4 ms·

I bike in Chicago year round, and have done so for the past decade. What Chicago has done well: * Curb and bollard protected bike lanes (Elston and Dearborn

I bike in Chicago year round, and have done so for the past decade. What Chicago has done well: * Curb and bollard protected bike lanes (Elston and Dearborn are examples) * Large areas painted green at the front of intersections, giving bikes a dedicated place to stop at the head of traffic. * Connecting trails and bike lanes to form a network of paths * Dedicated bike ways like the 606 and the Chicago river flyover * Adding more lane capacity on the Lake Shore Trail * The parks district does a great job keeping essential commuting routes on trails clear of snow and maintained * Continuing to invest in the rollout of Divvy and add more e-bikes to the fleet That being said, there are still too many sharrows and painted lanes with no buffer zone (getting doored sucks). There are still too many heavy commuting routes like Clark St where the bike lanes disappear in many sections (near the zoo is still awful). Bikes are still very much de-prioritized for cars, especially when there's construction. We've had significant snow the past few weeks and many bike lanes will just be wastelands of ice and slush until the weather gets warm enough for it to melt. But we have multiple cargo bike and e-bike dealers in the city, and the more families and non-competitive cyclists we get on the road the better things will get. It really helps normalize cycling as a form of essential transportation, instead of being viewed as recreation and sport.

Wonnk13 5y ago
Of course as soon as I move away they convert Milwaukee ave to a protected bike lane. I'm not crazy about the midwest overall, but I thought Chicago was one of (if not the most) bikeable city in the country. The combination of bike lanes, lakefront path, and grid layout make it very easy to get around on a bike. Damn now I miss that city :(
throwaway894345 5y ago
I don’t bike, but I’d love to see some enforcement for the ubers and delivery vehicles that block bike lanes (and alleys and so on). But it’s Chicago so I’m not holding my breath.
- alamortsubite 5y ago
  Creepy municipal surveillance cameras are everywhere in my city, ostensibly for our security. If they were used for the enforcement you describe, my opinion of them would change completely.
  - throwaway894345 5y ago
    Yeah, in Chicago the police don’t care much for these kinds of minor offenses, so I don’t think camera footage would help. I regularly see people blow hard red lights in front of a sitting squad car and nothing happens. You call 911 because someone is getting the shit beaten out of them in broad daylight and a squad car might roll out in 20 minutes or it might not show up at all. (To be clear, I’m not anti-cop and I doubt this has anything to do with individual officers rather than explicit or implicit policing policy, but it really sucks) And when the city tries to solve traffic problems with automation, some politician always figures out how to weaponized it against the citizenry—for example, the speeding cameras which are only supposed to be placed near parks and schools get placed near cemeteries and random patches of grass (especially in poorer neighborhoods) and you don’t get your warning or tickets for a month or more (giving you lots of time to accrue more offenses and defeating the purpose altogether). And the cherry on top is the “appeals process” policy is to deny all appeals. Ultimately, bike infrastructure may be the only thing Chicago does passably. :’)
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]

Wonnk13 5y ago

Of course as soon as I move away they convert Milwaukee ave to a protected bike lane. I'm not crazy about the midwest overall, but I thought Chicago was one of (if not the most) bikeable city in the country. The combination of bike lanes, lakefront path, and grid layout make it very easy to get around on a bike. Damn now I miss that city :(

throwaway894345 5y ago

I don’t bike, but I’d love to see some enforcement for the ubers and delivery vehicles that block bike lanes (and alleys and so on). But it’s Chicago so I’m not holding my breath.

alamortsubite 5y ago
Creepy municipal surveillance cameras are everywhere in my city, ostensibly for our security. If they were used for the enforcement you describe, my opinion of them would change completely.
- throwaway894345 5y ago
  Yeah, in Chicago the police don’t care much for these kinds of minor offenses, so I don’t think camera footage would help. I regularly see people blow hard red lights in front of a sitting squad car and nothing happens. You call 911 because someone is getting the shit beaten out of them in broad daylight and a squad car might roll out in 20 minutes or it might not show up at all. (To be clear, I’m not anti-cop and I doubt this has anything to do with individual officers rather than explicit or implicit policing policy, but it really sucks) And when the city tries to solve traffic problems with automation, some politician always figures out how to weaponized it against the citizenry—for example, the speeding cameras which are only supposed to be placed near parks and schools get placed near cemeteries and random patches of grass (especially in poorer neighborhoods) and you don’t get your warning or tickets for a month or more (giving you lots of time to accrue more offenses and defeating the purpose altogether). And the cherry on top is the “appeals process” policy is to deny all appeals. Ultimately, bike infrastructure may be the only thing Chicago does passably. :’)
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]