Ambulance in Des Plaines PBL

Rather new to this forum, and not sure how to proceed on this:

I ride down Des Plaines most days of the week, and have come across this ambulance parked in the bike lane on more than one occasion (at Des Plaines and Van Buren).  It's always idling with no one in it, otherwise I'd stop, say hello, and chat with them.

I can usually get people to move out of bike lanes with a quick, friendly conversation; those that are parked I call into 311 (especially if they're in dangerous spots). But... what does one do with an ambulance?? I don't want to be a jerk, and I've got uncles that are firefighters, so I completely understand having your equipment ready to go, but... this can be really dicey to get around during rush hour or when there are CTA busses trying to get into that right turn lane.

Ideas? How do you generally approach drivers that are blocking a bike lane?

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Permalink Reply by Juan 2-3 or more mi. on April 21, 2013 at 7:41am

These guys and the others across Van Buren with their maintenece vehicles gave me that attitude that because they work for the city they can be as much of an a$$hole to us as much as possible since they were there first and that cyclists and the Mayors efforts can go screw themselves...

Permalink Reply by Thunder Snow on April 21, 2013 at 8:04am

View Larger Map

Some days it gets worse.

Permalink Reply by Active Transportation Alliance on April 23, 2013 at 3:07pm

Julia -- I second H about needing more like you when it comes to friendly interactions on our streets! And I appreciate your eyes on the street an willingness to take action. While at times it might seem frustrating to jump through hoops to address one vehicle parking in the bike lane, it can also be an easy opportunity to help educate an entire company about their safe driving habits.

Active Trans has posted some tips for handling cars parking in bike lanes here: http://www.activetrans.org/blog/lcrandell/cars-parking-bike-lane-wh... .

Ambulances would fall under the "government or business vehicle" category. They may be run by private companies, so you should look for a company name and vehicle number, and ideally capture that in your photo. Otherwise, it may be a Chicago Fire Department ambulance (http://www.cityofchicago.org/city/en/depts/cfd.html). Then you could send a friendly email to the company or Fire Dept., CCing the alderman, with the photo, asking them educate their drivers about street safety and explaining why parking in bike lanes is a safety hazard, since we'd hate for one of our emergency responders to cause a crash that gets someone injured. I've sent a similar personal email about police cars parking in a bike lane in the same spot repeatedly on Lincoln Ave., and while the police commander didn't reply, I did notice the problem stopped right away.

Thanks for your efforts to make our streets safer!

- Lee Crandell, Active Trans

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