Elston Protected Bike Lane--Zero Maintenance Zone

Are they any other regular users of the newish Elston protected bike lanes...north of Milwaukee ave? I've been a bit deflated (pun intended) by the amount of debris and glass, and general total absence of maintenance to the Elston bike lanes. Before the bike lanes, that roadway benefitted from very regular street sweeping. Now, the bike lanes have been sectioned off, and are a bit of a glassy mess. Does anyone who reads this blog have a relationship with city officials responsible for maintenance? Is there any hope even minimal sweeping can be done? I haven't had any luck through 311. And plan on investing in some more puncture proof tires soon out of necessity. 

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Permalink Reply by Anne Alt on December 28, 2018 at 11:54am

For some types of requests, doing a 311 request via the web site or the new app (which includes bike program requests now) can be much more effective than making a phone call.

Permalink Reply by Gage B. on December 30, 2018 at 2:05pm

I would’ve rode elston tonight but I knew it was going to be icy. So I rode down the sidewalk on north slowly and still about ate shit. I would’ve taken the elston bike lane but it’s an ice trap. The protected bike lanes are more for the image of “hey look at us we are a sustainable progressive city” then they don’t do anything to back that image up!

Permalink Reply by Argonne69 on December 31, 2018 at 4:11am

There are roughly 50,000 miles of streets in Chicago. There are just over 200 miles of bike lanes, and a whole lot less protected bike lanes. Surely the city can find a few pennies to keep them clean. I imagine the majority of us own cars that sit in parking lots while be bike. I pay a good chunk in property taxes, city stickers, etc. I wasn't aware than "street cleaning" only entailed cleaning the parts where cars and trucks traveled. Pfffft.

Permalink Reply by Brian S on January 1, 2019 at 4:25pm

This has nothing to do with the financial picture of the city. Zero. Zilch.  CDOT has the equipment and can deploy it.  See this:  https://chi.streetsblog.org/2018/12/05/blizzard-of-dot-transpo-offi...

It requires cyclists logging requests so that politicians and departments know they need to fix the problems we complain about. 

Yes, street sweeping is a Apr-Nov, but Streets and San and CDOT work year-round. They can fix this if there are enough complaints.

Permalink Reply by Mike Zumwalt on January 1, 2019 at 8:42am
I would drive a 2 person cart like those park district vehicles and clean the bike lanes.
If they enforced the blocking of bike lanes it would fund itself from ticket revenue.
Or maybe like the adopt a highway program or we could have a party afterwards sponsored by someone?
Permalink Reply by Yasmeen on January 1, 2019 at 1:28pm

There are people whose job it is to monitor meters. If they also enforced bike lanes and ticketed offenders, yes, it would bring A LOT of much-needed revenue into Chicago.

Permalink Reply by Gary Adams on January 3, 2019 at 11:06am

I think they could write more than 8 parking tickets in a shift. I've seen an officer walk down my old block, which was permit parking, and write more than 8 in less than an hour. 

Permalink Reply by Brian S on January 1, 2019 at 4:29pm

John Greenfield had a great piece a year or two ago about how he was annoyed about a frozen section of bike lane on Broadway so he went and shoveled it himself.

It definitely seems like if one of us spent a little time to clean it up it would go a long way. 

Permalink Reply by Argonne69 on January 2, 2019 at 8:18am

As Yasmeen noted, the city has dedicated workers in the Finance Dept. that write tickets for parking meters and bike lane violators.

I average reporting a violator for every two minutes in the bike lanes. I've seen the workers write parking tickets, and it only takes a few minutes. They should be able to write at least a dozen an hour, or 80 per shift. It's a $300 fine for illegally parking in the central business district, and $150 outside the zone. Multiply that by the 100+ workers and we're not talking nickels and dimes.

Permalink Reply by Mike Zumwalt on January 2, 2019 at 9:37am

The city makes over $200 Million a year in parking tickets already!

I talk to drivers occasionally doing deliveries in River North and they complain about no where to park or getting a ticket and that wipes out their earnings for the weekend.

It is a deterrent but not if it isn't enforced, they pay how many people to check your windshield for parking zone permit? Or for the LAZ receipt 

If they wrote one ticket a day for bike lane parking that's over $50,000 which would pay for cleaning and repainting lanes.

Permalink Reply by Mike Zumwalt on January 2, 2019 at 9:49am

 I wouldn't even need a vehicle just a cargo bike or bike with a trailer, They don't have to be cleaned all the time  just watch the weather and pick the nice days. 200 miles of PBL's is easily done in a few days

Permalink Reply by Argonne69 on January 2, 2019 at 10:51am

I'm a cyclist, but also a homeowner, and a car owner. I pay a ton of property taxes in addition to my vehicle sticker. Anyone who thinks cyclists don't pay taxes, or that car owners cover the costs of the streets with fuel taxes and city stickers is deluding themselves.

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