Grow Your Own Local Women's BIke Summit (or come to Women Bike Chicago)

As you might have heard, building on the women's cycling forums in the winter and fall of last year The League of American Bicyclists is hosting a third all out National Women's Bike Conference tomorrow in Washington D.C. This is of course completely exciting news. But...  If for you, as for many cycling parents, this is not the optimum time for you to be traveling to D.C., don't despair!

Click here for what I found to be one of the best aspects of the page about the fall forum. That's right... a link to the Women's Cycling Project, with a how-to-grow-your-own-local-forum guide. I just love it. Er, loved it.

I think the whole idea of growing your own local forum taps right into the power that many cycling women, parents and otherwise, have found through their local connections.  Many of my favorite Chicago women attended the forum last September, presenting and attending the forum in California which was very exciting.

 A small federation of local Chicago women riders has been plotting away this winter on our own local women's forum and what we have cooked up is Women Bike Chicago- A day of Dialogue and Demonstrations.  To be held at the University of Illinois at Chicago the 23rd of March from 9am to 1pm. Coming up very soon. Please grab a women friend (or three) interested in learning to get out on two wheels and come.  Email us at wbikechi@gmail.com to get our Eventbrite link and register.

  Our space at the University is not huge so we have room for  70 women to pre-register and come.  Inside will be a handful of sessions, a short keynote, coffee, refreshments and a place to try and meet to chat with other women about bikes. Please come and bring a wanting-to-ride friend along.

An unoffical program of sessions so far includes information on getting back on a bike over 50, using bicycles to create community, practical tips for dressing to ride to work or anywhere, and how to make the most of a trip to the bike store from women shop owners.  In the halls, we will have a chance to meet up and talk with women city riders about finding quieter routes to some of your favorite places to ride.

Outside, there will be bikes to test and hands-on city riding demos.  Experienced women riders will  coach ladies who wish to learn about using a bike as transportation in Chicago techniques and skills key to starting out in our city on two wheels. We can help you figure out the right size of bike you should be riding too. West Town Bikes and some of the Cal Sag program will be on hand to teach basic maintenance.

Afterwards, we would all like to have a celebratory meet-up at Simone's in Pilsen, just a short ride south.

How did we grow our own small forum and how can you grow yours?

The link to the Women's Cycling Project guide is very helpful and our progress followed much of their outline. Without the fashion show.

Getting Started

First, we met as a very small handful of riders to see what we might want to have and how much energy we could pour into it. How big, and what-do-we-miss-here that we felt women could bring to each other in a Chicago-focused Women's Forum. We felt that women of all ages are sometimes left out of images and left out of any idea of them as riders. Women over 50, trans and younger riders are not always clearly represented at forums. We hoped to have women speakers of all ages and cultures here in Chicago.

Timing

We brainstormed what time of year is getting close to when it's warmer to ride but still when weekends are not filling up with springtime fun. In Chicago we figured that would be... late March.

Location

Finding a solid location took time as we knew that a hands-on area would be really important. One of our main goals with the confab is to help women take the lead to try growing their trips around the city even just by a small bit.  The University of Illinois offered us generously a small set of locations that we checked out and tried to match with our goals- a place to ride, space for kid care and enough room to meet.  Other options were Park District field houses or other small cultural non profits with goals similar to our small forum.


 Publicity

Our publicity is just emerging. We have a twitter feed@wbechi and blog at http://womenbikechi.blogspot.com  and are on the Chainlink which is a huge platform for the Chicago cycling community.  With the kind help of Active Transportation Alliance we will be publishing fliers to post around the city in places, not only where current women riders go but also where potential women riders may be.

As we struggled to find a good location we drew in more help and began to brainstorm about some sessions and deeper goals. Women Bike Chicago falls shortly after the annual Bike Swap and we hoped to take a fresh tack with our sessions to create something unique to Chicago women, both potential and already-riders, and we reached out for volunteers to help with the demos and riding opportunities.

Sewing the last weeks together

We are now sewing together the last weeks before Women Bike Chicago happens and we need you to help, volunteer, come and be part of the day please!  You can reach us at wbikechi@gmail.com. Chicargobike will carry updates as the program of sessions becomes official and we get close to the actual date. Please stay posted to progress on our little forum and let us know if you create your own!

