The Chainlink

Yesterday's Mayor’s Bicycle Advisory Council Meeting - Thoughts?

I attended the meeting as well (it was my first). I plan to continue to attend. Did you attend? What did you think? What do you you think of the topics covered (see below for Steve Vance's recap on Streetsblog Chicago)?

About 45 “civilians” – people who weren’t obligated to attend – showed up for yesterday’s Mayor’s Bicycle Advisory Council meeting yesterday, making it one of the most democratic MBAC meetings ever. The council, which meets quarterly at City Hall during the workday, usually draws only about 10-15 attendees who aren’t there in an official capacity, many of whom are regulars who show up for almost every meeting.

At the MBAC meetings staff from the Chicago Department of Transportation, the Chicago Park District, Divvy, and the Active Transportation Alliance report on their recent and upcoming projects to make the city more bike-friendly. One reason for the big turnout from yesterday was this summer’s epidemic of fatal crashes. Since the previous MBAC meeting in June, four people biking were struck and killed in Chicago by reckless drivers of commercial vehicles within the space of about two months.

http://chi.streetsblog.org/2016/09/08/cdot-citizen-support-is-neces...

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Permalink Reply by Clement Jett on September 8, 2016 at 2:01pm

I was there and it was pretty disappointing as the article notes

"[Rebekah Scheinfeld] asked that people in the room “lead by example” and “think of yourselves as an unofficial ambassador” for safe streets when walking, bicycling, or driving in the city. She even suggested “calling out other people” for unsafe or inconsiderate behavior on the roadway if one felt comfortable doing so."

This was really hard to choke down when many of the people I see violating traffic laws and putting cyclists and peds in danger are folks in city, cpd, and cta vehicles. They should be the ones leading by example.

Permalink Reply by Anne Alt on September 9, 2016 at 9:12am

I'm with you on this. I live in a neighborhood with many first responders. Some of the worst violators I see in terms of running stop signs, failing to stop for pedestrians and generally driving like jerks are police and firefighters. It's frustrating as hell.

I was disappointed with many of the responses in the meeting. While I understand that those running the meeting had some concern about discussion getting heated, I felt that the lack of time given to public comment was disrespectful to all of us who took time to be there. I didn't feel like any effort was made to keep the agenda on schedule to allow a fair amount of time for the number of people who I'm sure would have liked to speak during the public comment section.

Permalink Reply by Jeremy on September 9, 2016 at 1:20pm

Don't forget the mayor and how his chauffeurs are allowed to ignore red lights.

http://abc7chicago.com/news/mayors-motorcade-caught-running-red-lig...

Permalink Reply by Bob Kastigar on September 9, 2016 at 8:37pm

Damn, I missed the meeting.  Thanks, Steve and John, for providing the report.

The meetings were formerly on the 2nd Wednesday, and I was just following my computer calendar.  I did receive a note by subscribing but I guess I didn't read it to closely.

December, I'll try to remember to look more carefully.

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