The Chainlink

Cycling Plan 2020 Open House - How Was it?

I wasn't able to make the open house Saturday.

 

An article in The Trib sounded like there was a good turnout.  

 

How was it?   Did you feel the city was listening to you?

 

 

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Permalink Reply by Duppie on December 12, 2011 at 10:11am

Me and Mrs. Duppie went late morning. There were probably around 20 visitors (including Gabe Klein, who wore an awesome bicycle belt-buckle. I wanted to take a picture of it, but realized just in time it would look like I was taking a crotch-shot).

I was amazed at the level of detail they were looking for. In the past I've seen these activities being high-level and not very focused on details. Here however, they were looking at very specific changes we could make to improve cycling in Chicago. 'Small' recommendations, like adjusting lights, making curb cuts, etc were scribbled all over the board.

I thought it was an hour well spent.

Permalink Reply by Kevin C Dormant on December 12, 2011 at 10:16am

I got there a little after 2:00 pm. There were a dozen or so maps of regions of the city (Central, Near West, SouthEast, etc.) up on the walls and attendees were invited to make written comments and suggestions on the maps regarding routes; i.e. conditions, needs, and proposed improvements. By the time I arrived, most of the maps were filled with comments. It was just the first open house, so the other aspects of the update to the 2015 plan may be reserved for a future date, but there was no mention of, or forum for, bike parking, transit, education, law enforcement and crash analysis, etc.  

Permalink Reply by Michelle Gregorek on December 12, 2011 at 10:17am

That Gabe Klein was there, speaks volumes to me.  Glad they were accepting of those all important details!

Permalink Reply by jennifer james on December 12, 2011 at 10:22am

I think that the smaller community  meetings can be a great place for anyone who missed the larger open house to share conditions and potential destinations with Cdot. This is a great time to bring friends afraid to ride now who can share where they want to go on a bike with better infrastructure. 

Permalink Reply by Lizzy M. on December 12, 2011 at 10:34am

I thought it was a good event. I had a couple good conversations with people and definitely felt like my comments were not disappearing into a black hole. I think I was there around 11:00 and already many comments I wanted to make were already on the maps. It's interesting and frustrating how hard it is to cross the city East-West, whether you're biking or taking transit.

I had a long chat with someone (whose name I have already forgotten) about the lights at Belmont and Broadway, which is more an out-of-control-auto-traffic issue and less a biking issue. Several months ago, they added a leading pedestrian interval (a moment when all lights are red and the walk signal is Go) to the intersection. After less than a month of the leading pedestrian interval being live, drivers had already adapted to running the red light because they knew there would be no cross traffic. The leading pedestrian interval is now useless and that intersection needs a serious campaign of traffic enforcement. She seemed very surprised to learn that the intersection was so unruly.

Permalink Reply by Steven Vance on December 12, 2011 at 12:11pm

169 people signed in. That's pretty good. 

On Grid Chicago this morning, we have a guest post from Calvin Brown. 

Everybody is planning: a report from Saturday’s bikeways open house

Permalink Reply by Steven Vance on December 12, 2011 at 12:14pm

The Streets for Cycling Plan 2020 is only about "streets for cycling". It's not an update to the Bike 2015 Plan, but an "extension" or "cousin". That's why you saw nothing about bike parking, transit, etc...

This plan, in the end, will feature where bikeways should go and what type they should be. And also identify barriers. It will also have a "Chicago bikeway design guide" and "bikeway toolbox".

You can see all of our coverage on this plan, including development discussions about it at two MBAC meetings, on Grid Chicago: Streets for Cycling Plan 2020.


Kevin C said:

I got there a little after 2:00 pm. There were a dozen or so maps of regions of the city (Central, Near West, SouthEast, etc.) up on the walls and attendees were invited to make written comments and suggestions on the maps regarding routes; i.e. conditions, needs, and proposed improvements. By the time I arrived, most of the maps were filled with comments. It was just the first open house, so the other aspects of the update to the 2015 plan may be reserved for a future date, but there was no mention of, or forum for, bike parking, transit, education, law enforcement and crash analysis, etc.  

