The Chainlink

Riding to work around 4 this afternoon, heading south on the 3100 block of Lincoln, I saw an ambulance and fire truck on the northbound side.  As I slowly rode by, I saw paramedics put a stretcher with a person on it into the back.  I'm assuming this victim was as a cyclist, as the fireman were inspecting a bike at the scene.  Anyone see what happened?  I hope whoever was placed in the back of the ambulance is alright.

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I didn't but fwiw I stopped taking Lincoln on my commute to the Loop because I felt it was too dangerous...and I'm not the most conservative biker.  There is a  lot of traffic on Lincoln and no bike lane..you are riding very close to cars most of the time. Instead I take Damen to Clybourn. Clybourn has no bike lane either but it is a joy to ride on, at least around 8 am.  Most has been paved recently, the street is wide, and there are very few delivery trucks/cabs that I pass. So smooth sailing.

That being said, my heart goes out to whoever got hit, biker or not.  I imagine there are lots of people that have to take Lincoln because of their destination, etc. 

Lincoln doesnt have a bike lane?

Most of it doesn't.  Mostly just sharrows until you get farther south.

Jason said:

Lincoln doesnt have a bike lane?

I try to avoid Lincoln too. 

I've always thought of Lincoln as a "good" bike spoke, but I'm not sure why because you guys are right, every time I take it north I come away quite rattled. A stressful route for sure.

It really depends on where on Lincoln you ride.

I ride from Southport to Wells and there are two areas that I tend to skip:

- From Wells to Armitage. SB I take Sedgwick to Eugenie back to Wells. NB I take Sedgewick and mosey on over to Larrabee before hitting Lincoln.

- From Lakewood to Southport. SB on Southport I play with the light. If I can it make I will, otherwise I take Nelson to Lakewood. NB I take Lakewood to Barry.

In between those parts I find Lincoln to be quite pleasant.

I agree and also avoid that stretch between Armitage & Wells, but just curious, what don't you like about the strip between Lakewood and Southport? That always seemed fairly tame to me, but I don't take Lincoln that much anymore, maybe I'm hitting that stretch before it gets bad.

I was going to offer up the Lincoln-Belmont-Ashland intersection as my least favorite chunk, and with a new Target (with three - 3! - entrances and exits for cars, on Lincoln, Ashland and Melrose!), coming soon... oy.

I bail on Lincoln at Barry and take that west to Clybourn, then head west on Belmont.

Sorry to hear about the accident.  I think Lincoln was once a "premiere" biking street as it is wider than many (considerably wider than Milwaukee) streets.  But bike infrastructure has kind of left it in the dust, I suppose.

On the other hand, thanks to the CTA eliminating the #11, there's one less obstacle to deal with (please note sarcasm here, I for the life of me do not understand why the CTA got rid of one of its highest-used bus lines which served loads of senior citizen housing and support services, that's insane).


Duppie 13.5185km said:

It really depends on where on Lincoln you ride.

I ride from Southport to Wells and there are two areas that I tend to skip:

- From Wells to Armitage. SB I take Sedgwick to Eugenie back to Wells. NB I take Sedgewick and mosey on over to Larrabee before hitting Lincoln.

- From Lakewood to Southport. SB on Southport I play with the light. If I can it make I will, otherwise I take Nelson to Lakewood. NB I take Lakewood to Barry.

In between those parts I find Lincoln to be quite pleasant.

I hope whoever was in the accident is able to recover with minimal obstacles.  My usual winter route takes me down Lincoln from off of Lawrence to Armitage, where I've started cutting over to the park and heading down State since my office is near water tower.  Without the #11 this was the most pleasant winter I've had in years, but I do see the occasional close call and that Target might make things tricky going forward. 

The route isn't in the best shape pavement-wise, and you definitely have to be alert at all times but I've stuck with it b/c I haven't had any better experiences trying alternates.  I take it slow on a single speed all winter, and as soon as it gets nice I ditch for the LFP.  Which we all know has it's own set of difficulties, but spring and the sun make it much more tolerable.

Lincoln has its fair share of starbucks danger zones where people who "need" their starbucks in the morning pay no attention to whats around them. I don't get it, any time that I had to be in a starbucks I see every customer put half a container of sugar in their "coffee". Their coffee is crap if you have to do that.

I hope the individual is ok as well.

The 11 went as a message to the new Alderman.  the Lincoln stops at the Southern border of his ward (Fullerton) and starts up again at Western and Lawrence, the Northern Border of his ward.  It was one of the few "angle" buses and provided a ride all the way from Lincolnwood to downtown.  The crazy part is that the very small stretch that was cut out was essentially covered at any one time by one or two buses.    Those same buses now sit at Fullerton or Western for the time that was needed to cover the route.  Thus it reduced service, reduced incoming revenue (as it was a highly traveled route) and didn't reduce any costs.    The CTA makes lots of stupid decisions -- this one has to go up there with the all time bad ones.



