Should the Mayor's Bike Advisory Council meetings take place after work to accomodate 9 to 5-ers?

The quarterly Mayor's Bike Advisory Council (MBAC) meetings are a great place to hear about the city's latest initiatives to make Chicago more bike-friendly, and the meetings are open to the public. Unfortunately, the meetings are almost always held in the late afternoon on weekdays when regular folks who work 9 to 5, i.e. the majority of the bicycling public, cannot attend.

 

Fortunately, Steven Vance has posted a detailed write-up of last Wednesday's MBAC meeting on Grid.... Read it for the latest on upcoming protected bike lane projects, the expansion Chicago's bike sharing network and a new proposed ordinance to ban cell phone use and texting while biking.

 

What do you think? Should the bike community lobby the Chicago Department of Transportation to hold MBAC meetings after work hours, when most other community input meetings are held and regular folks can attend?

 

Keep moving forward,

 

John Greenfield

 

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Erik Swedlund on September 19, 2011 at 5:29am
Yes.
Permalink Reply by John Greenfield on September 19, 2011 at 5:41am
Any ideas on how to make this happen?
Permalink Reply by Carter O'Brien on September 19, 2011 at 6:05am
While that would be nice, I'm grateful for folks like Steven & John who are keeping everyone in the loop.  This is more CoC info than I've ever seen widely-shared.  So, thanks!
Permalink Reply by Duppie on September 19, 2011 at 6:42am

A 4:30 or 5 pm start time would be nice, but the bigger question is what is the value of me (or other interested individuals) being there? Is there a chance to provide meaningful input during these meetings, or is it just information being dispersed? The ideas Steven talked about in his blog entry ("breakout sessions") may make these meetings more meaningful.

 

 

Permalink Reply by John Greenfield on September 19, 2011 at 7:14am
I think that, even in the current format, the MBAC meetings are very useful for citizens to learn how bike planning works at the city and to get the latest news. There's also a little bit of opportunity to ask questions and make comments, and an opportunity to meet some of the planners and city officials briefly after the meeting. Citizens sometimes are also scheduled to give presentations about grassroots efforts during the meeting, e.g. Bike Winter.
Permalink Reply by ChristopherMCA on September 19, 2011 at 8:16am
+1

Erik Swedlund said:
Yes.
Permalink Reply by Liz on September 19, 2011 at 8:29am
It would be much easier for me to attend if the meeting start time was at 5pm.  Even 4pm would be an improvement, its much easier for me to come it at 7 and leave at 4, than to take off at 3 and then come back into the office afterwards.  Its simply not practical for me to take off 2-3 hours from work for an informational meeting.
Permalink Reply by Doug Haynes on September 19, 2011 at 2:52pm
I think that is a no-brainer; the meeting should be held when the people who bike the most, everyday bike commuters, would be able to make it.  How do they expect to get the input of cyclists when they shcedule things during the work day.
Permalink Reply by S on September 19, 2011 at 5:45pm
Hate to burst people's bubbles here but according to this, the MBAC meeting was rescheduled to more work friendly hours twice and it didn't get any higher attendance either time.  Maybe it'll change this time around but from Charlie's comment, it looks like people that said they were coming were no shows.  If that's the case, it'd be hard to have city employees stay after hours to hold meetings that don't have any higher attendance than meetings during regular business hours.

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