Permalink Reply by Kevin C Dormant on December 12, 2011 at 12:26pm

That would explain it, thank you. Have they simply declared victory on the other dimensions contained in the 2015 plan and moved on?

Steven Vance said:

The Streets for Cycling Plan 2020 is only about "streets for cycling". It's not an update to the Bike 2015 Plan, but an "extension" or "cousin". That's why you saw nothing about bike parking, transit, etc...

This plan, in the end, will feature where bikeways should go and what type they should be. And also identify barriers. It will also have a "Chicago bikeway design guide" and "bikeway toolbox".

You can see all of our coverage on this plan, including development discussions about it at two MBAC meetings, on Grid Chicago: Streets for Cycling Plan 2020.


Kevin C said:

I got there a little after 2:00 pm. There were a dozen or so maps of regions of the city (Central, Near West, SouthEast, etc.) up on the walls and attendees were invited to make written comments and suggestions on the maps regarding routes; i.e. conditions, needs, and proposed improvements. By the time I arrived, most of the maps were filled with comments. It was just the first open house, so the other aspects of the update to the 2015 plan may be reserved for a future date, but there was no mention of, or forum for, bike parking, transit, education, law enforcement and crash analysis, etc.  

Permalink Reply by Steven Lane on December 12, 2011 at 3:45pm

I was really impressed with the turnout, more so by how much input was collected, looked like each region's map was thoroughly annotated (Image of West Region below).

I suspect a great deal of Chainlink members live and bike in the West Region. We are collecting input online, please take a few minutes to add your comments. Map of region and Online Survey

Permalink Reply by h' Zerocats on December 12, 2011 at 4:48pm

I am a bit confused about some aspects of this still-- particularly that a couple people on chainlink have made posts with wordings as if they're presenting these workshops (Steven Lane in teh previous post, Allen Wrench (who is that?) in another thread.

Are you guys working for CDOT? Or am I confused about who's presenting the open house/workshops?

Permalink Reply by Michelle S on December 12, 2011 at 7:49pm

H, the CDOT team recruited volunteer community leaders from each of 9 city areas to help host smaller meetings within the neighborhoods. Those are in addition to the open house last weekend and three more citywide meetings coming up in Jan/Feb.

I'm one of the volunteers for the north side, and there are other Chainlinkers as well. They're keeping us busy! The north side group is having a meeting on Saturday, and I'll post it as an event on the Chainlink calendar.

In the mean time, I wrote a little bit about the Streets for Cycling Plan 2020 on this blog post on Bike Walk Lincoln Park, and it has some basics in it that might be of interest. Grid Chicago is also providing great ongoing coverage, of course.

Anyone who wants to get on the e-mail list for your specific city area can send an e-mail to streetsforcycling2020@gmail.com saying which neighborhood you live in, and they'll forward your info to the community volunteers. Also, if you can't make any of the meetings, you can forward your ideas and suggestions to the S4C team via e-mail, or, if you're on FB, post your suggestions there as well. (They don't yet have an online map to mark up.)

Permalink Reply by jennifer james on December 12, 2011 at 8:58pm

Hi Howard- Raul and I are the CAG folks for your area-- Mid southwest side- residentially but you should feel welcome at any of the meetings held to map in any area. As mentioned on another thread we are meeting at Rapid Trans on Thursday and then again at Working Bikes on the 19th both at 6.30p.m. We will also meet in Pilsen, Bridgeport, near Midway and again west of the hospital area north west on our region.

I love the idea of taking data on-line too. there are lots of opportunities to share input on this. We posted on Chicargobike as well. 

Each CAG is holding a meeting or meetings depending on the group to collect as much information as possible on current conditions, gaps, barriers and destinations.  Each meeting will include maps to be marked accordingly. There will also be larger public meetings held later in the winter. All the CAG are asking community members to be a part of each group to help collect data and share information.

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