New Year on the New Dearborn Bike Lane

We have been ringing in the New Year playing with our exciting new present from CDOT and Mayor Emanuel, the newly opened two-way Dearborn protected bike lane.  Considering the huge heralding the lane received we wanted to take our time and ride the lane a number of times under mixed conditions with the kids, collecting experience with it before writing this post.  If you missed the fanfare, the lane is located right in the central business district of the Loop, two-way between Dearborn Station in Printers Row and across the river to Kinzie St, then it continues in its old form unprotected and northerly-only above that. Dearborn car traffic is one way going north for most of the route.

Two of us happened to be at the opening and it's possible our small guy was the first kid to roll down the lane after his mom high fived the Mayor himself.  It was either touching or irksome to listen to Mayor Emanuel speak at the dedication ceremony about wanting children to have the freedom to ride to school in Chicago. If we are going to hype kids riding to school we need to actually make lanes they can use. So let's cut to the chase. How does this exciting addition to the Loop work for kids and families? Remember, we are not reviewing the lane for strong, experienced, grown-up city riders, as there are plenty of those reviews out already.

Applying our trusty new yardstick for family friendly bike lanes, is the new Dearborn two-way lane...

Protected enough?      

Likely to leave you hanging?      

Connected to useful destinations?

Protected enough?

Safe bike lanes have to be protected enough for an 8 year old to ride them safely.

The Dearborn Lane's somewhat blocked to car traffic, but it's still pretty easy for cars to enter, unfortunately. And to park on, which they do.  It's protected by plastic bollards, not by concrete, or tree planters, or other car-impermeable barriers, and there is no central post at the ends of the blocks to keep drivers out. Look around the Federal Buildings or Daley Plaza to see how this might be done differently.
The more permeable nature of the plastic bollard style lane requires parents to be watchful as they ride the lane with kids on their bike or accompany children on their own bikes.  It 's wise to remind kids that though the barriers give a far far more protected feeling -- especially to children accustomed to city riding -- they need to be watchful as well.

For example, on our ride a couple of days ago, a taxi was waiting in the bike lane for a fare and some other guy had simply left his car there. He came out just after this picture was taken and drove off in the bike lane. The taxi guy moved too after we explained the bike lane concept - he was nice but the lane was confusing him. Will this improve as drivers get more familiar with the lanes? Whether this improves or is just a small permanent wrinkle in using the lane, children need to be aware they need to deploy plenty of caution when pulling around any parked cars to continue on the lane. Other cars possibly moving on or out of the lane cannot see smaller young riders negotiating parked cars.  

Riders can still be 'doored' while riding the new lane. While we were on it last week a woman opened her car door into it  -- it's protected a bit by the buffer strip, but her door would have hit a rider going northbound.  Being mindful of these issues makes for a much safer family ride, especially traveling northbound.

The bike traffic lights are a huge benefit for young riders, pacing them and helping teach traffic rules, especially if all traffic follows the signals. And the bidirectional lane design is great.  It should always be clear on a good lane how to get back, and this one makes it obvious. One of New York's best lanes, on Broadway, has this problem since it's one-way. We have been wondering why every lane is not bidirectional like this new one on Dearborn.

     Summary: Protected-ish.

No infrastructure installed
yet over the Dearborn Bridge.

Likely to leave you hanging?
Safe bike lanes link safely to other good bike routes without spitting young riders or their families out into car traffic when the protected area ends.

The Dearborn Lane isn't completely an island. It does connect a lot of downtown.  We rate it right now as more of an archipelago, though, a series of loosely connected islands, hard to reach for less city experienced family riders.

Though the lane makes a huge part of the Loop itself accessible, we have had to carefully mix sidewalk and off-main-route traveling to get to the actual lane. The other bike lanes that cross Dearborn all along its route are just painted, unprotected lanes in the midst of intense city traffic. We use them sometimes with our kids on our bikes when we have to, but we don't at all recommend them to other family riders or to kids on their own bikes.

At the north end of the new lane riders can't get to or from the existing protected bike lane on Kinzie without riding through nearly 3 blocks of no-bike-lane, sharrows only, downtown traffic. At the south end there isn't much infrastructure waiting for them either.

Importantly, the bridge over the Chicago river is not bollarded or plated at all yet.  (Riding an unplated bridge with children, whether on your bike or their own, is totally unwise. Kathy Schubert probably doesn't do it with Suzy Schnauzer on her bike either.)  We understand the plates are coming, but they don't exist yet. Currently we move right off of the street onto the sidewalk at the intersection of Wacker and Dearborn before crossing at the light moving northbound, continuing on the sidewalk of the bridge.

