Bike advisory council highlights: get ready for beet salt and the Nitehawk 200 Osprey

Beet salt is not a trendy cocktail ingredient they're using at the Whistler, and the Nitehawk 200 Osprey is not the name of David Hasselhoff's new car. The former is an environmentally friendly snow melt that may be used to keep protected bike lanes clear of the white stuff and the latter is a compact street cleaner the city may purchase to keep the lanes glass-free. We learned about these brave new developments and got updates on bike share, bus rapid transit, bike parking, bike camps and more this week at the Mayor's Bike Advisory Council meeting: http://gridchicago.com/2012/highlights-from-this-weeks-mbac-meeting/

Keep moving forward,

John Greenfield

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Permalink Reply by Lanterne Rouge on September 14, 2012 at 5:25am

Oh man. I would totally love for the city to have that debris cleaning machine. There are so many streets that have too much glass where bicycles are supposed to ride.

Permalink Reply by John Greenfield on September 14, 2012 at 5:28am

It's cool that Mike Amsden, the bike lane project manager, showed a slide of broken glass in the Elston lanes. The city knows there's a problem and it looks like they're going to do something about it.

Permalink Reply by Tricolor on September 14, 2012 at 5:34am

Is that pickup any narrower than a dedicated sweeper?  I'd think that the footprint is about the same, trading cost for the capacity and visibility of what normally runs in the city.  I'll guess this is a bit lighter, too, but if it's cheap enough to buy a few and use them in more places, good on the city!  I used to see plenty of trucks like this cleaning up mall parking lots in the suburbs around midnight when I was much younger.

Beet salt sounds interesting.  Does it have the same corrosion issues other than its lower environmental impact?  I hope they plan on keeping the lakefront path plowed this winter.

Permalink Reply by Far'arned Retrogrumpalunkus #63 on September 14, 2012 at 5:40am

I've been walking around repeating Miniature Street-Sweeper like Rainman all moring  after reading the news of this on Grid Chicago. 

How much does this Miniature Street-Sweeper cost?  -about a hundred dollars?  Yeah...

I think this is great.  The city needs to do something about the glass issue.  Either get one of these Miniature Street-Sweeper's, yeah... or hire a bunch of folks to sweep it by hand. 82, 82, 82..  This tech has got to be cheaper than labor.  Underwear on the Highway.  Something needs to be done.   Just do it already if we are going to have protected lanes.   They can run it up and down the bike paths too.  The Channel Trail is often covered with glass fragments too -especially that first little chunk just North of Lawrence where the drunks hang out and throw their bottles.  I am an excellent rider but sooner later I'm going to get a flat from this glass too -even if I only drive slow on the driveway every Saturday

I'm for the Miniature Street Sweepers even if they cost more than about a hundred dollars because the city needs to spring for it.  I'm sick of the very sparky -very sparkly! glass all over the place and I'm sure I'm not the only one.  

+1

Permalink Reply by John Greenfield on September 14, 2012 at 6:38am

It might be a different model then the one shown, or perhaps the pickup truck does have a narrower profile than a standard street sweeper. Yes, the beet juice salt is less corrosive, more environmentally friendly, and delicious on the rim of a Bloody Mary.

Permalink Reply by Far'arned Retrogrumpalunkus #63 on September 14, 2012 at 6:46am

I"ve had an intense childhood dislike of beets that has stuck with me for decades.  I'd love to see ALL the beets made into ice melt for the roads. Then I don't have to run into the yucky things put into my food at restaurants. 

It's interesting stuff, which seems to work very well although I've been on some roads when conditions were just right that the experimental beet juice attached itself to the windshield and I've had to refill the windshield-washer reservoir every hour.   Salt doesn't seem to do this as bad but all things being equal I'd love to see all the beets made into ice-melt.   I'll buy more wash fluid gladly. 

Permalink Reply by Bill Savage on September 14, 2012 at 3:46pm

Thanks for keeping us in the loop. Not in the Loop, of course, we can ride anywhere!

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