The Chainlink

Dearborn 2-way bike lane. Is it working?

I don't ride it often, but it seems to be an invite for pedestrian-bike collisions.

It's invisible if you approach mid-block, and walkers step right into the path of the bikes.

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Permalink Reply by Julia 3.5/7.5 mi on October 1, 2013 at 4:57pm

+1

Anne Alt said:

Permalink Reply by Arup Sarma on October 1, 2013 at 6:04pm

I just wish the lights were timed better -- once you hit one red light, you seem to hit them all if you're riding slowly enough to leave reaction time for oblivious pedestrians, etc.

Permalink Reply by Shaun Jacobsen on October 1, 2013 at 10:19pm

I like it. At this point I've been able to time the lights and I can go about 2 blocks without a red, at a moderate speed. That's pretty good for a downtown street, in my opinion.

Other posts are right, you've got to be vigilant and watch out – it's the loop after all. I used to want to be able to go faster, but now I don't care. I'll take a few more minutes to feel safer and every day this summer it seems more and more people were using it!

I've since switched to going Wells>Kinzie>Clinton to work, though, since there's no bike lane going east-west in the loop. They need to work on that soon.

Permalink Reply by Maurice on October 2, 2013 at 12:20pm

Agree that pedestrian and motorist compliance tends to improve as time passes but will always remain an issue.  New parking patterns in particular seem to take weeks to resolve because the city is hesitant to enforce them.  For example, Canal south of Harrison was recently restriped so that the bike lane was swapped with the parking lane.  The bike lane is clearly painted with bikes and arrows, while they took the additional step of writing "PARKING" in the other lane.  Nonetheless, every single car is still parked in the bike lane with an occasional car double-parked in the parking lane for good measure.

Permalink Reply by Duppie on October 2, 2013 at 12:54pm

Well said. Dearborn very usable if you ride at moderate speed.

I use Wells > Kinzie > Clinton as well. But in a year or 2, we should see a lot of improvement.

1. Bi-drectional cycle track on Clinton.

2. Cross-Loop BRT, including bikelanes.

3. And in 2 years from now they will have connected Wells to Dearborn in both ways. Or so I hope...


Shaun Jacobsen said:

I like it. At this point I've been able to time the lights and I can go about 2 blocks without a red, at a moderate speed. That's pretty good for a downtown street, in my opinion.

Other posts are right, you've got to be vigilant and watch out – it's the loop after all. I used to want to be able to go faster, but now I don't care. I'll take a few more minutes to feel safer and every day this summer it seems more and more people were using it!

I've since switched to going Wells>Kinzie>Clinton to work, though, since there's no bike lane going east-west in the loop. They need to work on that soon.

Permalink Reply by Skip Montanaro 0mi on October 2, 2013 at 1:03pm



Shaun Jacobsen said:


I've since switched to going Wells>Kinzie>Clinton to work, though, since there's no bike lane going east-west in the loop. They need to work on that soon.

What about Madison (east-west) or Illinois (west-east)? Google Maps shows that Madison has a bike lane from Michigan to Canal. It shows the Illinois bike lane running from Orleans to Navy Pier.

Permalink Reply by Adam Herstein on October 2, 2013 at 1:50pm

The Madison bike lane is a joke. Completely useless. It's constantly being used by cabbies and bus drivers. Don't bother.

Skip Montanaro 12mi said:

What about Madison (east-west) or Illinois (west-east)? Google Maps shows that Madison has a bike lane from Michigan to Canal. It shows the Illinois bike lane running from Orleans to Navy Pier.

Permalink Reply by Skip Montanaro 0mi on October 2, 2013 at 2:22pm

But it's a bike lane. If there's a problem, shouldn't we have a thread titled, "I rode Madison today, did you?" filled with comments from people about

  • pedestrians who stand in the lane
  • cabbies, bus drivers & delivery trucks who park in the lane
  • BMW drivers who turn right on red and are just general jerks
  • building maintenance workers who shovel snow into the lane during winter
  • police who won't enforce the law

All accompanied, of course, by lots of pictures and webcam video clips, and a certain amount of righteous indignation that Active Trans hasn't solved the problem yet.

Permalink Reply by Adam Herstein on October 2, 2013 at 2:34pm

http://www.thechainlink.org/forum/topics/the-loop-get-s-a-bike-lane...

Skip Montanaro 12mi said:

But it's a bike lane. If there's a problem, shouldn't we have a thread titled, "I rode Madison today, did you?" filled with comments from people about

  • pedestrians who stand in the lane
  • cabbies, bus drivers & delivery trucks who park in the lane
  • BMW drivers who turn right on red and are just general jerks
  • building maintenance workers who shovel snow into the lane during winter
  • police who won't enforce the law

All accompanied, of course, by lots of pictures and webcam video clips, and a certain amount of righteous indignation that Active Trans hasn't solved the problem yet.

Permalink Reply by Shaun Jacobsen on October 2, 2013 at 2:49pm

Yeah honestly, I know it's there, but it freaks me out. Plus I have to turn left eventually across two lanes of traffic. The buses don't even fit in "their" lane, they end up taking over half the bike lane... no thanks. Plus there's no eastbound lane.

Cameron 7.5 mi said:

The problem is that Madison is so bad that no one rides in it. The few times I've used it I've encountered at most 2 other riders on Madison durring rush hour.

Skip Montanaro 12mi said:

But it's a bike lane. If there's a problem, shouldn't we have a thread titled, "I rode Madison today, did you?" filled with comments from people about

  • pedestrians who stand in the lane
  • cabbies, bus drivers & delivery trucks who park in the lane
  • BMW drivers who turn right on red and are just general jerks
  • building maintenance workers who shovel snow into the lane during winter
  • police who won't enforce the law

All accompanied, of course, by lots of pictures and webcam video clips, and a certain amount of righteous indignation that Active Trans hasn't solved the problem yet.

Permalink Reply by Skip Montanaro 0mi on October 2, 2013 at 2:54pm

Okay, I'll accept that there are problems. Have any been reported to Active Trans or other organizations? If there is no feedback, how will the powers-that-be know there are problems?

The thread Adam posted was last updated in August 2011.

As for no eastbound lanes, I agree there is nothing in the Loop proper. I use Illinois whenever I want to take the LFT home: Franklin->Orleans->Illinois->Dearborn->north to Alaska

Permalink Reply by Shaun Jacobsen on October 2, 2013 at 3:57pm

There will be new E/W loop lanes with the BRT projects next year and the issue was discussed at last month's MBAC meeting (as I understand). Until then, I'll just travel further north to get an eastbound lane.

Skip Montanaro 12mi said:

Okay, I'll accept that there are problems. Have any been reported to Active Trans or other organizations? If there is no feedback, how will the powers-that-be know there are problems?

The thread Adam posted was last updated in August 2011.

As for no eastbound lanes, I agree there is nothing in the Loop proper. I use Illinois whenever I want to take the LFT home: Franklin->Orleans->Illinois->Dearborn->north to Alaska

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