Our usual routes to the lane have involved the sidewalk from Harrison and UIC to the south section in Printers Row,  a sidewalk mix from the River Walk at Wacker, or the Kinzie lane to the Merchandise Mart, walking the bikes on the sidewalk 3 blocks to Dearborn, then after riding a block or two getting off again and walking over the unplated Dearborn bridge before continuing south riding the lane.

With your children along, you need to figure out a safe way to it and away from it, whether to the museums or just to the small streets toward your neighborhood, and these options are not yet in place.  We will be very excited to update this post in the future as these hoped-for protected networks emerge.

     Summary: Archipelago of loosely linked islands

Christkindlmarkt at Daley Plaza this year

Connecting useful destinations?
Good bike lanes go somewhere useful, connecting destinations that families want to get to.

How can families in the Loop best use this lane? Well, it gives a good north-south corridor through the main part of the Loop, it's only two blocks to the Art Institute, it's close to the quiet streets that lead to South Loop, and it's near Daley Plaza. It goes by Jones College Prep, right by the Chagall wall and the Calder sculpture, and connects the Post Office, Library, bookstores, and some of our favorite cafes, including the Intelligentsia at the Monadnock building. It gives us a second route, much better that our old one, connecting Harrison Street to the center of the city.  Though it does not go near the other attractions in town like the Museum Campus, it misses the Mag Mile, the Lake Front Path, and offers only a fair connection to Union Station, its connections are awesome. 

With a larger number of protected connecting routes it would be even more useful to inexperienced family riders.

     Summary: Jackpot!

Fazit:
If the safety and connection issues develop into cleaner connections the Dearborn lane is close to a veritable feast of good destinations and could become a really usable route for families as the larger network grows in Chicago.

Our rating:

Protected-ish safety level 

Archipelago but not a total island 

rich with great destinations, Jackpot!

We'll be on the new lane a lot. And as more miles are added to the Chicago bike lane network, with improved lanes to link residential neighborhoods, the lake and the museum campus, this new Dearborn lane will become a bigger and bigger asset for family riders.  The increased visibility of family and independent child riders in the heart of Chicago on the Dearborn lane would be a powerful message of how good bike lanes can empower riders and instigate change. We hope that the Dearborn lane heralds the hope of a new beginning.

The challenges of a relatively car permeable protected lane like this one are not hard for our family to overcome, but less experienced family riders, especially those with children on their own bikes, may find their first few rides to and from the lane itself too intimidating to continue trying.  Which bring us back to our usual mantra. The challenge for our city is not funding or political will -- from our perspective, the main hurdle to more families riding in Chicago is lane design.

Our Mayor, or the Commissioner of Transportation, or CDOT's designers seem taken by the plastic bollard style infrastructure. This model leaves lanes too open, though, so cars can infringe on riders. Traffic is the main barrier that prevents kids and non-bike-enthusiast adults from riding happily. If our Mayor is as competitive as he believes he is, he needs to take a ride on a concrete protected lane in New York or Minneapolis and see what else is out there.

Other North American cities are incorporating concrete into their lane designs, which makes riding safer and feel more comfortable. Their ridership is rising more rapidly. We hope the City's designers look again at alternatives to the plastic bollards. Chicago put planters in the middle of the main streets before, so why not now?  We are lucky to have funding and political will -- Mr. Mayor, thank you for this new lane, now bring on the concrete trucks!

Making it Count for CDOT

Saturday my son and I spent two lovely hours together on the Monroe Street Bridge counting east- and westgoing bikes for the quarterly CDOT bike count. CDOT counts bikes at various intersections each season in an effort to study where riders are right now, where ridership might be grown with better infrastructure, where cyclists are crowded, and where sparse. You know what huge fans of honestly good all-ages bike infrastructure we are. It was high time for our family to get counting to help keep those good lanes coming. 

So my medium boy and I ran out of the house a little behind, after our computer printer refused to print out our charts. We grabbed extra paper, a few pencils and some snacks and hurried through the almost deserted Saturday streets through the outer loop to our assigned spot. We took a few minutes to find the best place to enjoy watching the shimmery sun on the river and see bikes coming from both directions. Then we cobbled together a chart from my memory of counting Tuesday morning. 

Counts happen in fifteen minute increments. We were counting both east- and westgoing riders. Men and women riders are noted separately. (My guy was wondering when they might start counting kids? Or old ladies? Hmmm..) Saturdays on Monroe Bridge are pretty quiet right now. Other counters were out on more buzzy bike thoroughfares.

