Photo documentation of poor condition of new bike lanes from unexpected source...

Courtesy of Second City Cop:

http://secondcitycop.blogspot.com/

(courtesy of Joe F on BCHI list)

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Permalink Reply by william on February 11, 2013 at 1:30pm
oh, no. pot holes. that never happens, ever.

big deal. upgrade to fat tires and blow through them.
Permalink Reply by David P. on February 11, 2013 at 5:25pm

I think I'd rather have good pavement everywhere than all the new bike lanes, PBLs, etc. I might just settle for non-shitty pavement.

Permalink Reply by pat 5.5mi on February 11, 2013 at 5:42pm

I don't claim to have the faintest idea of what's really happening, but I read globalguy's long-time senior, city employee friend's observation as:

"...and 2. (Rahm)'s pretty much encouraging various commissioners to compete with each other at the detriment of mandates from up top..."

Am I way off?


globalguy said:

"...and 2. he's pretty much encouraging various commissioners to fight over turf at the detriment of co-ordinated public policy..."

Permalink Reply by Kevin C Dormant on February 11, 2013 at 5:46pm

Me too.

David P. said:

I think I'd rather have good pavement everywhere than all the new bike lanes, PBLs, etc. I might just settle for non-shitty pavement.

Permalink Reply by Far'arned Retrogrumpalunkus #63 on February 11, 2013 at 5:48pm

I'd rather have bad pavement and no cars, than good pavement and cars.  The better the pavement the faster the cars go -and the more cars there are every year.

Build roads, and cars will come.

We should have left all the streets unpaved. 

Permalink Reply by Jeff Markus on February 11, 2013 at 6:45pm

But so many missed the irony of the web site being linked to NRA, Ill Rifle and police blogs that have decidedly racial and social bias'. While the point we take from this is bike oriented the web site was promoting an anti bike/antibike lane agenda sponsored by a strongly right wing anti social site.

OK, OK, OK we need the press but if the source is running down potential backing for bike positive city actions then we lose. I am not saying the Rahm (or Daley started ) bad surface lanes are good...far from it these bad facilities are worse than leaving us in traffic (if they'd clean up pavement all the way to the curb) without trying to "educate by paint" with these lanes and I agree with the site (chainlink and Second City Cop) in believing these bad facilities are a waste of money BUT we must start somewhere and if we can put pressure on converting these bad facilities into better...heck lets go for GOOD... then lets do it not promote detractors that would eliminate ALL bike facility and probike action because "ITS JUST A WASTE OF OUR MONEY"

We need to watch who we jump into bed with when we join forces for our purposes.

Jeff

Permalink Reply by Andrew Bedno on February 11, 2013 at 11:27pm

There are some briefly awesome stretches.  Anything freshly resurfaced is a Teflon dream on skates.

But great chunks of Chicago bike lanes seem like scraps they threw us as a token gesture.  Where pavement falls off and glass collects, where it's too crappy for moving cars, greenwash it.  Thanx for the reminder that there's a matter of accountability.

Permalink Reply by Juan Primo on February 12, 2013 at 3:50am

Andrew has it right. 

I have a fear about drivers reactions to bike lanes.  The more we consider the bike lane "ours", then the more that cars will feel that the other traffic lanes are not ours.  I'm not comfortable riding the Dearborn PBL.  I ride fast and the PBL is too narrow for that, especially if pedestrians will continue to jaywalk across it.  My last time on Dearborn, a cop yelled at me to get back in my lane.  (No time to yell back, I was riding fast.

Permalink Reply by David P. on February 12, 2013 at 4:53am

Oh, and safe bridge and river crossings. Sure, I like riding downtown from my office on Elston and Kinzie, but if I had those two things everywhere I'd give up all the other stuff. This is, to a degree, settling for 'good enough' but we're not Amsterdam and I'd love just the basics being right, please. Kthx.

Kevin C 4.1 mi said:

Me too.

David P. said:

I think I'd rather have good pavement everywhere than all the new bike lanes, PBLs, etc. I might just settle for non-shitty pavement.

Permalink Reply by David P. on February 12, 2013 at 4:55am

The irony of what you're saying is that cycling clubs were a major force behind the smooth paving of streets in American cities in the first place. (!)

James BlackHeron said:

I'd rather have bad pavement and no cars, than good pavement and cars.  The better the pavement the faster the cars go -and the more cars there are every year.

Build roads, and cars will come.

We should have left all the streets unpaved. 

Permalink Reply by Zoetrope on February 12, 2013 at 5:28am

Aren't there something like 50 aldermen in Chicago? Imagine the push and pull trying to get funding for something your district needs, competing with 50 other people (including Rahm, whom you have to bribe somehow so he doesn't 'forget' about you).



Tricolor said:

I wouldn't be on such a tear against Rahm as much as the local aldermen.  That said the people running street maintenance could probably stand a good kicking, too, and the Mayor can do something about them.

Permalink Reply by Far'arned Retrogrumpalunkus #63 on February 12, 2013 at 5:52am

I second the need for safe-passage across the rivers and expressways.  These tend to be awfully daunting to many riders and act like barriers to bike travel outside of isolated neighborhoods   

To make things worse these bridges and over/underpasses tend to fall on Aldermanic boundaries which turns them into turf disputes or just ignored in general by said Aldermen.  Add in the fact that many of these routes across the barriers are IDOT roads, which suffers from their famous anti-bike/pro-car bias, and we have a recipe for a lot more ghost bikes at each of these crossings, such as the the one at the meat-grinder intersection of Logan & Western and many more like it. 



David P. said:

Oh, and safe bridge and river crossings. Sure, I like riding downtown from my office on Elston and Kinzie, but if I had those two things everywhere I'd give up all the other stuff. This is, to a degree, settling for 'good enough' but we're not Amsterdam and I'd love just the basics being right, please. Kthx.

Kevin C 4.1 mi said:

Me too.

David P. said:

I think I'd rather have good pavement everywhere than all the new bike lanes, PBLs, etc. I might just settle for non-shitty pavement.

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