Johnny and John Stallworth at John’s Hardware & Bicycle Shop.
[This piece also runs in Urban Velo magazine.]
Pedaling down Halsted Street into Chicago’s Englewood neighborhood, I smell the unmistakable aroma of Harold’s Chicken as I pass an outpost of the South Side chain whose logo features a chef chasing a rooster with a hatchet. After an SUV speeds by me booming hip-hop, I pull up to John’s Hardware & Bicycle Shop, 7350 S. Halsted, and admire the old-fashioned, hand-painted sign, featuring John Stallworth’s smiling, bearded face and his no-nonsense slogan, “If we don’t have it you don’t need it.”
The northbound section reached Division Street.
The design reveals itself hour by hour. Today I visited at 10 AM. One Twitterer had this reaction to the project: “@gabe_klein As a daily Elston bike commuter I thank you and all of @ChicagoDOT for expanding these facilities. cc @gridchicago @thetrolusk”.
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A view down the North Side Main Line ‘L’ tracks by Drew Baker.
This is a recap of the 12 articles posted in the last 5 days, as well as a look at the calendar ahead.
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
- MBAC updates: New pedestrian and bicycle projects discussed at March MBAC meeting
- New bike lanes: CDOT continues roll out of new bike lanes: Division Street today, your neighborhood tomorrow?
Thursday, May 10
Friday, May 11
- Station access: How LaSalle Street Metra station maintains hard-to-find reputation
- Action Agenda: Chicago transportation to move very far forward with two-year plan
- New bike lanes: Jose Lopez offers the PRCC’s perspective on the Paseo bike lanes
Saturday, May 12
- Road repair: CDOT’s Gabe Klein announces viaduct repaving project
- New links added: The Grid Network is deprecated, but the links page lives on
Sunday, May 13
- NATO: Summary of transportation and transit changes because of NATO summit
- Photos: Grid Shots: Commercial statements
Monday, May 14
- Bike TV show: Ira David Levy’s “Pedal America” show pushes pedaling to a broader audience
- New bike lanes: Elston Avenue bike lane returns in upgraded form
Calendar
Tonight is a meeting about Bloomingdale Trail access parks and is the first meeting following yesterday’s release of the Framework Plan. “We are particularly interested in your feedback about access parks. After a short presentation, we’ll break into small groups to discuss the following access parks, and how ramps and other amenities will be designed.”
Tuesday, May 15, 2012
6 to 8 PM
Humboldt Park Fieldhouse, 1440 N Humboldt Drive, Chicago, IL
Wednesday night is the Ride of Silence to “honor fallen cyclists and raise awareness in this annual procession past Chicago Ghost Bikes”.
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
6 to 8 PM
Gather at 6 PM, Depart at 7 PM
Eternal Flame in Daley Plaza
Next Tuesday is the public revealing of the draft network of the Streets for Cycling Plan 2020. There are three more meetings and two webinars.
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
4 to PM
Copernicus Center, 5216 W. Lawrence Ave, Chicago, IL
Presentation with Q&A at 1630 and 1830.
Riding in the cycle track southbound towards the Magnolia Avenue “Y”.
Riding in the cycle track southbound next to the electrical substation. The parking space and wide area in this photo are for a tanker truck as seen in this photo.
After seven months without them because of neighbor and weather delays, pavement markings make their return today to Elston Avenue between North Avenue and Magnolia Avenue. The difference now is that buffered bike lanes and a cycle track replace last year’s conventional bike lane. The full project limits are North Avenue to Milwaukee Avenue, a distance of 1 mile. The enhanced bikeway should definitely bring cyclists back to Elston Avenue, after what I perceived was a period of avoidance. A cycle track at the “Y” intersection of Elston and Magnolia Avenues should reduce the incidence of high-speed, northbound passes.
At 12:42 PM today, only sections between North Avenue and Magnolia Avenue had been striped.
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[This piece also appeared in Checkerboard City, John's weekly transportation column in Newcity magazine, which hits the streets on Wednesday evenings.]
As a sustainable transportation devotee, sometimes I have to remind myself that not everyone in this country is as fanatical about biking as I am. But “Pedal America,” a new travel series on PBS created and produced by Chicagoan Ira David Levy, aims to spread the gospel of cycling to the unconverted. “I think that with a lot of bike advocacy, we tend to talk to each other, people who are already enthused,” he says over drinks at a Gold Coast café. “But if you’re going to reach the masses you need to find a way that does not come across as overly political. So I work in a little bit of advocacy in each episode but I try not to be too preachy.”
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Grid Chicago is a blog about sustainable transportation matters, projects and culture in Chicago and Illinois, by John Greenfield and Steven Vance. We launched in June 2011. Contact us.
Comment of the day: Even though city may be divided, it’s time to embrace good changes
Photo of a man riding a bike by Drew Baker, found in the Grid Chicago Flickr group.
I prefer to see comments like this in my inbox. This comment was posted by “flashabc” on John’s article, Bike facilities don’t have to be the white lanes of gentrification, regarding new bike lanes on Division Street in Humboldt Park:
Thank you for your comment.