Just when it started getting a little ho hum we noticed the bridges north of us were swarmed with men in orange vests. City kids love orange vests.  We traded off keeping our eye on the bikes and guessing about the swarm. Of course. The bridges were all opening to let the boats through from the lake. This was perfect, watched from our little perch from which we could see each bridge north. Open, close. Open, close. It was the most exciting when they moved us off our bridge and opened it right above us. He liked that we didn’t have to worry about missing any bikes while we watched.

After the bridges closed we played word games, got caught up together on everything happening everywhere and counted the bikes. It occurred to us that other kids might like counting bikes for CDOT as well. 

Counting bikes on a sunny Saturday morning might sound a little dull maybe but we were busy working with our clock to keep in the right quarter hour on the chart and remembering which compass direction the riders were coming from. My son loved being in charge of the pencil, clock and direction remembering. We also got a little silly noticing all of the different kinds of riders.

We both considered, perhaps, that this would be a fun non-ride weekend event for other Kidicalmassers and families that want to help the city grow into a better place for us all to get around. Family Math activity junkies obviously note oodles of math mania built right into our morning... A little team of kids and parents could take a busier place and trade off counting and playing to pass a very quick two hours. The next quarterly count will be in January. Maybe it'd be even better in winter with some snowballs and a big thermos of hot chocolate.
 
I’m sure you can see where this is going. If it sounds good to you check out the CDOT bike program page here and contact the project head to join the team working the quarterly counts.  Finishing up we traded tales with the other counters when we all met afterwards at the Picasso to turn in our data. The cyclist who counted alone on the hugely crowded lakefront trail was especially funny. Hint. Hint.

See you out there in January? 

Streets for (Family) Cycling Take Two

You can guess we both write this blog, my better half and I.

Readers can usually tell which of us has written what, though our writing is blended in many posts. To follow the post yesterday about what he doesn’t see in the Streets for Cycling Plan, and noting the excellent comments from our anonymous commenter, I get to throw in my two cents today. This post is all my work, yesterday’s was his.

From the Inside Out

I worked as part of the team of local riders who worked through this winter into spring to get input from around the city to shape the Streets for Cycling Network. This was a once-in-a-lifetime chance and I am more than grateful for having had the opportunity.

My volunteer work for CDOT and Active Transportation Alliance was eye-opening in many ways. Changing our streets is a complicated process but the team steering the project has a strong desire to make sure that the plan is devised by Chicagoans themselves. This is a new idea in street planning in Chicago: simplify the process by using as much public input as possible, in order to zero in on what will be used. Our team was given the power to organize as many meetings as possible to reach out into the city for public input from every kind of rider and non-rider.  

Now that the draft plan is out I have heard plenty of flak on the Chainlink, at home and around my neighborhood. I have also heard just as much about how community members from our meetings are excited by clearly seeing their input in the draft network. The network is under public review right now and anything you might want to share about it is on the table. 

Our city engineers are at these meetings and able to field technical questions you might have or note ideas not included. “Blah blah,” you’re thinking, “I can read this on the web page”... and you should, because my writing is not any kind of official take on the plan and you need to go see and comment for yourself.

What does it really take to influence the planning and get your voice heard? Why haven’t family cyclists been heard if they haven’t?

These are important questions if you agree with my husband’s post. 

My answer — whether I agree or not — from my own experience would be that the threshold for hearing from family riders in Chicago is pretty high.  Though we held three to four meetings a month in our region from December to March, very few to absolutely none of the riders who came to our meetings were used to riding with kids in mind, much less carrying their family along for the ride.

Advocates for children or families who are not currently comfortable riding were a more active part of our region’s input.  And others of our city regions were organized by teams that included a family rider, so family riders were represented, but our job in the CAGs was not to give only our own insight. Luring other people to the meetings to get their information was the point. There are not that many of us to lure who already actively ride comfortably in Chicago with our kids, and we tend to clump in a few neighborhoods in the city. 

For many reasons, no one in your family might have been able to get to meetings for Streets for Cycling or give input. It’s just hard for parents to get to meetings — especially on winter school nights.  It’s key to making the plan for an 8-80 network to hear from families, but if the input from families is extremely low the planners are not going to know what we need and we will realize less change from this plan.

In my experience, the engineers and planners working on this project are deeply interested in all of the information they can get about how to create good lanes for the city. In a process built on input, the perspectives that are not shared with the planners can’t necessarily become a huge part of the planning. 

