The Chainlink

We don't need bike to work week

We need more bike parking for the people who already do ride. This morning was ridiculous. Took me literally half an hour to find bike parking centered on Clark and LaSalle.  Why even put on bike to work week, or add all these new bike lanes into the city, when bike parking is so bad. Oh yeah, I forgot, bike parking doesn't make for a nice photo op for the mayor and Active trans...

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Permalink Reply by Far'arned Retrogrumpalunkus #63 on June 20, 2012 at 12:49pm

They are just under-budgeted and fixing this known situation is NOT a priority.

What is scary is that at the last MBAC meeting they were talking about plans to purchase permanently-mounted bicycle-counting kiosks around the city to COUNT bicycles gong past.  Sounds like a great idea and the lack of good data about bike ridership and mode-share numbers would be great for planning.  The only way to get data now is to physically COUNT bikes and cars and that data is pretty worthless unless you do it for every day over a number of years to build a good data set.  They don't have any good DATA for planning.

Problem is these kiosks are going to cost upward of $10,000 EACH.  Yeah, TEN GRAND.  They need good data to plan for the future but that is some expensive stuff -they are going to spend WAY more money on these big-brother counting kiosks than they are allocating to bike racks and the data is already there telling us that they don't have enough bike racks.  That's data we already have as there as the lack of parking in many areas is obvious to anyone with EYES.   -and they aren't doing squat about it.  After spending a quarter million or more on these counting kiosks are they just going to ignore that data too?  Do little or nothing to fix issues that the known data is pointing to like they ignore the bike parking problem by allocating too few resources to solving it?

Crazy...



h' said:

Agree wholeheartedly.

James BlackHeron said:

The bike rack situation is embarrassing in a city that "claims" it wants to be bike-friendly.  The new rack installation budget and department is WOEFULLY inadequate.  They are a year behind even in the most generous of estimates. 

Permalink Reply by Kevin C Dormant on June 20, 2012 at 1:10pm

One of the built-in complications of the bike rack situation is that there is adequate bike parking in most places 8-9 months out of the year. The other 3-4 months, I notice a lot more bikes parked on the street, but I still park at the same rack year round. And I'm not sure where Jason is looking for parking, but my office is at Clark and Madison.

James BlackHeron said:

They are just under-budgeted and fixing this known situation is NOT a priority.

What is scary is that at the last MBAC meeting they were talking about plans to purchase permanently-mounted bicycle-counting kiosks around the city to COUNT bicycles gong past.  Sounds like a great idea and the lack of good data about bike ridership and mode-share numbers would be great for planning.  The only way to get data now is to physically COUNT bikes and cars and that data is pretty worthless unless you do it for every day over a number of years to build a good data set.  They don't have any good DATA for planning.

Problem is these kiosks are going to cost upward of $10,000 EACH.  Yeah, TEN GRAND.  They need good data to plan for the future but that is some expensive stuff -they are going to spend WAY more money on these big-brother counting kiosks than they are allocating to bike racks and the data is already there telling us that they don't have enough bike racks.  That's data we already have as there as the lack of parking in many areas is obvious to anyone with EYES.   -and they aren't doing squat about it.  After spending a quarter million or more on these counting kiosks are they just going to ignore that data too?  Do little or nothing to fix issues that the known data is pointing to like they ignore the bike parking problem by allocating too few resources to solving it?

Crazy...



h' said:

Agree wholeheartedly.

James BlackHeron said:

The bike rack situation is embarrassing in a city that "claims" it wants to be bike-friendly.  The new rack installation budget and department is WOEFULLY inadequate.  They are a year behind even in the most generous of estimates. 

Permalink Reply by Jason W on June 20, 2012 at 1:18pm

I sincerely apologize for getting your name wrong, Serge. It was not intentional. I'm totally dependent on spellcheck, and Serge isn't in there.

Serge Lubomudrov said:

juson, you can't even get names straight . . . Just an observation.

Permalink Reply by Jason W on June 20, 2012 at 1:26pm

It is absurd to actively bring in more cyclists when there is no where for them to go. It is absurd to plan bike lanes, but not bike parking. I'm not sure I'm the one who is being absurd here...

And I agree with both of James and h's posts (not going to quote them for brevity's sake).

Kevin, come to my block and see for yourself.

