new protected bike lanes on Franklin

As I passed the intersection of Kedzie and Franklin on my commute this morning, I noticed bollards have been added to recently-painted bike lanes. I was in a rush, so didn't really get a chance to look at it very closely.

While I don't know that I've seen more than a handful of people riding on Franklin in the past ~4 years, I suspect that if nothing else this will slow down drivers in that stretch which in the past has done double duty as a drag strip.

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Permalink Reply by Steven Vance on June 29, 2012 at 4:28am

Thanks for posting about the new bollards. That was the last step in this construction project.

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Permalink Reply by Andrew on June 29, 2012 at 4:53am

The city was quick to trumpet improved rider #s on Kinzie after putting in the PBL. Steven, do you know if that was just closely monitored/tracked because it was the first such instance of that infrastructure or are they conducting similar counts/studies on all such occurrences of new PBLs? Similarly, are counts/studies conducted on all such projects prior to the installation of PBLs? If the answer to either question is yes, are these #s publicly available?

6 months from now I'd be really curious to see if there's a difference in # of cyclists on that stretch of Franklin.

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Permalink Reply by Steven Vance on June 29, 2012 at 5:19pm

To my knowledge, the city conducts before and after counts of people bicycling for every bike lane project (not just PBLs).

These numbers are publicly available. The real question is, are they easy to find on the city's website? I'd say the answer is no.

Here is the bike counts webpage on the Chicago Bicycle Program website.

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Permalink Reply by Anne Alt on June 30, 2012 at 12:36am

I wonder how many kids will use it to ride to Westinghouse High School once school starts again.

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Permalink Reply by Ash L. on July 1, 2012 at 12:09pm

Not many. Most of the student body come from other neighborhoods on the south and west sides and the Frankiln bike lane is basically an island. The Metra tracks just south of Westinghouse prevent north bound access from the residential streets so kids would be relegated to Sacramento or Kedzie, neither of which are fabulous options.

Anne Alt said:

I wonder how many kids will use it to ride to Westinghouse High School once school starts again.

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Permalink Reply by Andrew on July 2, 2012 at 4:46am

That stretch is shamefully bad. I make a fairly frequent trip from Carroll right between Kedzie and Sacramento to several Chicago Ave. destinations east of Damen, and always begin the trip pedaling away from my destination so I can go north to Chicago Ave. via Kedzie and avoid Sacramento. I actually don't ride on Sacramento (with the occasional exception of service roads) anywhere between Palmer and Lake St; Kedzie or California generally suits my purposes just fine.

Also, on my way home Friday at ~4:30PM I saw someone in the new PBL on Franklin headed towards Sacramento. I felt...

...like a schmuck as it was just hours earlier I was writing here about how few people I've seen riding on Franklin since I first started passing it regularly.
...happy and hopeful because just hours earlier I was writing here about how few people I've seen riding on Franklin since I first started passing it regularly.
...curiosity as I wondered if their final destination was somewhere between there and Sacramento, and if not, what they were going to do when they came to that street.

h' said:

The stretch of Sacramento between Fulton and Chicago is the absolute scariest place to ride a bike IMO, and I noticed it was completely skipped on the proposed new lane plan I saw at the hearing last month. It''s like nobody's looking at the big picture of what to connect to what and why.

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Permalink Reply by Anne Alt on July 2, 2012 at 4:59am

It seems very odd to me that the horrendous pavement and overall conditions on Sacramento between Franklin and Chicago were overlooked, since that's a connection many people could use.

On the other hand, pavement condition on Sacramento south of Franklin is quite good, so it's a decent connector to Lake, Washington, Warren, etc.

I went that way last week, and I'm not sure what your issues are with the section between Fulton and Franklin, other than the northbound lane configuration for the service drive entrance. Care to elaborate?

Andrew N said:

That stretch is shamefully bad. I make a fairly frequent trip from Carroll right between Kedzie and Sacramento to several Chicago Ave. destinations east of Damen, and always begin the trip pedaling away from my destination so I can go north to Chicago Ave. via Kedzie and avoid it.

Also, on my way home Friday at ~4:30PM I saw someone in the new PBL on Franklin headed towards Sacramento. I felt...

...like a schmuck as it was just hours earlier I was writing here about how few people I've seen riding on Franklin since I first started passing it regularly.

...happy and hopeful because just hours earlier I was writing here about how few people I've seen riding on Franklin since I first started passing it regularly.

...curiosity as I wondered if their final destination was somewhere between there and Sacramento, and if not, what they were going to do when they came to that street.

h' said:

The stretch of Sacramento between Fulton and Chicago is the absolute scariest place to ride a bike IMO, and I noticed it was completely skipped on the proposed new lane plan I saw at the hearing last month. It''s like nobody's looking at the big picture of what to connect to what and why.

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Permalink Reply by Andrew on July 2, 2012 at 5:40am

For me it's all about traffic speed/behavior, not pavement. Heading south, there's a really cruddy merge at the stoplight at Franklin Blvd where I've seen numerous vehicular accidents. Heading north, cars/entering exiting the Citgo at Fulton can be very problematic (this is due to that gas station having an astonishingly flawed parking/pump layout). In general, most cars around there are traveling far faster than they should be. Personally, that's enough reason to for me to use alternative routes. Also, while I travel from Humboldt Park to East Garfield Park daily, I live west of Central Park so Kedzie is more direct for my usual commute. There are definitely times when Sacramento would be slightly more convenient/direct for other trips, but generally Kedzie or California works nicely.

Anne Alt said:

It seems very odd to me that the horrendous pavement and overall conditions on Sacramento between Franklin and Chicago were overlooked, since that's a connection many people could use.

On the other hand, pavement condition on Sacramento south of Franklin is quite good, so it's a decent connector to Lake, Washington, Warren, etc.

I went that way last week, and I'm not sure what your issues are with the section between Fulton and Franklin, other than the northbound lane configuration for the service drive entrance. Care to elaborate?

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Permalink Reply by Anne Alt on July 2, 2012 at 7:40am

Got it. That's been my issue on the section north of Franklin, combined with bad pavement. When I've been there on the weekends, it's often been devoid of any traffic at all.

This is the kind of thing that we need to put on CDOT's radar.

h' said:

=====E X A C T L Y==== what Andrew said. It's like having to detour onto the Dan Ryan for a piece of your commute.

Ironically, in my car days (10-year anniversary this year!) that was part of my morning drag, and I frequently reached speeds upwards of 50 mph through that stretch.

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Permalink Reply by Steven Vance on July 2, 2012 at 7:50am

I wonder if there's a statute of limitations for guilty admissions to speeding.

I expect CDOT to conduct a post-facility installation count of traffic, as they did for Kinzie and other bike lanes. But I also expect we'll have to ask to see it.

h' said:

Ironically, in my car days (10-year anniversary this year!) that was part of my morning drag, and I frequently reached speeds upwards of 50 mph through that stretch.