The bottom line is that family riders— or anyone else— feeling left out of the draft plan need to share their thoughts about their own regions and other parts of the city at the public meetings, by email or by webinar. 

I heartily suggest participating in one of the two public meetings, that are left, as they are good forums for getting interesting questions answered in a give and take atmosphere. It’s not too late yet! And it’s just the beginning.

On to making good family riding infrastructure into reality...

The chance to influence how this plan is actually realized means giving input now and then many more meetings and much more input, and direct work with your Alderman and other city and state representatives over time as the plan is made a reality.  That means all of us need to keep coming to meetings, probably for the next few years.

The Bikeways Campaign Coordinator at Active Transportation Alliance is laying the difficult ground work for each Ward to grow a pedestrian/bike/transit committee which will get movement going on the Streets for Cycling plans once they are done. This means that you need to reach out to Active Trans and your own Alderman, and find out how far along your own Ward organization is. 

Equitably establishing these committees throughout the entire city is a difficult but  important task for Active Trans to undertake. 

Helping your community take this step is essential. The funding to create the bulk of real safe lanes for the youngest to oldest riders in Chicago eventually rests in your Alderman’s budget. Check out the web sites for Bike Uptown and Walk Bike Lincoln Park, two committees that are up and running now.

  

Chicago’s “Streets for Cycling” Bicycle Plan Is Not Streets For Families (Yet)

The Chicago Department of Transportation (CDOT) has been working hard for months on a new bicycle network system for the city named Streets for Cycling. There were public meetings we listed here. One of us has been working on the project, but the other of us — me —  hasn’t. After months of wondering what was being cooked up, I finally saw the public unveiling of the draft network plan last week. The short summary: despite a lot of good talk and useful extension of existing commuter lanes into the South and West, this draft version is unfortunately not a network that families can use much. It must be improved. With YOUR family's input. 

The CDOT Streets for Cycling Meeting
Many more photos of specific network maps and a general review at OneLessMinivan

An “8 to 80 network” was the main stated goal— a grid of cycling lanes so obviously safe that everyone from 8 to 80 years old feels comfortable on them — while increasing bicycling share to 5% of trips under 5 miles. Both these goals call for a safe network because only about 8% of the population now feels safe enough to use the current system according to CDOT's data. Unfortunately, the draft CDOT unveiled last week won’t achieve these goals. Here’s why:

If The Network Doesn’t Feel Safe New Cyclists Won't Come.

When evaluating a new bike lane, put yourself in the position of a parent about to take 3 kids down it, or an aging or less-than-fit person about to go shopping on it. A strong 25 year old with a fast bike and nothing to carry can happily ride anywhere. This is how I'm looking at the draft network plan. As designed so far, it won’t feel safe for everyone, because the kinds of lanes they chose aren't designed to be safe for everyone:

Protected Lanes:  The Safest Solution But Only 1/6 Of The Network

Protected Lanes elsewhere fully separate car and bike traffic, so cars can’t hit you even if they try. These lanes feel safe because they are safe. They use concrete barriers, overpasses, signals for different types of vehicle, and bike paths through spaces such as parks (like Chicago’s Lakefront Path). They keep children, parents and grandparents safe on their rides to school, playdates, work or shopping, and keep late night cyclists from weaving into car traffic. Because these main bikeways in places like Copenhagen or Amsterdam are safe, people there ride bikes often. They feel safe. In cities with less protection, there are fewer riders.

New York has put in some good lanes though it's not like Amsterdam:

Broadway NYC protected lane. Parked cars, lots of space

3rd Ave NYC protected lane. Concrete, cars.

 

Here in Chicago, CDOT will build some Protected Lanes with parked cars or tree planters between car lanes and bikes (or might they consider steel, concrete, or stone bollards, or Jersey barriers?). I’m looking forward to riding on these. But CDOT also calls lanes “protected” that are just divided from traffic by plastic posts, which (as on Kinzie or 18th St) are easily destroyed or removed by CDOT. Unfortunately, Streets for Cycling includes a lot more of these lanes. And they don't plan to fully protect the main routes, even with plastic. New riders won’t feel safe and they’ll stay away. The new Protected Lanes need to offer real permanent protection, with separation by concrete, steel, parked cars, or trees.  

They took out most of the plastic sticks in May.
Will concrete barriers be coming?

The Kinzie lane had lots of posts when it went in.
Protected by parked cars, this is OK.

