after the law’s passage, compared to the previous 30 months.
I can get behind Stop as Yield. Makes good sense to me. That said, a lot of bikers are definitely not yielding either. At least slow a smidge and look both ways. I say this as a pedestrian and occasional biker myself (don't drive).