Hopefully you've heard by now that CDOT will begin construction this week on the city's first protected bike lane: Kinzie Street from Milwaukee Avenue/Desplaines Street to Wells Street.
Full story on Steven Can Plan.
I want to know what you think about this.
Cycle track and protected bike lane naysayers, this isn't the post for you. But if you've ridden in protected bike lanes before, then I welcome your constructive comments and criticism based on your actual experiences.
The new beginning. Looking southeast at the intersection of Kinzie/Milwaukee/Desplaines.
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Take a look at Day 7 construction on Kinzie Street
- Continued work on eastbound/westbound portions.
- Also painted a bike box and left turn lane green (Milwaukee/Desplaines).
So for those of us unfamiliar with "soft hit bollards," how soft are they exactly? What happens if a cyclist hits one? They look pretty scary and rigid to me on those pictures.
So for those of us unfamiliar with "soft hit bollards," how soft are they exactly? What happens if a cyclist hits one? They look pretty scary and rigid to me on those pictures.
Rode it this morning. Still a lot of work remains to be done east of the bridge.
No indication yet of what the solution will look like between the bridge and the Orleans st underpass. This part is routinely the most chaotic with many pedestrians and traffic entering from the Merchandise Mart lot.
Could it be that this is the hardest part to design for an engineer and given the frantic speed of the project they approach this last?
Rode it this morning. Still a lot of work remains to be done east of the bridge.
No indication yet of what the solution will look like between the bridge and the Orleans st underpass. This part is routinely the most chaotic with many pedestrians and traffic entering from the Merchandise Mart lot.
Could it be that this is the hardest part to design for an engineer and given the frantic speed of the project they approach this last?
will the parking meters be moved into the 3' buffer space? i know pedestrians won't be allowed in the cycle lane, but i don't really see chicago drivers getting out of their cars and walking around the track, to the sidewalk corner, to the meter, and back just to pay their fares. folks will definitely be darting across the cycle lane to get to the meter, which could get dicey during busy times of the day.
jennifer james said:
One of the interesting things mentioned yesterday was that moving the parking isn't losing the parking and that the parking contract doesn't require them to leave the spaces by the curb thus, it's no limit on new cycling infrastructure. I think everyone is going to be paying for parking regardless of where it is.
H3N3 said:
Drivers will still be expected to pay for their parking. Remember that this is a "study."
chixieonfixie said:Are they going to remove the parking meter thats sitting next to the BMW in that picture and/or the others down the street?
I posed this question to some people:
"How often are cars being parked?"
Let's say in one block there are 12 car parking spaces and every person removes their car after one hour of being parked. If they were randomly distributed, you would see 12 people crossing the Kinzie Street bike lane in one hour's time, or 1 person ever 5 minutes.
On a street like Kinzie, on the block between Desplaines and Jefferson, with little adjacent commercial activity, people will be parking for the maximum time available (don't know what this is), or a short time (~30 minutes, because they're visiting the park).
pee wee said:
will the parking meters be moved into the 3' buffer space? i know pedestrians won't be allowed in the cycle lane, but i don't really see chicago drivers getting out of their cars and walking around the track, to the sidewalk corner, to the meter, and back just to pay their fares. folks will definitely be darting across the cycle lane to get to the meter, which could get dicey during busy times of the day.
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