Buffered Lanes: they sound better than they are

These are on-street bike paths like the existing ones in Chicago, but with a wider painted “buffer:” a double white line, a foot or two wide, with stripes inside. What’s keeping the driving, texting teenager away from the woman biking her grandson to the park? Only paint. Paint wears off and you can’t see it under snow. It’s not enough.  

If CDOT can put the same painted lines between parked cars and the curb, though, the lane can become truly protected. I don't buy CDOT's argument that there isn't room. If there's no room they should use a different street.

from the CDOT site. Would your friends who are afraid to ride take their 8 year old on this? 

Painted Bike Lanes: They Don't Keep Families Safe

There are many of these already in Chicago, the ones with a single white line. This class of lanes also apparently includes “sharrows”, regular car streets with occasional bike symbols painted on them. CDOT is planning hundreds of miles of these because it makes the network look big cheaply and achieves their goal to get a lane within 1/2 mile of everywhere. 

But seriously, would you like to take your 8 year old on a “Bike Lane” like this? It’s a lot like taking her out on a regular street without a “Bike Lane.” How will that increase ridership? Save the paint, CDOT, and build me another mile of real protected lane with a solid barrier. 

In Summary, The Plan Lacks The Needed Safety

The planned bike lanes, except for solidly protected ones, are not safe enough to convince new riders to start taking bikes. It is clear that the stated goals, accessibility for every rider from 8 to 80, and increasing to 5% of trips under 5 miles, are not even offhandedly addressed with the current draft of the Streets for Cycling plan. 

Other Quibbles

Though the network does extend commuting routes into new areas, which is great, again it favors young healthy fearless riders by using simple unprotected lanes like the current ones. CDOT spent a great deal of time at the meeting discussing branding to make this more appealing. “Bicycle Superhighways”?  “Four Star Routes”?  “Spoke Routes”? — they will have banners and decorated posts, but not much protection.  This branding isn’t a good use of resources. If the lanes are safe, well-designed travel spaces, they won’t need catchy names; they’ll just get used by everyone all the time. The ones that feel safe to a grandparent going shopping or a mom with three kids headed to the park will be a success; the others will be a waste of funds and public goodwill, with or without banners.

A lot of people have put a lot into this plan...

It’s inspiring that public input has identified the streets that people want in the network. Many people have put time, energy and money into bringing the draft network as far as they have. There is a lot of input there, but maybe not enough from families yet to make something that will bring parents and kids out to use bikes as transportation for those trips 5 miles and under that CDOT is aiming for. 

It’s disappointing that the most important riders for building bicycle usage — women who are afraid to ride now — have to be heard more. The design looks like it was made by people who haven't regularly transported kids, or ridden with aging parents, or run errands on a properly designed bike network — though the engineers are doing good work translating people's input into infrastructure, they still haven't heard about these things enough to build us a network we can all use. 

As a result, the draft doesn’t meet its own goals. The Streets for Cycling plan was intended to get everyone — not just enthusiasts — out on bikes, but it simply won’t unless we change it fast.

So what can I do about it?

Bring your friends to the upcoming meetings, write to CDOT on their website, talk to your alderman and talk to other people you know, bicyclists or not. The non-bicyclists might be more important to the success of this project than the cyclists. The network must be made safe enough for everyone to want to use it. Make CDOT fix this now.

Upcoming CDOT meetings to review Streets for Cycling 2020 Draft Network plans:

(here is the PDF of the slide show)

(maps from the CDOT site at this link: http://www.chicagobikes.org/public/SFC.php )

Gary Comer Youth Center - Exhibition Hall, 3rd floor
7200 S. Ingleside Ave.
Thursday, May 31st, 2012
4 – 8 p.m., presentation with Q&A at 4:30 & 6:30p.m.

Douglas Park Cultural and Community Center - Ballroom
1401 S. Sacramento Dr.
Wednesday, June 6th, 2012
4 – 8 p.m., presentation with Q&A at 4:30 & 6:30p.m.

Open House
77 S. Dearborn – Building Lobby
Saturday, June 9th, 2012
10 a.m. – 4 p.m.