Permalink Reply by Gene Tenner on June 20, 2012 at 1:30pm

So, what is the solution to more bike parking, if Bike to Work Week Isn't? Got a plan?

Permalink Reply by Kevin C Dormant on June 20, 2012 at 1:40pm

As Clark & LaSalle are parallel, I don't have a clear idea of where you may be looking for parking. 

Jason said:

It is absurd to actively bring in more cyclists when there is no where for them to go. It is absurd to plan bike lanes, but not bike parking. I'm not sure I'm the one who is being absurd here...

And I agree with both of James and h's posts (not going to quote them for brevity's sake).

Kevin, come to my block and see for yourself.

Permalink Reply by Far'arned Retrogrumpalunkus #63 on June 20, 2012 at 1:45pm

The solution is to double the budget and manpower of the bike rack department.  Buy more bike racks and install them in more places.

Lather, Rinse, Repeat.

And stop letting Aldermen use bike racks as traffic barriers at locations where they want to stop drive-through traffic where roads have been closed.  I've seen that done in many areas of the city.  Bike racks in the middle of the block and a curb stopping traffic.   They are basically abusing the already too-stretched bike-rack budget to make traffic barriers and robbing the bicyclists of usable racks and putting them in stupid places where they will never be utilized.    Bike racks make stupid-expensive traffic barriers unless that money is coming out of other people's budget (ours.)  That practice needs to be STOPPED.  There aren't enough bike racks going in to keep up with the increase in bike use in this city.  Wasting them as traffic barriers is downright stupid. 

Permalink Reply by Gene Tenner on June 20, 2012 at 1:51pm

Terrific. So, how do you plan to accomplish this?

James BlackHeron said:

The solution is to double the budget and manpower of the bike rack department.  Buy more bike racks and install them in more places.

Lather, Rinse, Repeat.

And stop letting Aldermen use bike racks as traffic barriers at locations where they want to stop drive-through traffic where roads have been closed.  I've seen that done in many areas of the city.  Bike racks in the middle of the block and a curb stopping traffic.   They are basically abusing the already too-stretched bike-rack budget to make traffic barriers and robbing the bicyclists of usable racks and putting them in stupid places where they will never be utilized.    Bike racks make stupid-expensive traffic barriers unless that money is coming out of other people's budget (ours.)  That practice needs to be STOPPED.  There aren't enough bike racks going in to keep up with the increase in bike use in this city.  Wasting them as traffic barriers is downright stupid. 

Permalink Reply by Night Owl on June 20, 2012 at 1:52pm

Can you give an example?  I can't visualize this type of installation.  

James BlackHeron said:

And stop letting Aldermen use bike racks as traffic barriers at locations where they want to stop drive-through traffic where roads have been closed.  I've seen that done in many areas of the city.  Bike racks in the middle of the block and a curb stopping traffic.   

Permalink Reply by Derek on June 20, 2012 at 1:55pm

I commute daily year round and park on LaSalle between Washington and Madison.  After 9am during the summer it gets pretty sporting to find a place to park but I just look for a rack with two well used bikes and triple park. 

Jason said:

It is absurd to actively bring in more cyclists when there is no where for them to go. It is absurd to plan bike lanes, but not bike parking. I'm not sure I'm the one who is being absurd here...

And I agree with both of James and h's posts (not going to quote them for brevity's sake).

Kevin, come to my block and see for yourself.

Permalink Reply by Jason W on June 20, 2012 at 2:55pm

Ahhh, it's been along day... Jackson and LaSalle.

Kevin C said:

As Clark & LaSalle are parallel, I don't have a clear idea of where you may be looking for parking. 

Jason said:

It is absurd to actively bring in more cyclists when there is no where for them to go. It is absurd to plan bike lanes, but not bike parking. I'm not sure I'm the one who is being absurd here...

And I agree with both of James and h's posts (not going to quote them for brevity's sake).

Kevin, come to my block and see for yourself.

Permalink Reply by Jason W on June 20, 2012 at 2:58pm

Triple is the minimum here. I see quadruple, and while getting lunch today I say 5 bikes on one rack. I was a bit impressed they fit that many on there.

Derek said:

I commute daily year round and park on LaSalle between Washington and Madison.  After 9am during the summer it gets pretty sporting to find a place to park but I just look for a rack with two well used bikes and triple park. 

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