Renovated Morse and Thorndale ‘L’ stations have new bike parking

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Morse’s new bike parking area. Photo by Justin Haugens. 

The Chicago Transit Authority’s Morse Red Line station in Rogers Park, recently renovated, now has 45-108 new bike parking spaces (on what looks like 9 racks); the capacity depends on how people lock up their bikes. The bike rack type is called the “campus rack” and “hangers” are what you lean a bike against and lock to. The bike parking area is partially sheltered, has some lighting, is visible from multiple streets, and very close to a station entrance. The area is in the site of what used to be a retail space at approximately 1400 W Lunt Ave, at Greenwood Ave on the west side of the ‘L’ viaduct.

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Morse’s new bike parking area. Photo by Justin Haugens. 

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Thorndale’s new bike parking area. Photo by Rudy Luciani. 

The Thorndale Red Line station received the same racks with an identical capacity. According to an email conversation I had with a CTA staffer and a staffer in 49th ward Alderman Joe Moore’s office, the area will be fenced with “two (2) 10′ openings exiting the bike lot to the north (sidewalk) and east (alley)”; these will not be gated entrances. A DIY bike repair stand, the seventh in Chicago (all installed in 2012), was also installed. The bike parking area is on the south side of Thorndale, across the street from the station entrance, in what used to be a car parking lot.

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Thorndale’s DIY bike repair stand. Photo by Rudy Luciani. 

I am awaiting funding cost and source information from the CTA.

4 thoughts on “Renovated Morse and Thorndale ‘L’ stations have new bike parking”

  1. Can you explain the ways that people may lock their bikes to these racks, and how that affects capacity?

      1. I do agree with you; being unfamiliar with this type of rack, I would be unsure at first how to lock my bike to it (but I’m sure I would work it out). I guess I was asking how Steven arrived at the 45 to 100 range.

    1. There are 5 hangers per rack and there are 9 racks, so 45 bike parking spaces. It’s feasible that a bicycle can be locked on each side of the hanger, providing 10 bicycle parking spaces per rack. There are 9 racks, so that’s 90 bicycle parking spaces. Then, the racks each have two vertical tubes on the end, providing an additional 18 bike parking spaces. So that actually makes for 108 bicycle parking spaces.

      I like this rack design because it provides a lot of space between bicycles making maneuvering them in/out of the hanger very easy. The designers of this bike parking area left a lot of aisle space, too.

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