Critical Mass Route Planning

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Andrew Bedno on April 21, 2009 at 9:08pm

This version eliminates Polk/Taylor AND two highway crossings AND reduces maximum straightaways AND minimizes Ogden AND passes through Garfield Park on Central AND shortens total distance slightly by staying on the north side of Eisenhower, passing through the United Center.

See v6 in GoogleMaps.

Permalink Reply by Andrew Bedno on April 22, 2009 at 4:44am

Check out the version 7 FLY-THROUGH!

View in GoogleMaps.

Permalink Reply by Brian on April 22, 2009 at 9:43am

this route would be killer! Go earth!

Andrew Bedno said:

I've developed a rough proposed route, starting from last month's unused Green route and lopping off chunks.
It's under 20 miles, passes through several parks (Grant, Douglas, Garfield, Humboldt, Lincoln), and ends at any desired point on lakefront North of Fullerton as far as Diversey or Montrose. Would be nice to not stay straight on Roosevelt nor North nor Fullerton so long, and is the Grant Park portion allowed?

See proposed route in Google Maps

Permalink Reply by Steven Lane on April 22, 2009 at 11:56am

I just took a look at version 5, and the east west segments are still too long. Easy fix to provide the main arterial segments some relief, just jog over a couple of blocks and take a one-way residential going parallel to your path, and then after a few blocks, go back to the main arterial, which is a great MassUp opp.

Permalink Reply by Todd Allen on April 22, 2009 at 2:58pm

Instead of the long trip west on Madison, I'd go a block south at Damen and continue west on Monroe. Monroe is a pretty tree lined residential street while Madison there is a divided industrial street. Monroe has traffic calming roundabouts and ends in cul-de-sac at Western eliminating most car traffic. However, the slight curb of the cul-de-sac is easily negotiable by most bikes and those that can't can take a driveway cutout onto the sidewalk for a block.

This route also takes us past some pleasant urban renewal and some vacant lots which I believe date back to the riots after MLK's assasination in 68. And it takes us past the site of Fred Hampton's murder in 69. Fred's family filed a wrongful death suit against the city, state and federal governments and over a decade later won a $1.85 million settlement. The Chicago city council honored Fred with a declaration of a "Fred Hampton day" in 1990. All of this ties in with a similar ongoing miscarriage of justice orchestrated against fellow former black panther Mumia Abu Jamal who has spent more than half of his life sitting on death row. Our ride will be on his birthday.

Anyway back to the map, at Western I suggest going south a block to Adams and then taking Adams west. It is also a pleasant low traffic residential street. It has an interesting discontinuity at Sain Park, perhaps one of the most neglected little parks in the city and it provides a stark contrast to the other parks we will be riding through. After crossing or skirting Sain Park we can continue west on Adams because these breaks to auto traffic mean we aren't tieing up traffic ourselves.

Adams ends at Sacramento. A half block jog north will put us at 5th Avenue and back on your route.

Permalink Reply by Andrew Bedno on April 22, 2009 at 3:26pm

EXCELLENT! That introduces the one more zig that the wesbound trek needed, and adds green. The long leg on Randolph remains justified just to get the mass the heck out of downtown. Bottom line, from Union Park to Garfield Park one can work one's way westward by several streets, and you'll hit the park. But I've updated with your input to rev8.

Todd Allen said:

Instead of the long trip west on Madison, I'd go a block south at Damen and continue west on Monroe. Monroe is a pretty tree lined residential street while Madison there is a divided industrial street. Monroe has traffic calming roundabouts and ends in cul-de-sac at Western eliminating most car traffic. However, the slight curb of the cul-de-sac is easily negotiable by most bikes and those that can't can take a driveway cutout onto the sidewalk for a block.

This route also takes us past some pleasant urban renewal and some vacant lots which I believe date back to the riots after MLK's assasination in 68. And it takes us past the site of Fred Hampton's murder in 69. Fred's family filed a wrongful death suit against the city, state and federal governments and over a decade later won a $1.85 million settlement. The Chicago city council honored Fred with a declaration of a "Fred Hampton day" in 1990. All of this ties in with a similar ongoing miscarriage of justice orchestrated against fellow former black panther Mumia Abu Jamal who has spent more than half of his life sitting on death row. Our ride will be on his birthday.

Anyway back to the map, at Western I suggest going south a block to Adams and then taking Adams west. It is also a pleasant low traffic residential street. It has an interesting discontinuity at Sain Park, perhaps one of the most neglected little parks in the city and it provides a stark contrast to the other parks we will be riding through. After crossing or skirting Sain Park we can continue west on Adams because these breaks to auto traffic mean we aren't tieing up traffic ourselves.

Adams ends at Sacramento. A half block jog north will put us at 5th Avenue and back on your route.

