The Chainlink

Good Intentions, Bad Execution -- Berteau Greenway

Its probably not fair and a bit too early to judge, but the Berteau Greenway looks to be a disaster in the making for Bicycles.    They have decided to keep it "open" end to end for cars rather than putting in a series of cul de sac's open for bicycles.  To "calm" the traffic, they have narrowed the intersections.  Will it slow down cars, if two cars are coming in opposite directions, yes, certainly.   But with bicycles involved, it may well simply result in cars crowding bicycles to the side of the road.    Add to this the fact that at one way portions of Berteau, they are going to allow two way bicycling....  which, in addition to being a bad idea due to the narrowness of the street, sends the message to at least a portion of the community that Salmoning is not a bad idea.    Maybe I will love it.... but my current plan is to find another street to come across... perhaps Lincoln to Grace..

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Permalink Reply by Tricolor on March 19, 2014 at 5:51pm

Intentionally turning a cyclist into a living calming device doesn't seem like a good idea.  If traffic calming is designed to irritate drivers you don't want them irritated at a person that's near to hand (or bumper).

Permalink Reply by Renee Patten on March 20, 2014 at 9:34am

My biggest peeve currently is cars speeding around me in the middle of the blocks (I ride through the markings on the road now, far from doors) and then cutting me off at the stop signs. Inconsiderate and rude. Sometime a driver will go slowly behind me and not try to speed past which is a nice change of pace. 

Riding on Clark at the bump-out I take the lane and hold my arm out to the side so cars can't try to squeeze past - that part sucks as well. 

Permalink Reply by Crazy David 84 Furlongs on June 4, 2014 at 9:34am

I have had the opportunity to ride in and around the Berteau Greenway.    It got hit by the winter quite hard with many of the pavement markings destroyed by the winter.   I rode the one counterflow block from Lincoln to Damen and it was quite quite bad.   The markings of the alternate lane were gone and the cars were charging right up the block and, due to pot holes, were driving over in the counterflow bike lane.   The rest of the "greenway" also doesn't work as all the greenway has done is pissed off the car drivers and forced Cars and Bicycles to interact at the intersections.    This half-assed Greenway isn't a fair test of Greenways and it is going to be cited by opponents of future Greenways that they don't work in Chicago.   And that's too bad.  This was the right place for a proper Greenway.   But we didn't advocate for it the right way (no doubt because we no longer have an effective advocacy group with the death of the CBF and the creation of the ATA and its change in mission). 

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