Wells Street at Merchandise Mart

Last week on our way to the MBAC meeting, we noticed cones.

Are those still there?

It was mentioned during the MBAC meeting, but I don't remember what they said about it. 

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Permalink Reply by Adam Herstein on June 21, 2012 at 9:37am

My office is on Wells, so I just ride straight down there from the north side. On my way home, I take Franklin out of the loop to Kinzie, then north from there.

Julie Hochstadter said:

I'm more familiar with regular city streets so for me downtown is scary.  I ride down there but don't know the right streets to take. 

Adam Herstein said:

Honestly, the Loop is probably safer than most neighborhoods simply because of the constant traffic. Cars can rarely go more than 15-20 MPH — at least during rush hour — and that makes it much safer to be on a bike. My only issue involves crossing Wacker Drive.

James BlackHeron said:

The cones were nice -they couldn't last.  I'm sure there was a lot of complaining by drivers who couldn't block the bike lane.

I don't know what I would about Wells South of the MerchMart.   I'd love to see a road diet and there be a single car lane and a buffered bike lane.  Ain't gonna  happen though.  The planet-eaters would freak.

With all the new buffered and "protected" lanes going in it seems the over-all long-term plan for safe routes that actually hook up and go places is not really materializing.  Maybe in 10 years or so -but I'm not holding my breath.   If I had children I'd never let them ride in the loop until they turned 18 and I couldn't stop them.   It's a meat-grinder for anyone but the most experienced cyclists -who don't need any infrastructure at all. 

Permalink Reply by Michelle Gregorek on June 21, 2012 at 10:35am

Great to see my old route getting updated!  Like in it to win it, I would always take a deep breath and become Ninja bike rider while heading in to the loop.  My thoughts always went to the option of turning Wells under the L to no parking for cars and put in the bike lane there.  Yes, I am such the dreamer, lol.

Permalink Reply by Michelle S on June 26, 2012 at 1:44am

Shared lane markings are now in on Wells Street from Wacker to at least Washington! They're giant bike symbols right in the middle of the right lane, including in the middle of the intersections at Lake, Randolph, etc. This is making it a bicycle priority lane. It doesn't meet the 8-80 standard, but it does meet the 20-60 standard, IMHO. I was thrilled to ride right in the middle of the lane, where I usually rode anyway, but now feeling more like I had help communicating that I really do have the right to be there.

 

The best part was that many motor vehicle drivers seemed to misinterpret the markings to mean it was now a bike-only lane, because they stayed out of it entirely (or maybe that was a coincidence since vehicle traffic was pretty light). No, CDOT friends reading this, you may not put up signs telling drivers they are actually allowed there. ;)

Permalink Reply by Julie Aberman (Hochstadter) on June 26, 2012 at 2:31am

Love it!  

Michelle Stenzel said:

 No, CDOT friends reading this, you may not put up signs telling drivers they are actually allowed there. ;)

Permalink Reply by Lisa Curcio on June 26, 2012 at 2:48am

Glad to hear that.  I rode on Wells on Saturday and they had not yet painted the street south of Wacker.  Of course since it was Saturday there was almost no traffic anyway :-)

Permalink Reply by Adam Herstein on June 26, 2012 at 2:52am

I rode in them today and it didn't seem like much changed. I still had a few jerk drivers speeding to get around me. I commend CDOT for the effort at least, but I feel that more could have been done. It would have been nice to remove parking on the right and use that as a protected lane, but I know there are many issues regarding the parking contract and removal of spots. The lane goes south to at least past Adams.

Permalink Reply by Katie on June 26, 2012 at 7:39am

I took a picture of it this morning too as I work right on Wells.  I ride in the middle of the right lane anyway but I tend to be going at a good clip.  I wonder how the interaction will be with casual commuters.  There were some angry drivers this morning.

Permalink Reply by Far'arned Retrogrumpalunkus #63 on June 26, 2012 at 11:34am

This is a bold move by the city -and I'm sure it is going to cause a lot of confusion with drivers who do not understand the "shared lane" concept.   My concern is that when they do begin to understand that this is a shared lane that they will not somehow transfer this sharing idea to other non-shared bike lane infrastructure.  Remember we are dealing with drivers who are the "lowest common denominator" here.   These are some of the same folks who sometimes can't figure out that the protected lanes on Kinzie are not for driving/parking on even WITH the bollards there.

I wonder how much push-back this shared lane is going to cause among the majority population of drivers.  That's why I stated above that I feel this is a bold move.  

It is exciting though.   I really hope this is a successful experiment and the city begins to implement other such bold ideas to promulgate similar bike-lane/shared-lane road infrastructure in similar difficult spots.  

Putting bike lanes into the "easy areas" with plenty of room is only a first step.  Eventually they will have to move on to tackling difficult spots like Wells and make something happen when no easy solutions exist.  If this works well then the city deserves a big tip o' the hat for pulling one out of their nether reaches and creating a solution out of nothing in a place where not many people were coming up with good ideas that would work.  

Without pulling out parking on one side of the columns or the other I didn't see an easy solution other than this type of shared-lane and I just didn't think the city had the chutzpah to actually do it.  

Bravo!   I hope it works.. 



Adam Herstein said:

Permalink Reply by Debra J on June 26, 2012 at 3:08pm
Will there be any education or outreach to inform drivers about what this means? From my ride this a.m., it appears that there are a lot of drivers that don't get it.

Also, I appreciate the effort, but that ride down Wells is still sketchy, especially making the lange change while on the bridge before crossing Wacker.
Permalink Reply by Michelle S on June 26, 2012 at 5:02pm

I also dreamed about making the far right lane that is now parking south of Wacker into one long bike lane, protected by the El pillars. However, when I thought through some of the details, i thought it might be really difficult.  As Adam mentioned, first is the huge expense of either buying back all those parking spaces from the lease contract or relocating them nearby (unlikely). Even if parking weren't a concern, think about how tough visibility would be for motor vehicles turning right across the bike lane at westbound streets like Randolph, Madison, etc. on green lights, and how they'd block the bike lane while waiting for pedestrians to cross the crosswalk before completing their turn. To avoid that, you'd have to put in special signals to make it red for bikes/peds and green arrow for motor vehicles to turn right (complicated + $$). Finally, Wells has a bus route, and that adds a level of complexity. As I understand it, other streets in the Loop WILL get this highest level of treatment (curbs, bike boxes, special signals) but Wells is not one of them. 

Permalink Reply by Scotto 6.8 on June 26, 2012 at 5:41pm

Many drivers (and cyclists for that matter) don't seem to "get" many things.  

I love seeing drivers treating the "Stop for Pedestrians" reminder signs on Wells between Division and Chicago (Moody just added one) as All Way Stops.

Debra J said:

Will there be any education or outreach to inform drivers about what this means? From my ride this a.m., it appears that there are a lot of drivers that don't get it.

Permalink Reply by Jenn_5.5 mi on June 27, 2012 at 1:44am

I used Wells under the L today, for the first time in ages. I feel since the city make an effort to make this street more bike friendly, I should use it. My normal route (Lake-Wabash-Monroe) seems a lot 'brighter' - I really wish I would have turned on my blinky and grabbed my headlight.

I think this lane would work best - either with a bike box or us bikes staying in the lane at lights. I was following a rider and while together in the lane was great, she moved ahead at the lights (& went through when safe). I feel that jumping the lights isn't going to make the drivers very friendly when they have to pass us again (by pass I mean speed past and cut you off-in many cases). I mean really sharing the road is such a chore.  

I agree that we ALL need to be educated on the proper way to use this lane.

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