Steven Vance – Page 29

CDOT responds to open letter about police enforcement; still waiting for replies from mayor, police

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Citations issued for blocking the bike lane vary from year to year. This FedEx truck blocks the Kinzie Street protected bike lane, the city’s first.

In the open letter that Anne Alt and I wrote and mailed in early April to Mayor Rahm Emanuel, transportation commissioner Gabe Klein (CDOT), and police superintendent Garry McCarthy, we only received a reply from Klein. We don’t expect a response from the Mayor’s Office or the Chicago Police Department.

The letter has been pasted below.

The response from CDOT pointed out an inaccuracy in our letter’s data about the number of citations issued to motorists for parking in marked bikeways (bike lanes and marked shared lanes). The data, from the Department of Administrative Hearings, substantially undercounted the number of citations issued. The issue with this data is that it came from the wrong source and the numbers from that department likely represented contested citations.

Since receiving this letter, Grid Chicago has obtained new data, from the Department of Finance (known to most as the Department of Revenue). The number of citations issued for violating Municipal Code of Chicago 9-40-060, are as follows (rates in parentheses): Continue reading CDOT responds to open letter about police enforcement; still waiting for replies from mayor, police

Fatality tracker: Person dies at Ravenswood platform

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A train passes over Lawrence Avenue at the Ravenswood Metra station.

2012 Chicago fatality stats*:
Pedestrian: 6 (5 have been from hit-and-run crashes, the other person was struck by a train)
Pedalcyclist: 0
Transit: 5 (the previous four were from a 30-day period in March-April)

A northbound UP North Metra train struck and killed a person on the platform at the Ravenswood station (4800 N Ravenswood) on Tuesday, May 29. The train was not scheduled to stop there.

The pedestrian was killed in the incident, but officials are not releasing his or her identity Tuesday night, a spokesman for the Cook County Medical Examiner’s office said. CBS2

If you find more information, please leave a note or link in the comments. The station is being reconstructed.

* The information is only accurate as of this post’s publishing time and includes only people who died in the Chicago city limits. View previous Fatality Tracker posts.

Bridges update: Halsted now fully open, Chicago Avenue to be reconstructed, one lawsuit settled so far

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Photo of the reconstructed Halsted Street bridge at Chicago Avenue (looking north) by Ian Freimuth.

John’s interview with Lorena Cupcake on Monday generated some new chatter about open grate bridges on Twitter. We’ve written about the dangerous bridges several times before and called for them to be fixed, even offering to trade 25 miles of Mayor Emanuel’s 100 miles of protected bike lanes for 25 safe bridges. Since then I’ve heard nothing but support for the idea from people who want truly safe connections across the Chicago River even if it meant fewer cycle tracks and buffered bike lane – the sentiment is based largely on the desire to maintain and fix what exists, rather than build anew.

Halsted Street

You can now continuously ride (in the street, no sidewalk jumping necessary) on Halsted Street from Chicago Avenue to Division Street, over Goose Island. The bridge at Division Street was replaced and opened in December 2011, while the bridge at Chicago Avenue had its deck replaced (among other changes). On the edges, a concrete surface was made in a new bike lane to make the bridge more comfortable for cycling.

The pavement marking design on Halsted Street going northbound approaching Division Street uses the centered bike lane design we panned in the article, How Danes make right turns. The bike lane is in between a 10 feet and 11 feet wide travel lane, for about 500 feet, so cyclists will be passed by buses and trucks on both sides. For over 300 feet of the 500 feet section, the bike lane has only dashed lines, possibly reducing its overall visibility. This situation is found on several other streets around Chicago. Dan Ciskey told us, “I hate getting passed by people going 40 MPH on both sides of me on Roosevelt Road”. Roosevelt Road between State Street and Canal Street has a collection of different bike lane designs: There’s a centered bike lane in each direction for hundreds of feet, then the bike lane is shared (again in each direction) with an ambiguously marked bus lane for hundreds more feet. Continue reading Bridges update: Halsted now fully open, Chicago Avenue to be reconstructed, one lawsuit settled so far

Grid Shots: River and bridge edition

I’m in Richmond, Virginia, currently, biking up and down these dang HILLS. I’ll have a post up later this week about bike culture here (this is my first time in this region of the country). So this Grid Shots about bridges and the river is super short, with little commentary. Feel free to add your own captions in the comments – I’ve numbered the photos for easy reference.

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Photo 1 by Eric Rogers.

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Photo 2 by Michelle Stenzel. Continue reading Grid Shots: River and bridge edition

Upcoming events for May and June

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Photo of Chicagoan bicycling across the Kinzie Street bridge by John Iwanski.

This is your sustainable transportation upcoming events calendar, with 20 events. You can subscribe to our events calendar via Google Calendar.

May

Monday, May 28 is the extended deadline for the Bike Video PSA. The competition, sponsored by Goose Island, Bike Chicago (Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events), Bicycle Film Festival, and The Chainlink, began in early May. Read our earlier post.

Tuesday, May 29 is the Wolf Point skyscraper development meeting, a project that intends to bring over 1,000 car parking spaces to an already congested area. The meeting, while not required by any law or policy, is being called by 42nd Ward Alderman Reilly. “The Hines Development Team will present their proposed plan for the site; discuss their Traffic Study (commissioned at my request); and answer your questions about the Proposal.”

Holiday Inn, Wolf Point Ballroom
350 West Mart Center Drive
Chicago, IL Continue reading Upcoming events for May and June

Quickly: Union Station Master Plan study released today at breakfast on vintage train

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Paul Nowicki, assistant vice president of government and policy at BNSF and MPC board member, speaks before breakfast on one of his company’s executive inspection trains. Photos by Ryan Griffin-Stegink, courtesy of Metropolitan Planning Council.

I had breakfast this morning with planning and railroad industry folks on a BNSF Railway train built a few decades ago to celebrate the release of the Chicago Department of Transportation’s Union Station Master Plan Study. The breakfast was hosted by BNSF (operator of the Metra BNSF Railway to Aurora, Illinois) and Metropolitan Planning Council (MPC), one of the plan’s many partners.

Download the entire study (6 MB .pdf), or view it in parts on the Master Plan’s official website. Read MPC’s blog about the project. Continue reading Quickly: Union Station Master Plan study released today at breakfast on vintage train