Tag: event review

From safety to where? Discussing the future of safe streets at a CNU talk

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Rob Bielaski, Steven, Mark de la Vergne, Eric Dumbaugh.

By coincidence both Steven and I recently appeared on two different panels about sustainable transportation within a few days of each other. Last Thursday I was part of the talk “Chicago Cycling: What’s Next?” at the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum in conjunction with their “Bikes! The Green Revolution” exhibit. Monday Steven participated in the discussion “Safe Streets,” hosted by the Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU) at the Jefferson Tap, 325 N. Jefferson in the West Loop. The panelists talked about what makes streets safe, and discussed new developments in Chicago street design.

Based in Chicago and headed my former Milwaukee mayor John Norquist, CNU is a nonprofit that promotes walkable, bikeable, transit-friendly, mixed-use development. Joining Steven on the panel, which doubled as CNU’s monthly happy hour, were Eric Dumbaugh, an associate professor at Florida Atlantic University who has authored more than forty books about transportation and urban planning, and Mark de la Vergne, a project manager at Sam Schwartz Engineering who has worked on Chicago’s pedestrian plan, the Streets for Cycling 2020 plan, and will be involved with siting and outreach for the city’s upcoming bike sharing program.

Continue reading From safety to where? Discussing the future of safe streets at a CNU talk

Get Lit lights up 115 bikes in its first distribution event

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Father and daughter on their custom scraper bikes, with Skim, a volunteer. 

Because of the gracious donations of Jim Freeman and 12 donors, Get Lit held its first bike light distribution event on Friday, June 8, in Lincoln Park. Ten volunteers (Calvin, Brandon, Erik, Wilbur, Skim, Adrianna, Santiago, Jim, Rebecca, and myself) distributed lights to 115 people at Diversey Avenue and Orchard Street, and Clark Street and Diversey Avenue for two hours. The recipients included food delivery guys, couples on dates (or so I guess), a father and daughter riding through the neighborhood, and countless others who didn’t know state law (and the desire to be seen) requires a front headlight.

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Calvin installs a light. 

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This recent graduate of DePaul’s law school is happy to know he now rides a bike legally at night. 

See the full photoset.

One of the Get Lit donors has been randomly chosen to receive the Monkeylectric spoke lights I advertised in May. Derek R., please email Grid Chicago to claim it (you should have received an email announcing you as the winner). Get Lit is a partnership with Active Transportation Alliance and we are now collecting donations to put on a second event in 2012: you can donate online at Active Transportation Alliance’s special Get Lit website, mail your donation to their office with “Get Lit” in the memo (address at the end), or hand it to me.

Do you have an idea of where the next Get Lit distribution event should be? Would your business or organization like to sponsor a Get Lit event in a certain area or at an already-scheduled event? Contact me.

Active Transportation Alliance
9 W Hubbard, Suite 402
Chicago, IL 60654

Cargo Bike Roll Call is an opportunity to test cool bikes and grow community

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The author and his mother. Ed. note: I asked Calvin Brown to write a review of the Cargo Bike Roll Call so that I didn’t end up reviewing my own event.

Last Saturday, June 9, 2012, was Cargo Bike Roll Call (second edition), which means that I finally got to ride a cargo bike for the first time, unless “surfing” on a trailer attached to a cargo bike counts. The event is unique because cargo bikes are not something you see very often in Chicago or the United States. At the event, however, the brilliant subculture emerged and a wide spectrum of cargo bikes amassed at West Town Bikes. Scouring the web for photos and videos of the amazing possibilities and capabilities of bicycles is always worthwhile, but the event brings the foreign and unusual realm of cargo bikes home to Chicago, where a robust and growing cycle culture is starting to reshape and improve our city, but which has also not fully exploited the magic of the cargo bike. Yes, I see a lot of other folks sporting a nice red milk crate on the back of their bike, like me, but I am much more likely to see a delivery truck parked in every bike lane, than I am to see a bicycle carrying some real cargo. Continue reading Cargo Bike Roll Call is an opportunity to test cool bikes and grow community

Green Lane Project to accelerate better bike lane development across the country

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Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) director Victor Mendez speaks to the audience with Bikes Belong president Tim Blumenthal. Photo by David Schalliol. 

A soirée and a press conference in Chicago two weeks ago (May 30-31), bookended the launch of the Green Line Project, an initiative of the Bikes Belong Foundation and its six grant cities. The Green Lane Project is a sharing and technical assistance effort to build “better” bike lanes, to “propagate them faster across the country”, as Martha Roskowski, project manager, put it.

What is a Green Lane? From the project website, “A Green Lane is a statement about how we experience our communities,” but from an infrastructure sense, a green lane is a European-style bike lane “adapted to meet the unique needs of American streets”.

Continue reading Green Lane Project to accelerate better bike lane development across the country

Bike sharing delays, bike lane designs, and other highlights from Wednesday’s MBAC meeting

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CDOT staffer Mike Amsden describes the city’s commitment to bicycling in a presentation about the progress of the Streets for Cycling Plan 2020. 

Yesterday’s Mayor’s Bicycle Advisory Council (MBAC) meeting was the first in a new format we reported on back in December. There was a meeting in March, but its schedule wasn’t announced. The new format resembles the original format in 1992, when Mayor Daley started MBAC, with formally defined membership. It’s now modeled on the Mayor’s Pedestrian Advisory Council, according to Luann Hamilton, deputy commissioner of project development at the Chicago Department of Transportation (CDOT). She expounded:

We’ve added so many issues. When we started, biking in Chicago wasn’t a health issue, it was a recreation issue. Once it was linked to health, it brought in a whole new group of people that needed to be connected. Bring more voices, more diversity. Modeled after our MPAC which was formed in 2006 (also has technical and stakeholders committees). Some represent agencies, others are advocates, community members, all who want to make streets safer and usable by all travelers.

The council can be active again, vote, carry motion, write a letter. I think we were instrumental in creating changes, like at CTA and Metra [getting them to allow bicycles on buses and trains]. I think this Council can have a powerful voice. All the folks who have come over the years can still come and make presentations.

The first hour is for members to speak and present. The remaining half hour is for public comments and discussion. Hamilton answered affirmatively to Active Transportation Alliance executive director Ron Burke’s question about whether or not she anticipates the council being able to make recommendations. Continue reading Bike sharing delays, bike lane designs, and other highlights from Wednesday’s MBAC meeting

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