The Chainlink

Does anyone know what's up with this?  I couldn't ride yesterday, but today there were trucks in the bike lane and traffic was routed through the bike lane closer to grand.  I called the Chicago Department of Transportation and none of the 3 people I spoke with knew anything about it.

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Yeah, those numbers are during rush hour. (http://www.cityofchicago.org/city/en/depts/cdot/provdrs/bike/news/2...) I occasionally ride outside of rush hour routes, but I don't have a good feel for the bike/car ratio then because the cars are actually moving then. Lots more trucks of course. It sure would be nice to have a bike counter on Milwaukee. I know Active Trans does counts occasionally. Is that data publicly available?


Apie (10.6) said:

Are those numbers during rush hour? That intersection is busy with vehicles all day long.
 
David Altenburg said:

If you mean there's way more space taken up by cars than bikes, you're absolutely correct. If you're referring to the number of people, however, it's not so clear. Back in June, before the protected bike lane installation, CDOT estimated more than 40% of traffic as bike traffic. 60/40 is more, but hardly "way more". Further, as anyone who's been riding that route since before the protected bike lanes can attest, the number of bikes on that route has gone up significantly over the summer. I wouldn't be at all surprised to find that cars and bikes are in equal numbers down that stretch.

Ugh, at any rate, my commute home was really terrible down that stretch, so I'm looking for an alternate route. Any suggestions? I'm thinking Noble.


Apie (10.6) said:

How would that be a good idea to just have bikes and no cars on Milwaukee? I take that route everyday and there are way more cars than bikes.  Would be nice, but a ridiculous idea.

Who paid for the street to be repaired in May? It seems like there could have been more coordination. I understand progress and updates, it's just frustrating when a street is torn up and then torn up again a few months later. One way or another, we are paying for it.    

Duppie said:

Those are not tax dollars at work, but rather user fees. Water main replacement is paid for by the increased water rates that went in effect last year.

After ignoring our water mains for decades something had to happen, so I am quite OK with the increased rates. I have noticed a lot more water main being replaced in the last two years. A side-effect is that the pavement ends up in great shape once the work is complete.

But I agree, it sucks while the work takes place.

Tim said:

Which seems pretty dumb after they just re-did most of the road in, what was it, may? Here are our tax dollars at work!

Also, in regards to shutting it down to cars... it seems like they could take out the lane of parked cars going northbound and free up some room to at least keep one bike lane (either north or southbound) functional.



Steven Vance said:

Taking an educated guess: water main construction after which a full repaving will be done. CDOT said this was coming but didn't say when.

The road is NOT being ripped up twice. 

There are two distinct sections here: 

1. Milwaukee north of Ogden

2. Milwaukee south of Ogden

Section 1 received full repaving up to Elston, and is unaffected by this month's construction. Section 2 received patch repaving where it affected the bike lane and where the water main work is now being done. 

There is also a crew installing recessed reflective markers today in the buffer zone on the block between Hubbard and Grand.

Reply 1:

BURN! You got me!

Reply 2:  This is a stupid discussion. You pointed out my argument "Section 2 received patch repaving where it affected the bike lane and where the water main work is now being done." Whether they were re-paving a few months ago, and are tearing up parts of, or in the very close proximity of the work they just did, it seems like this work could have been managed a little better to be done around the same time. It's inefficient and inconvenient for most everybody involved.

Steven Vance said:

The road is NOT being ripped up twice. 

There are two distinct sections here: 

1. Milwaukee north of Ogden

2. Milwaukee south of Ogden

Section 1 received full repaving up to Elston, and is unaffected by this month's construction. Section 2 received patch repaving where it affected the bike lane and where the water main work is now being done. 

They tend to do a lot of paving and repaving when doing the water main work. Don't be surprised if they tear up the road yet again for other utility work. This is what happened on Damen a while back.

Tim said:

Reply 1:

BURN! You got me!

Reply 2:  This is a stupid discussion. You pointed out my argument "Section 2 received patch repaving where it affected the bike lane and where the water main work is now being done." Whether they were re-paving a few months ago, and are tearing up parts of, or in the very close proximity of the work they just did, it seems like this work could have been managed a little better to be done around the same time. It's inefficient and inconvenient for most everybody involved.

Steven Vance said:

The road is NOT being ripped up twice. 

There are two distinct sections here: 

1. Milwaukee north of Ogden

2. Milwaukee south of Ogden

Section 1 received full repaving up to Elston, and is unaffected by this month's construction. Section 2 received patch repaving where it affected the bike lane and where the water main work is now being done. 

Here're the dates in writing from CDOT in a letter to affected property owners. See page 4 for dates.

Don't know if it is just my computer, but that link gave me computer gibberish. ;-)

Steven Vance said:

Here're the dates in writing from CDOT in a letter to affected property owners. See page 4 for dates.

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