Category: Grid Extras

See what bikes can do at the Cargo Bike Roll Call on Saturday at West Town Bikes

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Once again Grid Chicago will be producing the Cargo Bike Roll Call, a social event about what’s possible with bicycling, and how people in Chicago use their bicycles to carry children, dirt for community gardens, or deliver goods.

Saturday, June 9, 2012, from 6 PM to 10 PM
West Town Bikes
2459 W Division Street (same as 1147 N Campbell)

By doing this in June we’ll have more hours of daylight than we did last September!

[flickr]photo:6187991714[/flickr] Continue reading See what bikes can do at the Cargo Bike Roll Call on Saturday at West Town Bikes

Celebrating our approaching one-year anniversary with another contest

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We want more readers. We want these three reading Grid Chicago, and getting involved in making sustainable transportation in Chicagoland better.

Grid Chicago launched with this article on June 17, 2011. At the time of this publishing we’ve written 351,597 words in 444 posts. We want to grow the number of Facebook likes from the current 640. This is a great place to promote our articles, but it’s also been the home of many sideline discussions. We want 1,000 Facebook likes by June 17, 2012, so we’re giving away more stuff.

The prizes are your choice of one of three books or a Planet Bike accessory:

To enter to win, just answer our question on Facebook:

What project that opened in 2012 or will open later in the year are you most looking forward to?

We’ve listed four options, but you can add your own. If you don’t already “like” us on Facebook, you’ll have to do so to answer the question. As of 13:22 and since the question was posted over 18 hours ago, “more protected bike lanes” is winning. I’ve added a couple more options to get people thinking.

Update June 18 at 17:48: The winner is Aidan Dixon, please contact Steven, steve @ stevevance.net. We gained 43 new “likes”. We’ll be running more contests as times goes on. 

Fatality tracker: Person pinned between building wall and car dies

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Photo by Drew Baker. 

2012 Chicago fatality stats*:

Pedestrian: 7 (5 have been from hit-and-run crashes, 1 was struck by a train, and the 7th is described here)
Pedalcyclist: 0
Transit: 5

I wonder if this kind of crash would have been prevented if curbs were taller. From the Chicago Tribune:

A 63-year-old woman died after getting pinned against a currency exchange wall by a car whose driver accidentally stepped on the gas instead of the brake, police said.

[Carol Divincenzo] was hit at the corner of 67th Street and Pulaski Road about 9:25 p.m., police said. [67th Street is also known as Marquette Road.]

The driver, also a woman in her 60s, is in custody but not expected to face criminal charges, police said. She may be cited for not having insurance and striking a pedestrian but police said she was not under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

Continue reading Fatality tracker: Person pinned between building wall and car dies

Recap: New bike lanes and NATO closures, plus upcoming Bloomingdale Trail and bike plan meetings

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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

Thursday, May 10

Friday, May 11

Saturday, May 12

Sunday, May 13

Monday, May 14

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.

The Grid Network is deprecated, but the links page lives on

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The CTA Morgan Green/Pink Line station will open this month. Photo by Seth Anderson. 

I’ve stopped updating the Grid Network page; no new posts since mid-April appear there. I coded the function myself and it was using too many server resources to operate, slowing down the website. The Network was build on top of our Links page, so that lives on.

Here are some of the new links we’ve added:

  • Transport Nexus. A focus on transportation policy as it relates to land use. Very wonky and written by a transit agency employee.
  • Let the Midway Bloom. The author writes about transportation in the Hyde Park area, and promotes small streets as a way to revitalize neighborhoods. He also advocates for dense housing in the Midway.
  • Chicago Streetcar Renaissance. Streetcars can be used as an economic development tool. Chicago was once riddled with tram lines.
  • TRANSPORT/LAND. A Portland, Oregon-based blog about using cargo bikes for disaster relief, coffee delivery, and carrying grandkids on trikes.

What other links should we add?

Visit our different social media outlets, which offer additional ways to find new websites, photos, and videos. 

Get Lit campaign to distribute lights to those without is nearing first event

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Win this Monkeylectric spoke light by donating to Get Lit by May 30th. 

The Get Lit-Use Lights At Night campaign, that I run with fundraising and event management support from Active Transportation Alliance, is raising money very slowly. But that’s not going to stop us from having the first distribution event in June. Nine donors have given $166, putting us $80 short of our first event and $1,634 of buying a lot of lights. But Jim Freeman (a major sponsor of Grid Chicago and the first sponsor of Get Lit) has helped secure a donation of 250 lights for cyclists. Remember, state and city law require a front white light.

Continue reading Get Lit campaign to distribute lights to those without is nearing first event