Category: Bicycling

NACTO is for cities, AASHTO is for states: This video is about “Cities for Cycling”

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As part of the Cities for Cycling program, bikeway design experts take their show on the road, using the streets of different U.S. cities as their classroom and the new NACTO design book as their guide.

Watch this Streetfilms video featuring CDOT’s Gabe Klein and David Gleason, experts from Portland, Oregon, New York City, and San Francisco, as well as Lee Crandell, campaigns director at Active Transportation Alliance, and Margo O’Hara, a co-leader of the Streets for Cycling Plan’s North Side district. Continue reading NACTO is for cities, AASHTO is for states: This video is about “Cities for Cycling”

Last week’s South Side Streets for Cycling meeting

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Peter Taylor points out a route on the Southeast Side

Last Wednesday I put my bicycle on the Red Line, rode down to 95th Street and pedaled over to the Woodson Library, 9525 S. Halsted in Longwood Manor, for the second of three public meetings for the Streets for Cycling Plan 2020. Read Steven’s recap of the previous week’s session at the Garfield Park Conservatory here.

The last meeting of the series takes place this evening from 6-8 pm at the Sulzer Library, 4455 N. Lincoln Lincoln Square. If you can’t make it, there are also webinars you can attend online on Friday and Monday from noon to 1 pm.

Continue reading Last week’s South Side Streets for Cycling meeting

Introducing the Bike 2015 Plan Tracker

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One of the strategies in the Bike 2015 Plan is to “establish 2 north-south bikeways and 4 east-west bikeways to and within the Loop by 2010” (see strategy details). No bikeways were built until the Madison Street westbound bikeway in 2011. Photo by Joseph Dennis. 

I was frustrated after a short bicycle ride on Lincoln Avenue Saturday night to the Heritage Bicycles party. A long stretch of the bike lane in the 43rd Ward received brand new striping and bicycle symbols last year but there were many “features” on the ride I didn’t appreciate: taxi drivers blocking the bike lane and making sudden u-turns, valets putting traffic cones in the bike lane, a pinch point under the ‘L’ viaduct at Lincoln and Wrightwood (created by the too-long parking lane), a long crack in the pavement where I wanted to ride to avoid the door zone, odd bike lane designs*, and lots of potholes. Dottie wrote about this sorry bike route in August.

Continue reading Introducing the Bike 2015 Plan Tracker

Cycling and dog walking, how common is it?

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This story is about cycling to the dogs, not cycling with dogs, but I thought it was a fun photo. By Kerry Lannert. 

AJ LaTrace, who writes Chiboulevards, interviewed the manager of and dog walker with Chicago Pet Sitters, Jared Honn. A lot of the interview focused on how Honn cycles to the dogs he walks. Oh, and how Honn races cyclocross and has tips for cycling in the winter. Do you think this counts as a “bike business”?

Check out Honn’s comments about owning a car and cycling. Do other people feel guilty doing both? I know several advocates of a better environment for cycling in Chicago also owns cars. I don’t think there’s a dichotomy in this situation:

I biked every day for my job for the first two years. I still bike predominantly. Only recently did I get a car, which I purchased so I could get out to bike races in the suburbs or to the velodrome in Northbrook. I’ll use it for work every once and a while when my body is feeling beat up, or if I need to transport dogs. As a cyclist, I feel plenty of guilt and mixed emotions when I’m driving.

Read the full interview. One more excerpt, though:

Biking in the correct clothes is about 99% of winter cycling, from what I’ve experienced.

I couldn’t agree more. If you’ve lived in Chicago for at least one winter, then you already have all the clothes you need.

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Everyone deserves a break. Photo by Incandenzafied. It turns out there’s a group on Flickr with 441 photos featuring biking with dogs. 

North Side Streets for Cycling planning district also looking for additional input

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People cycle on Wrightwood Avenue at Southport Avenue, a street that residents of the North Side district would like to see as a bicycle boulevard. Photo by Eric Rogers. 

John wrote on Tuesday about the West Side district’s efforts for the Streets for Cycling Plan 2020. I just received an email from the North Side district (North Avenue to Howard Street, east of the Chicago River) asking for people’s input. Continue reading North Side Streets for Cycling planning district also looking for additional input

Co-leaders discuss the West Side advisory group for Streets for Cycling

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Steven Lane and Johanna Thompson with a map of the West Side region

As as sub-consultant for CDOT’s Streets for Cycling Plan 2020 to create 150 – 250 miles of innovative bikeways, Active Transportation Alliance has formed community advisory groups in nine regions of the city to collect input from residents. To get involved, find contact info for the advisory group in your part of the town.

Last Sunday I caught up with Johanna Thompson and Steven Lane, co-leaders of the West Side advisory group, responsible for the region bounded by Belmont Street, the Kennedy Expressway, the Eisenhower Expressway and the city’s western limits. They were hosting a drop-in session for community members at New Wave Coffee, 2551 N. Milwaukee in Logan Square, and they filled me in on what they’re doing to solicit feedback from people of all cycling abilities and every neighborhood in their region.

Continue reading Co-leaders discuss the West Side advisory group for Streets for Cycling