Sorry state of painted bike lanes in Chicago

Almost every bike lane I use regularly looks like this one (taken tonight):

 

Anyone know if the city still intends to maintain the current painted bike lanes, or are they being abandoned in favor of protected bike lanes?

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Permalink Reply by Steven Vance on August 12, 2011 at 3:46am

I wrote about this very topic on Grid Chicago in June. 

The story I told is essentially the same as Adolfo's. 

 

 

The shortage of titanium dioxide doesn't explain why the striping got to the state it is in now. Bike lane stripes use thermoplastic, not paint. Paint lasts about a year (say goodbye to Kinzie Street unless it's refreshed or replaced with thermoplastic), but thermoplastic lasts about 5 years. 

 

Time, the City's priorities, and CMAQ funding explain their sorry state.

Permalink Reply by wig [ isaac ] on August 12, 2011 at 5:56am
if I had a few extra hands I would make time to repaint them. im free most night after 7:00 pm. shit why not add a few new ones..
Permalink Reply by Cruz Cardenas on August 14, 2011 at 6:51pm
Archer avenue I feel needs some repair.
Permalink Reply by John Wirtz on August 15, 2011 at 1:46am
They're being converted to protected food cart lanes.
Permalink Reply by Steven Vance on August 15, 2011 at 3:58am
The Grid Chicago article mentions that CDOT completed a survey to inventory the conditions of all bike lanes and marked-shared lanes in 2008 - and nothing came of it. CDOT's contractor, Sam Schwartz, will apparently do the same thing this year for the "Bike 2020 Plan" (aka the new "Streets for Cycling Plan"). 

Cruz Cardenas said:
Archer avenue I feel needs some repair.
Permalink Reply by Michelle S on August 15, 2011 at 12:23pm

I've been meaning to post on this topic on our blog for Bike Walk Lincoln Park and did so today with my thoughts.

 

The problem is that bike lanes run through numerous aldermanic wards, and the users of the bike lanes may or may not live in the wards, especially in long commuter corridors. Any given alderman has little incentive to allot menu funds when they are only "responsible" for a half mile of the street in question. This is all so very wrong.

Permalink Reply by chixieonfixie on August 15, 2011 at 2:53pm

 

I find it amusing that both cyclists and the Amish have complained about them.

 


Cameron Puetz said:

They're very common on rural roads and are for the most part hated by cyclists because they destroy otherwise comfortable and safe to ride on shoulders.

If used in the city to separate bike lanes from motorized traffic I would be afraid that the width required for rumble strips would be taken out of the bike lanes. This would effectively narrow the bike lane and push cyclists further into the door zone. Wikipedia has quite a bite of information.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rumble_strip


Barry Niel Stuart said:

I believe those horizontal raised ridges that vibrate cars are called "rumble strips".  I saw an example of that when I rode to Bong Recreation Area last September.  They were in the middle of WI 142 and they are the bane of many bicyclists.

 

Permalink Reply by Cruz Cardenas on August 15, 2011 at 4:56pm

The irony is that he's my alderman and does squat for my community.

And no, no relation. Family get together would be brutal if that were.

Permalink Reply by JeffB on August 16, 2011 at 6:52am

One bit of good news to add to this thread:  a new bike lane in the loop!  Madison was recently repaved and they're in the process of adding the lane markers and there is now a bike lane. 

(Of course, when I was waiting to cross Madison today, I noticed that 100% of the cars in the lane to the left of the bike lane, starting off from Dearborn, managed to enter the bike lane between Dearborn and Clark, even though there is no right turn at Clark.  ???  Well, you take the good with the bad)

Permalink Reply by John Wirtz on August 16, 2011 at 1:14pm
The opposite actually.  I think this is part of the Central Area Transitway project that was planning BRT and bike lanes on Madison/Washington.  CTA had an "urban circulator" program grant from the FTA.

dingyourbelldotorg said:
Interesting. They recently moved my bus (#60) from Madison to Randolph (presumably while the Madison bridge is out)-- but I wonder if Madison will be de-emphasized as a bus corridor?
Permalink Reply by John Wirtz on August 16, 2011 at 1:47pm
I meant CDOT grant, not CTA. It's a partnership though. Expect some new buses and stations, but since buses will still be stuck behind right-turners operations won't improve much.
Permalink Reply by chixieonfixie on August 16, 2011 at 4:01pm

Thanks for posting this, very useful.  

 

I was riding west on Madison through the loop tonight and was shocked to see a fresh bike lane from State street or there abouts westward that JeffB mentions in an earlier post.  I came home and looked it up on this link to see if it was in the plan and it is not...

 

bonus lane, I guess.  Very promising that bike lanes are appearing on such a main thoroughfare through town, expect another nasty editorial from the Sun Times like with the Kinzie lane, I guess.  I'll give anybody a free inner tube if they email that guy and wind him up!


Todd Fujimoto said:

CDOT's Bike Program has a google map showing where they will be doing bike lane restriping.

2011 bikeway installations

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