N Evanston nightmare

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Permalink Reply by Richard on October 8, 2012 at 2:40pm

From:

http://www.cityofevanston.org/news/2012/09/central-street-construct...

"

For ten days, from October 2 to October 16, McShane Construction and Subcontractors will be performing an underground utility connection for the new building at 1700 Central Street.

The work will include cutting open the roadway for water, storm and sanitary connections with associated restorations to the road and sidewalk.

One lane of traffic in each direction will be maintained. Parking in the area will be restricted. The sidewalk on the south side of Central will be closed on certain occassions within the 1700-22 block. During these times, pedestrians must use the sidewalk on the north side of Central street. Flaggers will direct pedestrians to the north side of the street.

Questions related to the project can be directed to Zach Smrt, McShane Construction Co., 847/292-4300 and Pelayo Enerio Jr,. City of Evanston, 847/448-4311."

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Permalink Reply by Mike Keating on October 8, 2012 at 2:44pm

It's a mess. I live on Park Place and ride every work morning on Central Street to Central Street Metra. Dean, we've probably crossed paths. I've been taking Hartzell to Central Park to navigate around Central Street. There's no way they will be done with this within 10 days.

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Permalink Reply by Tricolor on October 8, 2012 at 2:45pm

You ought to see the bike lanes they're putting in on Church street.  Your choice of crashing: door or curb, with the added chance of getting hit by cars turning right at intersections that you won't see and won't see you.

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Permalink Reply by Richard on October 8, 2012 at 4:21pm

What about Lincoln?

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Permalink Reply by Thunder Snow on October 8, 2012 at 4:43pm

Tricolor, to be fair, those new Church Street protected bike lanes are almost identical to the Kinzie Street protected bike lane in Chicago.  The bike lane is between parked cars & a buffer zone on the left and the curb on the right.  The way to not get right hooked at intersections is to merge left into the travel lane behind the turning cars.  Or wait for turning cars to complete their right turns.  Or not use the bike lane at all.  Most bike lanes create right hook "conflict" at intersections if they're followed slavishly.
 
Tricolor said:

You ought to see the bike lanes they're putting in on Church street.  Your choice of crashing: door or curb, with the added chance of getting hit by cars turning right at intersections that you won't see and won't see you.

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Permalink Reply by Tricolor on October 8, 2012 at 5:02pm

To a degree, but this makes it hard for the car and bike to see one another at all through parked cars, let alone take advantage of the odd driver that still uses their turn signal.  Plus there's no way to merge left into a travel lane when you're on the wrong side of a line of parked cars unless parking spaces ends well before the intersection, much longer than the usual ten feet or so the city allows.  Even then bikes and cars are still only coming into view of one another at the last moment.  And none of this even begins to address the issues of door openings and people getting into/out of cars in a six foot corridor with literally nowhere else to go.  It reminds me of playing light cycles on Tron.

Thunder Snow said:

Most bike lanes create right hook "conflict" at intersections if they're followed slavishly.

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Permalink Reply by Thunder Snow on October 8, 2012 at 5:09pm

Agreed.  And there in a nutshell is why "vehicular cyclists" absolutely hate bike lanes of all stripes.  Personally, I'm wavering somewhere in the middle between being happy about any bicycle infrastructure and appalled by "door zone bike lanes" and all the rest.
 
Tricolor said:

To a degree, but this makes it hard for the car and bike to see one another at all through parked cars, let alone take advantage of the odd driver that still uses their turn signal.  Plus there's no way to merge left into a travel lane when you're on the wrong side of a line of parked cars unless parking spaces ends well before the intersection, much longer than the usual ten feet or so the city allows.  Even then bikes and cars are still only coming into view of one another at the last moment.  And none of this even begins to address the issues of door openings and people getting into/out of cars in a six foot corridor with literally nowhere else to go.  It reminds me of playing light cycles on Tron.

Thunder Snow said:

Most bike lanes create right hook "conflict" at intersections if they're followed slavishly.

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Permalink Reply by mike w. on October 8, 2012 at 8:27pm

i ride through N Evanston daily

Central construction EB hasn't been a big issue for me yet, but then i'm on it at about 6:15 AM. If it gets too hairy, i just go to Lincoln st/Harrison. Afternoons i usually cut over at the metra to Livingston cross Green Bay and tootle through the neighbourhood on Hartzel or Park eventually crossing Gross Point and cutting through the park to get to Crawford.

Lincoln is okay in the early AM, but the afternoon can get to be a hassle with the schools and Metra traffic.

Isabella isn't terrible but what frustrates me is that they resurfaced a good stretch of it a couple years ago and now they're tearing it up (-kinda like N. Sheridan through Rogers Park.) My biggest beef about Isabella is the drivers who dodge Wilmette av and Cental st traffic and blow through the neighbourhood at 35-40 MPH.

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