Carter O'Brien said:

I agree and also avoid that stretch between Armitage & Wells, but just curious, what don't you like about the strip between Lakewood and Southport? That always seemed fairly tame to me, but I don't take Lincoln that much anymore, maybe I'm hitting that stretch before it gets bad.

I was going to offer up the Lincoln-Belmont-Ashland intersection as my least favorite chunk, and with a new Target (with three - 3! - entrances and exits for cars, on Lincoln, Ashland and Melrose!), coming soon... oy.

I bail on Lincoln at Barry and take that west to Clybourn, then head west on Belmont.

Sorry to hear about the accident.  I think Lincoln was once a "premiere" biking street as it is wider than many (considerably wider than Milwaukee) streets.  But bike infrastructure has kind of left it in the dust, I suppose.

On the other hand, thanks to the CTA eliminating the #11, there's one less obstacle to deal with (please note sarcasm here, I for the life of me do not understand why the CTA got rid of one of its highest-used bus lines which served loads of senior citizen housing and support services, that's insane).


Duppie 13.5185km said:

It really depends on where on Lincoln you ride.

I ride from Southport to Wells and there are two areas that I tend to skip:

- From Wells to Armitage. SB I take Sedgwick to Eugenie back to Wells. NB I take Sedgewick and mosey on over to Larrabee before hitting Lincoln.

- From Lakewood to Southport. SB on Southport I play with the light. If I can it make I will, otherwise I take Nelson to Lakewood. NB I take Lakewood to Barry.

In between those parts I find Lincoln to be quite pleasant.

I don't know the politics behind it, but I certainly think the end of the 11 north of Fullerton does many a disservice.  

And for all the hassles buses can cause when cycling, I actually don't mind riding on streets with one bus line.  I like the option of popping up my bike on the bus and being a passenger if the weather's bad or I catch a flat.



David crZven 10.6 said:

The 11 went as a message to the new Alderman.  the Lincoln stops at the Southern border of his ward (Fullerton) and starts up again at Western and Lawrence, the Northern Border of his ward.  It was one of the few "angle" buses and provided a ride all the way from Lincolnwood to downtown.  The crazy part is that the very small stretch that was cut out was essentially covered at any one time by one or two buses.    Those same buses now sit at Fullerton or Western for the time that was needed to cover the route.  Thus it reduced service, reduced incoming revenue (as it was a highly traveled route) and didn't reduce any costs.    The CTA makes lots of stupid decisions -- this one has to go up there with the all time bad ones.



Carter O'Brien said:

I agree and also avoid that stretch between Armitage & Wells, but just curious, what don't you like about the strip between Lakewood and Southport? That always seemed fairly tame to me, but I don't take Lincoln that much anymore, maybe I'm hitting that stretch before it gets bad.

I was going to offer up the Lincoln-Belmont-Ashland intersection as my least favorite chunk, and with a new Target (with three - 3! - entrances and exits for cars, on Lincoln, Ashland and Melrose!), coming soon... oy.

I bail on Lincoln at Barry and take that west to Clybourn, then head west on Belmont.

Sorry to hear about the accident.  I think Lincoln was once a "premiere" biking street as it is wider than many (considerably wider than Milwaukee) streets.  But bike infrastructure has kind of left it in the dust, I suppose.

On the other hand, thanks to the CTA eliminating the #11, there's one less obstacle to deal with (please note sarcasm here, I for the life of me do not understand why the CTA got rid of one of its highest-used bus lines which served loads of senior citizen housing and support services, that's insane).


Duppie 13.5185km said:

It really depends on where on Lincoln you ride.

I ride from Southport to Wells and there are two areas that I tend to skip:

- From Wells to Armitage. SB I take Sedgwick to Eugenie back to Wells. NB I take Sedgewick and mosey on over to Larrabee before hitting Lincoln.

- From Lakewood to Southport. SB on Southport I play with the light. If I can it make I will, otherwise I take Nelson to Lakewood. NB I take Lakewood to Barry.

In between those parts I find Lincoln to be quite pleasant.

Interesting but very foolish - the 11 goes through a few wards.

Definitely an interesting contrast to the original "party line" that due to the Brown Line expansion project that bus was a redundancy.  For active, younger folks a few blocks might not be a big deal, but talk to someone who is 75 and you'll get a mouthful.

David crZven 10.6 said:

The 11 went as a message to the new Alderman.  the Lincoln stops at the Southern border of his ward (Fullerton) and starts up again at Western and Lawrence, the Northern Border of his ward.  It was one of the few "angle" buses and provided a ride all the way from Lincolnwood to downtown.  The crazy part is that the very small stretch that was cut out was essentially covered at any one time by one or two buses.    Those same buses now sit at Fullerton or Western for the time that was needed to cover the route.  Thus it reduced service, reduced incoming revenue (as it was a highly traveled route) and didn't reduce any costs.    The CTA makes lots of stupid decisions -- this one has to go up there with the all time bad ones.

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