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

Dottie Brackett talks women’s cycling at the Chainlink’s bike education series

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Last night I swung by a Chainlink Biking Semester class on biking tips for women, “The Lady and the Bike,” taught by Let’s Go Ride a Bike blogger Dottie Brackett at next Door Café, 659 W. Diversey in Lincoln Park. The Chainlink, a social networking site for Chicago cyclists, is hosting the bike ed series at the café all summer.

Vanessa Buccella, who we interviewed last winter, is teaching “Racing 101” on Tuesday, June 19, from 6:30-7:30 pm. Future Chainlink classes include “Basics To Keep Your Bike Riding Through Summer” on July 10 and “How To Not Get Your Bike Stolen and What You Can Do to Get It Back” on July 24.

Steven and I are fans of Dottie’s blog, co-written with Trisha Ping, a great source of info, especially for women, about getting around by bike without sacrificing your personal style, including great photography and fun stories of the ladies’ two-wheeled adventures. Last year I interviewed Dottie for Newcity magazine and dubbed her “The Martha Stewart of Chicago Cycling.” She didn’t seem to mind.

Continue reading Dottie Brackett talks women’s cycling at the Chainlink’s bike education series

South Siders check out the draft Streets for Cycling Plan

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Checking out information about the “Four Star Bike Routes” concept at the meeting. All photos in this post courtesy of the Chicago Department of Transportation (CDOT).

Last Thursday’s Streets for Cycling public meeting was the second of several opportunities for input on the recently revealed draft of the Citywide 2020 Network.  The meeting alternated open sessions for reviewing various aspects of the network plan and talking to planners with presentation/Q&A sessions.

It was my first time inside the Gary Comer Youth Center, a very distinctive piece of modern architecture.  The meeting was held in a third floor meeting room, adjacent to a beautiful roof garden surrounded by glass-walled interior space.  We had a great view of the enormous community garden across the street.

Continue reading South Siders check out the draft Streets for Cycling Plan

Comment of the day: Would CTA’s Dan Ryan Red Line closure “go down” in the north side?

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The 63rd Street Red Line station will become accessible in the CTA’s “Red South Track Renewal Project” closure in summer 2013. 

A commenter on the Riders for Better Transit Facebook page, responding to their question about what Chicago Transit Authority passengers think of the transit agency’s plan to shut down the Dan Ryan portion of the Red Line for 5 months of track replacement, stated “I think this NEVER would go down for the Northbound Red Line”. Here’s the project summary:

Starting in Spring 2013, the CTA will rebuild the tracks along the south Red Line, from Cermak-Chinatown to 95th/Dan Ryan—a project that will provide faster, more comfortable and more reliable service for Red Line riders.

Here’s one reason why: The number of passengers who use the “North Side Main Line”, as the north side section of the Red Line is sometimes referred to, is greater than the State Street subway section (as a whole), or the Dan Ryan section (as a whole and as an average per station). Continue reading Comment of the day: Would CTA’s Dan Ryan Red Line closure “go down” in the north side?

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. 

Island delights: a bike tour of Blue Island with Active Trans’ Jane Healy

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Jane Healy, Mike Healy and Jason Berry.

[This piece also appeared in Checkerboard City, John’s weekly transportation column in Newcity magazine, which hits the streets in print on Wednesday evenings.]

Jane Healy is a diehard booster of the blue-collar south suburb of Blue Island, and she’s the ultimate biker mama. [I borrowed this phrase from J. Harry Wray’s book Pedal Power, which also profiles Jane, since I couldn’t think of a better term to describe her.] Along with her husband Mike and kids Will, Katie and Genevieve, she usually pedals to get around this scruffy railroad town of some 22,500 people, located just south of Chicago and straddling the Calumet-Sag Channel. Jane is board president of the Active Transportation Alliance advocacy group, and she’s been spearheading Blue Island’s current bike boom, helping get hundreds of local kids jazzed about cycling.

Continue reading Island delights: a bike tour of Blue Island with Active Trans’ Jane Healy