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Permalink Reply by Heather on September 24, 2019 at 3:20am

I haven't seen that specific issue much, but it drives me batty when I see a car double-parked or idling in the bike lane and there's plenty of space about 100 feet in front of them that they could slip into.

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Permalink Reply by David Barish on September 24, 2019 at 5:06am

It takes  common sense and drivers can lack that attribute. Today I  was  in one of those  motorized  things on Damen which is  one  of my favorite streets to  cycle. At  the  entrance to the Kennedy the  cars were lined  up to make a left  onto the expressway.  I  looked in my right  mirror and  saw none of the bikes I had  passed a minute or so beforehand.  I  signaled and went  around the sitting  cars briefly entering  the bike lane and  returning  to the main  driving lane which  was then  pretty clear. This differs significantly from the OP where the  cars simply decided  to  use the bike lane as a second driving lane rather  than  a relief valve lane for  only brief  usage.  

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Permalink Reply by Juan 2-3 or more mi. on September 24, 2019 at 7:45am

Yes, On the Harrison street bike lane crossing the river into the south loop. One does it, like a UPS truck, and then the rest follow behind.

Morning commute observations. 

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Permalink Reply by ketoguychicago on September 26, 2019 at 2:40pm

CLP has a point about the congestion, and when people don't do what David described to keep the flow moving, then the congestion increases all the more, motivating people to fast-run yellows, etc. because they still have to get to/from work, take a kid to a piano lesson, run mom to the doctor on the way to work, drop off the dog at the vet, and so forth.  Elston was another very effective 1 1/2 lane of 2 lane each when when the drivers were making it work at rush hour.  Since the bike lanes impeded this, drivers now use Waze to find other routes, including residential streets instead.  A stop sign every block is still faster than a traffic lane that isn't moving.  So back to what we see on Clyborn, when someone sees the cars can get through, they'll follow. 

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