Read about the project to redesign the Damen-Elston-Fullerton junction.
Gather up your ideas on its hits or misses, then email your comments to Bridget Stalla. They're due tomorrow.
Here're my comments (I haven't submitted them yet):
Tags:
The way I see this working is...
Your comments go in the "public record." All of the comments will be read, categorized, and then each category will have a summary of what people said. These summaries will be placed into a document the next time the design/plan is released.
Do the comments actually make a difference in the plan?
That probably depends on how well the project staff understand your comments and how important Complete Streets is to them.
Analysis that was discussed on the posters, with the staff, and in the documents is scant and limited.
Did they do analysis on the traffic delays/flow if Damen was only one lane in the northbound direction immediately south of Fullerton (to give room for a bike lane in each direction)? No.
Steven, do you know of any studies on the effects of roundabouts on bike safety? I've seen a lot about auto traffic and roundabouts but never much about bikes. There's some musing about it on a post at the ATA blog, but their conclusion is that they don't know much about it either.
It seems to me that roundabouts, uneducated drivers and bikes would be a dangerous combination, but studies might show something different.
sheesh...no matter how you cut it, this intersection still sucks.
best ive come up with:
southbound elston approaching fullerton - the vacant lot next to the tennis spot - right turn only for fullerton only. (unless we can cut through somewhere at leavit to redirect onto fullerton that way, and then the turn only can be for damen specifically)
fullerton westbound approaching damen/elston - vacant lot in front of vienna - make a damen turn off some few hundred feet back, and farther up, an elston specific lane also easing into that lot. this will aleviate straight westbound flow continuuing on fullerton
northbound elston approaching fullerton/damen - turn off much like proposed. no right turn at elston/fullerton.
northbound damen approaching fullerton/elston - unless you take out popeyes...i dunno!
Eastbound fullerton approaching damen/elston - right turn off lane through the parking lot onto damen
Southbound damen approaching fullerton/elston - offramp for right turn just after bridge, maybe to leavit, maybe through lot behind 'european imports'.
keep the island there - and put a million redlight cameras for every asshole who fucks up that intersection by blocking passage.
in terms of bike lanes through all this...
brightly painted dedicated lanes. (best i got)
all these still present some challenges, of course.
There are hundreds of roundabouts constructed in Europe (and two in Arizona) that safely accommodate bicyclists.
The one in Arizona invites bicyclists to ride on a wide sidewalk and cross the street perpendicularly (the best direction to be visible), or they can ride through the roundabout.
Here're some photos of roundabouts with circumferential bike lanes (all of these are single-traffic lane roundabouts; double lane roundabout photos are harder to find):
I haven't sought research about roundabouts and their safety for bicyclists. I did seek information about roundabouts and their capacity because that would probably be the first question in this project. If a roundabout cannot handle the expected traffic at one of these intersections, then it cannot be further considered.
David said:
Steven, do you know of any studies on the effects of roundabouts on bike safety? I've seen a lot about auto traffic and roundabouts but never much about bikes. There's some musing about it on a post at the ATA blog, but their conclusion is that they don't know much about it either.
It seems to me that roundabouts, uneducated drivers and bikes would be a dangerous combination, but studies might show something different.
sheesh...no matter how you cut it, this intersection still sucks.
best ive come up with:
southbound elston approaching fullerton - the vacant lot next to the tennis spot - right turn only for fullerton only. (unless we can cut through somewhere at leavit to redirect onto fullerton that way, and then the turn only can be for damen specifically)
[snip]
What hapens to the land labled Utility Easment? I think that it would be nice if there could be a Ped/Bike troughfare going SE on Elston where the existing road is. Going NW seems a little more problematic but perhaps stopsigns and cross walks could act as traffic calmers where the Elston gets cut off.
What happens to Whirley Ball? It looks like "New Elston" would cut right through the building. That would make me sad.
I'll Send this later today.
Thanks for all your work Steven.
thanks,
sent
Steven Vance said:
Thanks for trying!
Send in your comments today!
iggi said:sheesh...no matter how you cut it, this intersection still sucks.
best ive come up with:
southbound elston approaching fullerton - the vacant lot next to the tennis spot - right turn only for fullerton only. (unless we can cut through somewhere at leavit to redirect onto fullerton that way, and then the turn only can be for damen specifically)
[snip]
This is what we recommended to our members in the area (nearly 800 of them!):
Dear member,
Active Trans is encouraging our members to attend a meeting where the Chicago Department of Transportation and Ald. Scott Waguespack will be presenting a project proposal for revamping the Damen-Elston-Fullerton intersection.
This is a challenging intersection that could benefit from innovative bicycling solutions such as:
When:
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Meeting time: 4 pm - 7 pm (open house)
Where:
Bucktown-Wicker Park Branch of the Chicago Public Library
1701 N. Milwaukee Avenue
We hope you can attend this meeting to provide valuable input on this project.
Great that the conversation around this is so engaged.
Thanks,
Ethan Spotts, Active Trans, M&C
PS: And yes, roundabouts...we need to learn more about these new-fangled traffic options.
This is what we recommended to our members in the area (nearly 800 of them!):
Dear member,
Active Trans is encouraging our members to attend a meeting where the Chicago Department of Transportation and Ald. Scott Waguespack will be presenting a project proposal for revamping the Damen-Elston-Fullerton intersection.
This is a challenging intersection that could benefit from innovative bicycling solutions such as:
- Continuing the existing bike lanes on Damen and Elston through the intersection.
- Using bike boxes on Damen and Elston to support cueing of bicyclists and increasing bicyclist visibility.
When:
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Meeting time: 4 pm - 7 pm (open house)
Where:
Bucktown-Wicker Park Branch of the Chicago Public Library
1701 N. Milwaukee Avenue
We hope you can attend this meeting to provide valuable input on this project.
Great that the conversation around this is so engaged.
Thanks,
Ethan Spotts, Active Trans, M&C
PS: And yes, roundabouts...we need to learn more about these new-fangled traffic options.
203 members
1 member
270 members
1 member
261 members