What's different about riding on the south side?

Visit Grid Chicago, where I examine some of the issues we face on the south side, and where we might find some solutions.

 

Views: 720

▶ Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by zerofivenein on November 14, 2011 at 3:27pm

i ride from pilsen to logan square (18th to fullerton) pretty often and from logan square to the near south burbs (fullerton to 155th) pretty often. the only differences are that there are fewer/no bike lanes further south, and on occasion the roads arent as nice. but for the most part it's identical, except there aren't as many taxi drivers to run you down.

Permalink Reply by Anne Alt on November 14, 2011 at 5:54pm

There are also a lot more physical barriers to getting around, and fewer ways to get to your destination. 

 

The lack of taxi drivers is a stark contrast to the north side.  The abundance of trucks seems to balance out the near absence of cabs in the south side traffic picture.

Permalink Reply by Anne Alt on November 15, 2011 at 5:49am

For those of you who missed the link embedded in my original post, here it is.

Permalink Reply by Meg Matthews on November 15, 2011 at 9:42am

I don't live far south (I'm on 53rd), but I've felt pretty fortunate having MLK and Drexel nearby. I adore the MLK bike lane down to about Oakbrook; potholed or no, it's a nice wide lane with plenty of additional lanes for cars to pass beside me. When I'm further west, I take Damen from the north down to 18th (haaaate that Damen underpass around 14th) and cut through Pilsen from there. In general, I think we'd benefit from better east-west routes on the southside.

Permalink Reply by Anne Alt on November 15, 2011 at 11:56am

I like riding MLK and Drexel.  I agree that we have fewer good east-west routes than north-south routes south of Hyde Park.  That's definitely our weak link.

Permalink Reply by Anne Alt on November 16, 2011 at 12:40pm

Yep, we've got plenty of nothing.  Hey, gotta find some humor in it.  ;)

Jennifer said:

Vast swaths of nothing between where you are and where you want to go.

Permalink Reply by Anne Alt on November 16, 2011 at 6:03pm

Most of it is nothing from the average cyclist's perspective, unless you're seeking scenery that's different from the north side.  But did you get the musical joke in the link?

Jennifer said:

Well, relative nothing---the industrial areas (both current and former), the intermodal yards, Midway, Lake Calumet, etc. 

Anne Alt said:

Yep, we've got plenty of nothing.  Hey, gotta find some humor in it.  ;)

Jennifer said:

Vast swaths of nothing between where you are and where you want to go.

Permalink Reply by pistola on November 18, 2011 at 8:29am
In my experience, pedestrains & drivers are more hateful towards bikers/cyclists on the southside. I've been mugged and attacked by 'flash mobs' a few times on the southside, mostly along 55th Street. I've also been hit by a car biking down Archer while commuting from UIC to my former home in Archer Heights.
I'm really glad they paved a lot of Archer and Odgen recently. Odgen between Pulaski and Western is in pretty bad shape still however.
Permalink Reply by Anne Alt on November 18, 2011 at 9:33am

Sorry to hear that you've had so many negative experiences. 

My own experiences have varied a LOT depending on neighborhood.  From Roseland and Pullman over to Beverly and Morgan Park, I've rarely encountered confrontation or hate.  Woodlawn and South Shore have been reasonable for me, too.  In Mt. Greenwood, I've dealt with too many anti-bike attitudes.  A lot of drivers there don't seem to get the concept of bikes for transportation.


Archer is not an easy ride. Glad to hear that they've repaved sections of Archer and Ogden.  I've been on Ogden recently near Douglas Park, and I agree that section is awful.


I hope your south side riding is better in 2012.


pistola said:

In my experience, pedestrains & drivers are more hateful towards bikers/cyclists on the southside. I've been mugged and attacked by 'flash mobs' a few times on the southside, mostly along 55th Street. I've also been hit by a car biking down Archer while commuting from UIC to my former home in Archer Heights.
I'm really glad they paved a lot of Archer and Odgen recently. Odgen between Pulaski and Western is in pretty bad shape still however.
Permalink Reply by Anne Alt on November 18, 2011 at 10:03am

Back to the subject of "nothingness"...  There are many areas on the far southeast side that appear to be nothing at first glance.  In the former industrial sites, nature has made a remarkable comeback.  If you slow down and take a look, you may see many amazing, surprising things.  Most of the people who know these hidden secrets are birdwatchers, biology researchers and recreational fishermen.

 

A while back, Chicago Wilderness magazine did an in-depth feature on the Calumet region on both sides of the IL-IN border.  Environmental workdays organized by Friends of the Forest Preserves and the Calumet Stewardship Initiative are a great way to learn more about the abundance of plants and animals that have returned.  At a workday this year, I visited a site where extremely rare native plants have reappeared in areas that were formerly slag dumps.  Mother Nature can be amazingly resilient.

 

Thousands of people fly past Wolf Lake on the Indiana Tollway every day, not realizing what they're passing.  Much of what you might see there is subtle beauty, not the showy stuff you'd find at a botanic garden.  The marshlands of the southeast side and northwest Indiana have become important migratory bird stopovers, since they've become cleaner again.  If you visit there on the right day, you might even see sandhill cranes.  (I saw two flocks flying over our house yesterday, heading southeast.  The ones we see here are migrating between Wisconsin or Michigan's Upper Peninsula and Florida.)


Some of the areas are accessible by bike, while others are very difficult to reach by any means other than a car.  Which brings us back to our original topic...

Permalink Reply by Anne Alt on November 22, 2011 at 5:23am

Here's part 2 of the article.  If you have any observations or suggestions to offer, I'd like to hear them.  Feedback from anyone who rides on the south side, regardless of where they live, would be helpful going into the Streets for Cycling 2020 plan.

Permalink Reply by Anne Alt on August 7, 2012 at 2:24pm

I'd like to thank Steve for the compliment and for bringing up my 2-part Grid article again in another thread.  I wanted to separate this discussion from the accident discussion out of respect for the victim's family and friends.

The areas around intermodal yards and expressway interchanges are high on my list of places that are difficult for cyclists.  There are too many times when our only choices are between riding a very indirect, much longer route and riding a direct but hazardous one.  


I don't want to make any assumptions about yesterday's crash when we have so little information.  We don't know where the victim was coming from, or where she was going.


Some of the locations where we've asked for improvements through the Streets for Cycling program would help to make some of the more direct routes safer.  The south side will be a much better place to ride when we're not faced with choosing between our safety in traffic and how far we can comfortably ride.  We don't know if that choice was a factor yesterday, but it does affect many of us on a regular basis.

In the area where the victim was hit, the nearby east-west streets that have viaducts under the same intermodal yard and rain lines aren't necessarily any better, and some are worse.  We should not have to risk our lives to get where we're trying to go on the south side.

RSS

Groups

© 2008-2016   The Chainlink Community, L.L.C.   Powered by

Disclaimer  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service