Category: Grid Extras

Chicago ‘L’ hangman game

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Michael Jantzen, a Washington, D.C. programmer and photographer whose photos I’ve published here, sent me a link to his Chicago ‘L’ hangman game he created after Transportation Camp there last weekend. (I went to Transportation Camp in San Francisco in March 2011.) The game features the Chicago Transit Authority’s 143 rail stations.

Play it now!

Some are going to be really easy, like “87TH” in the screenshot above. I guess I should have refreshed the page and taken a screenshot of a more difficult station!

The Bike-a-Bee project is generating quite a buzz

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Jana Kinsman models a beekeeper’s veil by her hives at Eden Place nature center

Chicago cyclist Jana Kinsman has a honey of a plan. As a freelance graphic designer and illustrator, she did design, illustration and modeling for the 2011 and 2012 Thought You Knew pin-up calendars, featuring glamorous photos of local bicyclists. But last summer while apprenticing at an apiary (a place where bees, not apes, are kept) in Oregon, she got bitten by the bug. She decided to start Bike-a-Bee, a car-free beekeeping project back home in the Windy City.

Kinsman recently created a Kickstarter page to raise $7,000 for hive equipment and packages of bees, plus a bike trailer to transport the gear to apiaries she’ll maintain at urban farms and community gardens all over town. I’m never one to mind my own beeswax when it comes to innovative cycling ideas, so I caught up with her yesterday morning at Café Mustache in Logan Square, where she filled me in on the history and details of her plan, still in its larval phase.

Continue reading The Bike-a-Bee project is generating quite a buzz

How to create your own online map: Google My Maps

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You could make a digital, online version of this map that residents created at the Bloomingdale Trail charrette. 

We constantly use maps on Grid Chicago, displaying photos of them, or embedding and linking to them. Here’re all the articles with embedded maps. I’ve even gotten John to make a map for the stealth routes! This is a tutorial on how to create your own map. Continue reading How to create your own online map: Google My Maps

Don’t forget those bike parking awards nominations

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There are six categories for Ding Ding Let’s Ride-Grid Chicago bike parking awards: four “bests” and two “most in need of”. Nominate a location now!

  • Best Civic
    Government building, library, community center, etc.
  • Best Grocery Store
    National chain, local chain or store or corner bodega/deli
  • Best Non-Grocery Store business
    Retail store, restaurant, tavern, gym, medical office, etc
  • Best Multi-Unit Housing
    Either public or private housing
  • Most in need of Bike Parking
    A location from one of the above categories that has NO bike parking at all, and desparately needs it
  • Most in need of Improvement
    A location from one of the categories above that desparately needs it’s existing bike parking repaired or improved

Continue reading Don’t forget those bike parking awards nominations

Book club update #1: More crashes close to home

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This is the first “book club” update. Read the introduction. 

I only read up to page 102 in Tom Vanderbilt’s “Traffic: Why we drive the way we do (and what it says about us)” before I had to return it to the Chicago Public Library. And since it was overdue I didn’t have the chance to renew it. I liked the book so much and I was underlining and making notes in a public book so I decided to buy it.

My used book arrived from Amazon and I wanted to tell you about one of the (hundreds of) interesting facts and findings: Continue reading Book club update #1: More crashes close to home

Our first year: The most popular articles

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The new Halsted Street bridge over the North Branch Canal opened Friday. 

We launched on June 17th this year. We reached a few goals, and almost reached a couple others, and published 215 articles. We hit 100,000 page views in November, and we hope to double that soon, in less time.

These are the 10 most viewed articles up to December 22, 2011:

  1. Postal service making a mockery of Kinzie protected bike lane
    I’m not sure if they still are, but I know that FedEx, UPS, and moving companies continue to block the bike lane. This article received 55 comments.
  2. The second annual Bike Fashion Panel: sharp dressed men
    Dottie says: “I see a lot of women on bikes who are looking really nice, but I think I’ve only ever seen one man riding a bike in a suit”.
  3. How did progressive transportation czar Gabe Klein get that way?
    Out of the top 3 articles, this one’s been published for the shortest time. Continue reading Our first year: The most popular articles