Permalink Reply by Reddog (Cliff) on April 22, 2009 at 11:32pm

The fly through and other maps are all very cool.
It is really great to have access to this much information before the ride.
It really helps a person visualize the up-coming mass.
I like it. great work and kudos to all!

Permalink Reply by payton on April 23, 2009 at 10:55am

don't ride down Fifth. how about Warren instead?

the boulevards are nice and leafy (and it's good to see that it's mostly on roads that don't have bus routes), but speaking from much experience: the cars in front of the mass will zoom ahead, leaving a huge open stretch of road in front of "the boys in front." those boys will sprint forward at full speed, and whoever's trying to "enforce" the map will get very tired calling for seemingly endless mass-ups. the people in the back, meanwhile, will get increasingly spooked as the drivers get ever more irate. some specific suggestions include using the circle drive in Humboldt.

the long stretch on Diversey could have a similar result, except with more angry drivers (and buses) behind you. as Steven pointed out, all you need to do to relieve it is to jog over to Wellington or Wrightwood or whatever, then go back. the turns break up the ride, the slower streets are harder to speed down, and the cars backed up behind the mass get to dissipate.

Permalink Reply by Andrew Bedno on April 23, 2009 at 1:16pm

THANX EVERYONE!!! This has been very collaborative. The fact that the release is revision 9 testifies. Final tweak was adding recommended alternates paths on the flyer, but the route remains unchanged from prior rev, at least as baseline guide. If you are able to lead subsets on alt paths of course do so. Helps relieve congestions. Adams is a good example. And skaters may stay on Diversey to lakefront (skipping Lincoln/Fullerton) which would bottleneck bikes.

Route in GoogleEarth/GoogleMaps (KMZ) format

Printable 2up map (nobody need print volumes, I'm bringing hundreds):

Permalink Reply by Reddog (Cliff) on April 25, 2009 at 4:13pm

It was a good mass. the vibe was surprisingly mellow. I was near the front, and did not see any real bad situations with cars vs bikes.
One person I talked with (Lauren) estimated the numbers at about 1,100 riders.
the total mileage was 14.4 miles from Daley plaza to the Fullerton Beach area.
my average speed was 8 miles an hour, the mass probably 6.
wind certainly was a factor.
I was a little dissapointed that everyone stopped at the Fullerton beach area instead of going up to Montrose Harbor, I really like cricket hill at dusk.

But that was minor, Overall it was a very good mass.

Permalink Reply by Andrew Bedno on April 26, 2009 at 4:05pm

Cross post / Chicago Critical Mass mailing list:

Hey massers, Andrew here (the skater/WNBR-C guy)
I'm writing a post-ride report, which is really special and first person
this time because I was front line instead of my usual meandering and
corking. But it may take a while so I did want to say right away, For this and years
of other wonderful times,
THANK YOU EVERYONE!!!
Chicago Critical Mass is the biggest love I've run across in a lifetime.


For now, some bottom lines on April are more maps and full size would've
been nice. The head had almost none, which is part of how we managed to
skip Garfield park entirely! And y'all shouldn't fear the lake front path
so much. Feedback has been very positive, and the neighborhoods, roads,
pace and distance were as predicted.

I'm going to use this "Earth Mass" route as basis for a generalized "Parks
Mass" route, which we can use again in the future, and make it mobile
accessible. Having had a great first try, some future month we WILL make it
to and through Garfield Park!


Being in front this time I SAW NONE of my usual eyes-full of mass wonder, no
traffic interactions, nor music much, etc. Further, me and just a few
others finished the 17 miles to Montrose (skate park, beach, pier, bird
sanctuary) whereas most stalled at LSD.
So I saw little of the more than a DOZEN SKATERS who came out. Even my
favorite skater pals I only saw for seconds.
So PLEASE TELL how did the skaters fare? Did many make it to Fullerton?
And any other Earth Mass stories?

~ Andrew ~

Permalink Reply by Andrew Bedno on April 26, 2009 at 5:23pm

Was especially wondering what skaters reached Fullerton?

I printed 424 (April 24, get it?) and others brought hundreds more in another form, yet in route seemed like almost nobody had gotten one. Big mass!!!

Was at front nearing Garfield, and my take was that happy cyclists simply gently followed natural curves. Perfectly reasonable. But if I'd had a Lauren/Steven/Martin/Gabe/Rat or even a horn right then we may have made it. There was even a nice triangle to circle. As we passed, Fifth Ave looked beautifully broad and clear ending in distant green!

Was counting on thinned and reduced mass upon reaching lakefront, and know the use and capacity of the path there extremely well (largely deserted Fridays late). I believe we would've been less disruptive threading our way at least to Diversey as mapped. But maybe should think of lakefront path leg as more a skater option.

C'est la mass.

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