I rode Dearborn today...anyone else?

I just missed the press conference and just hung out at lunch to see how it would all work. It seemed easy enough, so I took Dearborn as my starting route home to Roscoe Village. Normally I hit Franklin to Orleans then north to Lincoln.

I have to say, it was pretty easy and relatively safe. The ambassadors were helpful with the the auto traffic. The walkers were easy enough to avoid. I had to chuckle at two riders riding side by side in the lane.

What I didn't see was any oncoming traffic; southbound riders. I am guessing that will come in time or at other times during the day.

Way to go Mayor RE! This is really making a statement.

Who else rode the new path?

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Permalink Reply by Tricolor on December 19, 2012 at 5:27am

Came in this morning from Kinzie to Jackson. No problem with cars but probably five corners where pedestrians walk out without looking even though there's no walk signal and traffic would keep them from crossing the street. Still a lot of big puddles in the southbound lanes, and at my pace I made roughly every other traffic light, which was a bit slower than my normal ride down State Street. I saw three other bikes, no shoalers or light runners. If anything the bike specific lights encourage better behavior at intersections that I would normally follow, but then Dearborn is also such a busy road there aren't many opportunities to cheat anyway. Plus since you're moving slower and having to dance with CTA buses the pressure's not the same, either.

Maybe some kind of sign on the sidewalk or curb would help with people walking out. I remember in Dublin most corners had 'Look Right' and arrows painted on the curb to keep tourists from looking the wrong way and getting hit at intersections. Something like that warning about bikes may help.

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Permalink Reply by David Barish on December 19, 2012 at 5:50am

Tonight I will ride from Washington to Kinzie (and beyond) on Dearborn. This will be my first official use of the lane. I will stop, smile, signal. We will see how things go.

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Permalink Reply by Lisa Curcio on December 19, 2012 at 6:48am

There are signs on the light posts for pedestrians, but they are not very obvious. I only had one fellow step into the lane this a.m. just before 8:00. When he saw me coming southbound he stepped back and I said thank you.

Also, thank you to the CPD officer who asked the construction truck parked in the bike lanes at the Westin to move to the parking lanes. They were in the process of complying as I drove around them. ;-)

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Permalink Reply by Lisa Curcio on December 20, 2012 at 2:14pm

Cars stopped in the bike lane outside Petterinos, truck in the bike lane outside the building with the convenience store at Dearborn and Lake, cabs in the bike lane tonight around 4:30 at the Westin again--acting like it is the cab stand. There was nothing in the parking area where they are supposed to be. The cabs at least know what they are doing. Please make them stop! If the city wants to make this work, someone is going to have to step up enforcement at least for a couple of weeks. Have not seen an ambassador since Monday, by the way.

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Permalink Reply by Bill Savage on December 20, 2012 at 2:49pm

Haven't ridden this stretch yet, but last week and today I was on that stretch of Dearborn--and saw not one cyclist in about 20 minutes spent walking or riding the bus. Hope this doesn't get axed due to under-utilization.

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Permalink Reply by Shaun Jacobsen on December 20, 2012 at 2:58pm

The weather's kind of crap today, but I did see some people on bikes at PM rush hour. I've seen a fair amount over the past few days at rush periods too.

I've also seen my fair share of drivers turning against the left turn arrow. Some even stop when its red but treat it like a stop sign and go anyway. Maybe after noticing that its for the bike lane's benefit, they decide to rebel themselves...

Bill Savage said:

Haven't ridden this stretch yet, but last week and today I was on that stretch of Dearborn--and saw not one cyclist in about 20 minutes spent walking or riding the bus. Hope this doesn't get axed due to under-utilization.

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Permalink Reply by JimmyD on December 26, 2012 at 7:35am

I use the Dearborn bike lanes (both northbound and southbound) during my commute to and from work every day. Depending on the day, I'm usually on it anytime between the hours of 7:30am - 9:00am in the morning and between 4:00pm and 6:00pm in the evening.

During these time periods, I usually see 1 or 2 cyclists. This morning, I didn't see anyone using the Dearborn bike lanes, but then again, being a holiday week, the amount of traffic was low all around (incuding cars and Metra).

My current concern about the Dearborn lanes is the couple patches of ice I have spotted so far. I noticed there were a couple small potholes last week which bugged me since the lanes are new. Well, this week, I found that those same potholes had some ice in them. I'm glad I spotted it before my tires did!

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Permalink Reply by Barry Niel Stuart on December 26, 2012 at 12:39pm

The Chainlink has been showing me what can be done with committed leadership, and I'm trying to get the same commitment from Milwaukee's leaders that Chicago's residents currently enjoy. I like the idea of a protected bike lane on Dearborn St. and would like to see if we in Milwaukee can implement something similar. We've also been installing plates over the gridwork in the bike lanes on the bridges over the rivers as they're being renovated.

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Permalink Reply by Steven Vance on December 27, 2012 at 11:00am

I showed the bike lane to a friend from out of town to "show off". We saw an orange cone "guarding" a patch of ice at the northwest corner of Randolph and Dearborn.

JimmyD said:

My current concern about the Dearborn lanes is the couple patches of ice I have spotted so far. I noticed there were a couple small potholes last week which bugged me since the lanes are new. Well, this week, I found that those same potholes had some ice in them. I'm glad I spotted it before my tires did!

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Permalink Reply by Lisa Curcio on December 27, 2012 at 11:21am

Steven, that "patch of ice" was a huge puddle all last week that took up the entire southbound lane at the corner. Glad they at least put up a warning since it is a disaster waiting to happen. The pavement contour there is really bad, and I don't know what they can do to fix the drainage short of tearing the entire area up and putting in new with proper grade to drain correctly.

Jimmy, unfortunately they did not fix any of the bad pavement in the bike lanes when they put it in. Let's hope they get around to that soon!

Steven Vance said:

I showed the bike lane to a friend from out of town to "show off". We saw an orange cone "guarding" a patch of ice at the northwest corner of Randolph and Dearborn.

JimmyD said:

My current concern about the Dearborn lanes is the couple patches of ice I have spotted so far. I noticed there were a couple small potholes last week which bugged me since the lanes are new. Well, this week, I found that those same potholes had some ice in them. I'm glad I spotted it before my tires did!