Webinar #1
June 11th
12 – 1 p.m.
Reserve your Webinar seat now at: http://goo.gl/6JRQc

Webinar #2
June 13th
6 – 7 p.m.
Reserve your Webinar seat now at: http://goo.gl/CQSS9

The Spirit of '76

Not last month's Critical Mass. It's a bikeway on the Magnificent Mile about 1976, looking north toward the Wrigley Building. Are you one of these people?
Photo from the 1976 Schwinn Bicycle Company catalog, page 7.
Original caption:
"Many cities, like Chicago, provide extensive well marked bike routes.  Here, cyclists ride along the Magnificent Mile, Michigan Avenue. It’s one of the many streets comprising Chicago’s Bikeway network. Thousands of club cyclists take advantage of the city’s scenic spots .  .  .  .  for fun and recreation as well as commuting to the job."

The bike paths, protected lanes, and neighborhood greenways that are being planned by the Chicago Department of Transportation these days — Streets for Cycling — promise a great step into the future... but that was exactly what similar plans looked like they were promising back in the late 1960s and 1970s, and everyone is still waiting. 


For today's cycling improvements to be realized it's more important than you might think for YOU to keep pushing for them. There is a list of some things you can do at the end of this post. If there is a dedicated, vocal group of bicycling voters like you pressing for change, maybe inertia or other priorities won't be able to distract the city government's attention, and bicycling can become a sensible form of transportation for everybody.

The Chicago Schwinns from 1976 are all still rolling.
Check out the bicentennial paint job!
This is a 24" Varsity, all original but reflectors.

In the 1970s, the Daley administration, according to a couple of widely-plagiarized sentences that are nearly identical on every web source I saw, greatly expanded the small bikeway system to incorporate a full-length Lakefront Path, and by the middle of the decade they had even closed off a lane each on Clark and Dearborn streets for bicycle commuters. What happened to that, I wonder? 


I'm not sure if the Bikeways were generally simply painted lanes, or closed off streets like in the photo above. Please write a comment if you can tell us more about the 1970s and 80s cycling infrastructure in Chicago.

Of course, remember there was a major oil shock and gas mileage (MPG!) was a more important consideration than now. That and other factors led to the bike boom of the 70's. With millions of bikes sold, more bikes than cars in some years, bicycling was getting a lot of attention there for awhile.

You can compare the old and new bikeway/neighborhood greenway plans. Here's a link to the 1967 Guidelines for a Comprehensive Bicycle Route System document from the city Department of Development and Planning. Compare it to the new plan on the same website — while some objectives have been achieved, like the bike path over the Chicago River at the lakefront, we still have less of a bikeway system than they seem to have envisioned back then. 


While another oil shock probably isn't something to wish for, the costs of widespread car commuting in Chicagoland are becoming worse every year, including environmental and economic costs and wasted time. We'd love to see today's Chicago build a bike (and public transit) network that achieves and surpasses the goals of the past, making cycling a safe, uncomplicated, obvious first choice for any citizen planning a trip across town. I'd love to see that without enraging automobile drivers — a divided, well planned bike system could allow everyone to get where they are going without inconveniencing other travelers much, and it would be safer for everyone.


Those bicyclists in the photo are 36 years older now, and they're still waiting for the bicycle friendly city they were promised. There's no reason for you to wait as long as they have. 

You can still be a patriot even if it isn't 1976. Start your own revolution, cut out the middleman. If your alderman is planning changes in your ward, call and offer support. Make time for the Streets for Cycling public meetings this spring (we carry Grid Network in the sidebar so you can click it and check the meeting times), look into helping Walk Bike Transit, or join or start a ward bicycle committee like Bike Walk Lincoln Park. Please do whatever you can to support new bicycle lanes and greenways for your neighborhood and Chicago as a whole. 

70 year olds ride bikes too, and you'll be one of them

We think bikes are great transportation for families with people from young childhood to old age. In a city that sometimes seems full of young adults on fixed gear bikes riding on "sharrow" lanes it's often easy to forget the other, bigger part of the potential bike riding public. You, for example. 


Today Jane Brody of the New York Times wrote a brief post about being a 70 year old woman who rides her bike regularly. She has tips for new riders as well. 


We all want to be 70 year old (or older) bike riders, too. And guess what? Now is a great time to make the streets better for when we get older (and for our kids now and in the future, too...)


Thinking about young and old riders is increasingly important as the City of Chicago continues to seek input for its Streets for Cycling campaign in order to plan new protected bike lanes that will be safer for everybody. People can click the maps on the site to enter their own suggested routes or contact the local community advisory groups. You again, for example. 


Don't be fooled by all the healthy looking young adults on bikes in Chicago. Think about all the other people who are already making it work, riding where they need to go. Then go to an upcoming community meeting, look at where the city is planning to change streets in your neighborhood, and make your own suggestions so the new lanes will make sense for everyone.


