What's this doing in the bike lane?

Share your pics, videos, streets, stories of what you find in the bike lane of the non-bike variety that has an impact on your ride and/or your safety. I've decided to keep it a little more open ended - cars, snow, buses, garbage, cabs, etc. If they shouldn't be in the bike lane, go ahead and add it to this thread. Please be safe if you are taking pics or video! :-)

My hope is that we can collectively build some evidence of what we see when riding in the city with the overall hope of better enforcement of "bikes only" and improving maintenance.

Update: More Hashtags to Capture Vehicles in the Bike Lane

With popular hashtags:
#BikeLaneShaming

#LaneSpreading (Chicago Bike Selling)

#ClearTheWay (ActiveTrans), there are many options to capture violations.

We think you should use ALL of them AND post your photos on The Chainlink. ;-)

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Jonathan Quist on October 28, 2017 at 6:29am

If the car was on duty, Lyft has a record of this trip.

Contact CPD and tell them you have evidence of a private vehicle driving on the trail.

Maybe contact the TV stations too...

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Permalink Reply by BikeScnhook on October 29, 2017 at 5:32am

I don't think the driver was actually on a trip, but the pink mustache was lit, telling me the guy was on call. On duty, but not necessarily in transit with a passenger.

I just e-mailed WGN. I'll let CPD know as well...unfortunately, my camera couldn't pick up the license plate; it's not good with detail after dusk. :(

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Permalink Reply by Jonathan Quist on October 31, 2017 at 10:43am

Given today's events in Manhattan, please follow up on this.

Hopefully this was just a boneheaded driver, but I'd like to see CPD or the FBI ask that question.

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Permalink Reply by BikeScnhook on November 1, 2017 at 6:07am

Following your suggestion, I stopped at a police station on my way home last night. Unsurprisingly, I got kind of a "nothing we can do" response. The guy said, "It was probably just some jackass who made a stupid turn, you know how those drivers can be!"

I didn't realize that the Manhattan guy carried out the attack in a bike path until I got home and saw the news. :/

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Permalink Reply by Argonne69 on October 30, 2017 at 9:15am

Did anybody else get spammed by the city's 311 system this morning at ~10:30 am? I received 16 emails confirming 311 report submissions that were dated 10/30/17. However, I didn't submit any reports this morning.

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Permalink Reply by Skip Montanaro 0mi on October 30, 2017 at 9:22am

I've never submitted any. I wonder if they batched all your submissions up into a single run. Maybe they don't process in realtime?

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Permalink Reply by BikeScnhook on October 30, 2017 at 9:32am

That's very likely what happened. If the submissions get added to a database, they probably actually just store them in a temporary cache, and then bulk-add them to the database after a certain amount of time or a certain number builds up. Database calls slow things down, so it makes more sense than to have just one big slowdown in the system than to have a slowdown every time someone submits a report.

FWIW, I got nothing; then again, I haven't submitted a 311 report in a few months. (Seriously, I'm extremely fortunate - on the routes I take, the bike lanes are either clear or have a vehicle blocking them for like half a second, not even long enough to jot down a license plate.)

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Permalink Reply by Argonne69 on October 30, 2017 at 9:53am

I generally receive the acknowledgement a minute or so after submitting them. I don't recall receiving an acknowledgement from one or two last week, but certainly not 16.