[flickr]photo:8095621914[/flickr]
The Chicago Department of Transportation has made public its bike sharing station suggestion map, where you can click on a location on the map to say “this is a good place for a bike sharing station”, up-vote others’ suggestions, and see the most popular suggested locations.
Go suggest a good location now.
As of this writing, there are 116 locations suggested (and 123 additional votes for those locations), many (or most) of which were made during testing periods. Additionally, the map doesn’t show the ~150 locations that Bicycle Program Coordinator Ben Gomberg said at the September Mayor’s Bicycle Advisory Council meeting were already selected (the majority of which he said were at train stations). I expect there will be 1,000 suggestions within two weeks, so get crackin’.
There are five meetings on three days coming up later this month (you can see them in our calendar).
At the meetings in late October and early November, representatives from CDOT and Alta, the bicycle provider and operator, will discuss the new program and answer questions. Attendees can suggest locations to install bike stations in the proposed service area.
Monday, October 29
11:30h – 13h
Chicago Architecture Foundation
224 S Michigan Avenue
15 – 17h
Pop‐up meeting at Union Station
18:30 – 20h
Chicago Architecture Foundation
224 S Michigan Avenue
Tuesday, October 30
18:30 – 20h
Lincoln Belmont Public Library
1659 W Melrose Street
Tuesday, November 7
18:30 – 20h
Charles Hayes Center
4859 S Wabash Avenue
Tracking the rate of submissions
24 hours and 22 minutes later, on 10-17-12 at 20:50, there are now over four times as many station suggestion locations (477) and 1,963 additional votes for those locations. The most popular location is somewhere around the Polish Triangle, at Milwaukee/Ashland/Division, with 33 votes. The second most popular locations is the Logan Square CTA Blue Line station, with 28 votes (I submitted this one).
49 hours and 20 minutes after we first collected the suggestions, on 10-18-12 at 21:48, there are 578 suggested locations (an increase of only 21%) with 3,076 votes for those locations (only 5 locations lack non-submitter support, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5). First place remains the same, while the Western CTA Brown Line station is tied with the Logan Square CTA Blue Line station.
On 10-22-12 at 12:14, there are 826 suggestions and 5,759 votes for those locations (only 2 locations lack non-submitter support, 1, 2). The Polish Triangle location keeps its first place crown, now with 85 votes. Logan Square Blue and Western Brown CTA stations are no longer tied: Logan Square is 1 vote ahead!
I could waste days on this.
Just waste at least one.
I found one of Steven’s suggestions in Palmer Square. 🙂
I made a lot of suggestions. I like how the website tells me how many suggestions and up-votes I made.
This is going to be fun.
The map is fun, easy to work with. However, I’m surprised that neither the map nor the website mentions that the initial roll out has a boundary of Montrose, Damen, 41st and the lake. There are plans to expand bike share beyond that, and it’s great to see suggested locations all over the city, but it just seems like that information should be included.
The map works better with the fewest limitations so that people are free to make their choices and express desires for bike sharing in places that no one has thought of.
It seems like there might be more demand for these stations outside of the boundaries than inside. I’d have to imagine that there would be more interest at Loyola than at 41st and Damen,
Regardless of what I said previously, I do agree the initial service area’s boundary information should be obvious on the website, but I don’t think the website should prevent submissions outside the boundary.
Damen and 41st never intersect…
Aaargh, only Montrose to 41st, and Damen to the lake? Why did I just spend too much time locating stations in transit-starved Edison Park & Norwood Park?
You didn’t waste any time. The service boundary will be expanded slightly the following year. It might not be expanded to those neighborhoods but your efforts show where (1) people want to use bike sharing, and (2) it could be useful in a longer future.
Those neighborhoods are practically the suburbs, but the UP-NW Metra line does make stops there. That is not a practical substitution for the CTA’s “fast, frequent service” however, but it’s something at least.