Then when you wake up decades from now you can zip off to ride with your grandkids to school on that old neighborhood greenway you suggested yourself as a young whippersnapper.


See you there.

Wow! Get Ready for the Future! (Mayor's Bike Meeting)

We made it to the meeting yesterday. Very special thanks to Cdot for having us (despite our loud toddler ** and a late extra parent on the way to ferry the small children away).  Thanks to them also for letting our oldest ask questions. They had plenty to celebrate and more to share about the comprehensive sea change the Mayor plans for cycling and traveling in Chicago during this term. Cdot had ...

Mayor's Bike Meeting is Today

So this is a late update-- the Mayor's Bike Advisory Committee Meeting is today. Many thanks to Julie Hochsdater and Steve Vance for the time and room: City Hall, Room 1103 from 3-4:45p.m.Should be an interesting meeting. I think that they may have lots of information on the new protected lane and hopefully some of their ideas for the future. I rode the new lane again this morning. Looked like the Cdot guys were having lunch and all was quiet but they are moving along!  Maybe we'll see you at the meeting!

Thrilled About Seeing the New Protected Lane Cycletrack

Bad cellphone picture looking west, up the hill, at the new eastbound lane.
The playground is on the left.  The supermarket is at the top
of the hill. There will be a painted lane on the other side.

Protected Bike Lanes get a Wobbly Start

* this Posted yesterday morning- note the lane may be in by Bike to Work Week- that's fast! As you can find in the comments we think it's amazing that they can move so fast and we are thrilled that the new Mayor is showing such a strong commitment to cycle track right out of the gate.* I rode the "lane" this morning and it skirts the playground and  shopping so I was wrong on that! Now that I've seen it actually going it I'm just so excited and flabbergasted to see this in Chicago! thanks to CDOT, the Mayor and Alderman for showing us this can get done so fast. Mayor Emanuel hit the ground running on cycling!
My post on seeing the lane go in is above.


As you may know the Mayor has committed to installing two full miles of cycletrack, protected lanes with a physical barrier between cars and bikes, this year in Chicago and he is taking the first one hundred days of his term to decide where. It's a small start to what I hope will be a big change in Chicago transportation.

I had the luck of getting a chance to sit in on the bicycling session at TransportChicago - the Chicago transportation conference held last Friday. Huge thanks to them for letting me sit in. It will take me another day or so to get my post up about the conference but on that note I found the Guardian bike blog’s new post about creating cycletracks in England. This is an excellent introduction to the topic, focussing on a new study concluding that a protected cycletrack is one of the major tools needed to grow cycling (or in planner-speak, to increase modeshare). They discuss other traffic calming methods as well. Here is the link. We have some pictures of cycletracks from New York and Washington D.C. on our site and there are good videos on YouTube and StreetFilms about ones elsewhere.

I hope we can place some of the two miles Mayor Emanuel has committed to getting in this year where families can use them to shop or kids can bike to school. Then we can see how powerful it might be for those parents who are not confident on our streets now, to use bikes every day! This winter Alderman Solis, our Alderman in the 25th Ward, proposed a cycletrack in our ward from Pilsen to UIC that would connect several schools, the university, and the Pilsen business district on 18th street to downtown.

More discussion about bicycle lanes is going in a couple of places right now. Steven Vance at StevenCanPlan has been talking about lanes and he and WBEZ report that one location has been chosen, on Kinzie Street. I have to admit that this doesn't seem to be a location that fulfills any of the criteria I just mentioned - it seems instead to be directed at people who already are bicycle commuters to the Loop, largely young, fit adults. I don't think they are the people who can benefit from a track and it should be placed elsewhere.

In places with many protected cycletracks parents feel comfortable letting their children ride their own bikes, retirees can get to the store easily, shoppers can carry their groceries or other goods easily home without parking worries, and everybody gets more exercise and burns less expensive fuel. This could be possible here in Chicago, too, if good locations are chosen. Also, right now,it is easy to find automobile drivers who complain about bicyclists mixing badly with traffic. With a protected cycletrack riders have their own traffic signals and their path crosses other traffic much less often.

At One Less Minivan our friend Ash is excited about a proposed one for Humboldt Park, a place with a multi-aged population and lots of bicyclists. Where do you think your ward could use a lane?  Well, grab some other parents and head right on over to your Alderman's office and get to work!