parking in the bike lane

Keeping up with parking tickets: open discussion

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The Department of Finance continues to issue citations to people who park their cars in the bike lane, violating Municipal Code of Chicago 9-40-060. The rates have been as follows:

January to April, 5.07 citations per day
May, 6.65 citations per day
June, 5.87 citations per day
July, 6.58 citations per day
August, 4.55 citations per day

A few questions for readers:

Has this near-steady rate made a difference in your experience bicycling in Chicago, or should the City increase the ticketing rate?

Continue reading Keeping up with parking tickets: open discussion

Not every bike lane is cause for a celebration

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The Grand Avenue bike lane is less than 2 years old and came with destroyed pavement. This photo was taken between Clark and LaSalle Streets.

The addition of a bike lane on any given street is not necessarily a victory for citizen cyclists. In order to to be a worthy expansion of the cycling network, bike lanes should be installed (with appropriate contextual modifications) on streets where such an addition makes the roadway more conducive to comfortable cycling. Grand Avenue isn’t one of these streets. The addition of a bike lane between Orleans Street and Navy Pier in 2010, when no other changes were made to the street environment and design, did not make the street better to cycle on. There were preexisting issues that have remained long after the lane was striped.

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A right-turn lane would likely have fit at LaSalle Street, but instead drivers use the bike lane to prepare for their turn. Continue reading Not every bike lane is cause for a celebration

Take back the bike lane

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Take it back. The bike lane that is. Take it back from those who park in it, put their valet signs in it, park valet cars in it, pickup and drop off passengers in it, or generally illegally block the bike lane, forcing cyclists to merge into faster moving traffic to avoid it.

Two weeks ago, feeling sick and tired of the disrespect people have for facilities the City of Chicago and its funding partners (mainly the federal government) have built for the exclusive use of people riding bicycles, I confronted three people about their parking in the bike lane.

Continue reading Take back the bike lane