Does the City of Chicago have a new approach to snow removal?

Has there been some sort of decision that secondary and residential streets will no longer be cleared of snow?

This winter is off to a very bad start for Chicago cyclists.

Would be interested to hear what you're seeing in your part of town.

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Permalink Reply by S on December 16, 2013 at 5:45am


The CPD is going back.  I've seen spots where the snow has drifted onto the path and then 8 hours later the path has been mostly clear.  It could have been the wind but I doubt that so I suspect the Park District has touched up spots.  That being said, I think it's unreasonable to expect the park district to clear things every few hours, it seems like they go out once a day or so which seems reasonable.


kiltedcelt said:

See the problem is not that there is drifting snow, but that NO ONE is going back out with a plow to do anything about it. The best I can is that plows run through on the path only starting around 7:00 AM or so and once they've gone over it once that's it until it actually snows again. Also, why the hell isn't anyone clearing that damn path from the bridge over the Chicago River all the way down to Illinois?

Permalink Reply by Lisa Curcio on December 16, 2013 at 7:00am

Today I rode Milwaukee, Kinzie, Dearborn.  Generally, it appears the city cleared the lanes pretty well.  Snow is tracked into them at intersections by turning cars and some building managers/owners clearly pushed snow back into them and that snow was not cleared.
 
h' 1.0 said:

Has there been clearing of the protected lanes in general? I have not happened upon any besides Marshall since the snow started accumulating.


 
Adam Herstein (5.5 mi) said:

Side streets in Lake View have been pretty abysmal. It's frustrating because the side streets are generally better for biking, and the city is taking that convenience away. Another relic of auto-centric culture. That, coupled with the shoddy plowing of the protected and painted bike lanes is making this winter more difficult than last year. The Lake Front Trail has been well-plowed and salted, though. So there's that.

Permalink Reply by Adam Herstein on December 16, 2013 at 8:46am

There has, but it's been messy. There are piles of snow at intersections, and a gutter of snow next to the curb where it has clearly been shoveled from the sidewalk.

h' 1.0 said:

Has there been clearing of the protected lanes in general? I have not happened upon any besides Marshall since the snow started accumulating.


 
Adam Herstein (5.5 mi) said:

Side streets in Lake View have been pretty abysmal. It's frustrating because the side streets are generally better for biking, and the city is taking that convenience away. Another relic of auto-centric culture. That, coupled with the shoddy plowing of the protected and painted bike lanes is making this winter more difficult than last year. The Lake Front Trail has been well-plowed and salted, though. So there's that.

Permalink Reply by Anne Alt on December 16, 2013 at 8:51am

Vincennes near 87th St. is clean.  18th near Wentworth is anything but.

h' 1.0 said:

Has there been clearing of the protected lanes in general? I have not happened upon any besides Marshall since the snow started accumulating.

Permalink Reply by Katie on December 16, 2013 at 9:07am

It's not been good by me and I've been relying on a fat bike to handle this crap.

Permalink Reply by Amanda L on December 16, 2013 at 9:38am

The buffered lane on Clybourn has been a mess. To get to work I usually take that to Damen, which in the past has never been cleared of snow so I haven't bothered. CTA this week it is!

Permalink Reply by globalguy on December 16, 2013 at 11:00am

Kind of an obvious question but how does CDOT and other agencies w/ploughs organize the the ploughing - by street, 'hood, ward, or other geographic criteria?

Permalink Reply by EssFresh on December 16, 2013 at 11:08am

Just saw the salt truck make a pass going north on Damen by the Brown line station. 

Permalink Reply by S on December 16, 2013 at 11:15am

I think it's on a grid pattern where streets are designated by priority with major streets getting top priority followed by smaller streets and residential streets.  http://clearstreets.org/ has a nice interface to see what streets the city plowed and when.  Looking at the data, it looks like most of edgewater hasn't been touched.


globalguy said:

Kind of an obvious question but how does CDOT and other agencies w/ploughs organize the the ploughing - by street, 'hood, ward, or other geographic criteria?

Permalink Reply by Eli on December 16, 2013 at 11:23am

Interesting link. It confirms that many side streets near me (Kenmore between Devon and Ardmore, pretty much all of Glenwood south of Devon, and Thorndale, Elmdale, Glenlake, Hood, Highland, and Thome west of Broadway) have not been plowed at all since the snowfall late last week.

Permalink Reply by Rich S on December 17, 2013 at 5:15am

The side streets in my neighborhood by Wrightwood and Clark haven't been plowed at all. So it's riding in the tire tracks until I get to a clear street. The side streets south of Fullerton appear to have been cleared. 

Last night I was riding home from Albany Park on Wilson which was clean and clear from Kimball all the way to Lincoln. School was clear from Lincoln to Clark. 

Permalink Reply by Tony Adams on December 18, 2013 at 9:20am

There is a form for submitting snow removal requests. There isn't a specific category for "Snow in the Forsaken by the City Bike Lane" unfortunately. I just used it to fill out a report/request about the 2200 block of Loomis, which according to the clear streets thing, hasn't been plowed at all.

https://servicerequest.cityofchicago.org/web_intake_chic/Controller...

I've had mixed results with the online 311 tools, but more often than not the problems I report eventually get fixed, so let's hope it works for this problem as well.

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