Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by John Greenfield on March 6, 2013 at 5:26am

Fortunately, much of this strip is non-metered. Even so, Chicagoans tend to freak out when you talk about removing any parking at all. Usually installing protected lanes involves removing a few parking spaces, but fortunately there hasn't been a big outcry about this, except on Independence Boulevard, where parking removal was one of the factors that caused residents to demand the protected lane be converted to buffered.

Permalink Reply by Liz on March 6, 2013 at 5:35am

5 years down on a terrible contract, 70 more to go before removing parking spaces isn't cost prohibitive. Removing parking on Milwaukee is not only good for cyclists, but also for drivers, delays for those waiting for parking or double parking contribute to the back up. 

I would only hope that CDOT goes with buffered bike lanes over separated bike lanes. 

Permalink Reply by Crazy David 84 Furlongs on March 6, 2013 at 5:43am

Yes.  Its a terrible parking contract.  It is easy to fix, but the city will not do it.   All it takes is the following piece of legislation.:

All entities that charge fees for more than 3,000 parking spaces within the city of Chicago must either maintain at least one live individual during the hours of 9am to 9pm within 1 mile of every such space or must contract with the City of Chicago to provide contact services at a fee of $10.00 per parking space per day.   

The justification.   If you park in a garage and you have a problem, you have a live person to talk to, and if necessary, physically show them the problem.  With Laz, you have a "phone call" access only which requires a phone and does not allow the parker the ability to show the physical problem.

Laz would, very quickly, want to break its contract with the City at this point and this STUPID contact would no longer stand in the way of things such as eliminating parking on large stretches of Lincoln to improve bicycling.

Permalink Reply by Mike Zumwalt on March 7, 2013 at 10:12am

Consolidated parking?

Not only is it congested with traffic,people and business where is there room for a parking garage?

Again the winter problem of the protected bike lane surfaces.

A stretch this long requires cleaning and the sidewalk shoveling ends up in the lane. The reason salting works is the spreading by the car tires,bike tires really don't do a good job of pulverizing the salt and personally I don't like a chunk of salt ending up in my pant cuffs, shoes, or even flipping up in my face.

Now without any cars along it, it would at least be visually safer though there are limited intersections. 

Permalink Reply by Jason W on March 7, 2013 at 10:26am

Well, I think it's clear where people on this forum will stand on the idea. The question at the end is the kicker. Will there be political support?

Permalink Reply by John Greenfield on March 7, 2013 at 10:37am

Mike,

There's no talk of doing a parking garage on this stretch, just stripping parking on one side of the street in low-demand areas and possibly converting parallel to diagonal parking on some of the wider side street to create more spaces.

CDOT is now plowing the protected lanes themselves, rather than have Streets and San do it:

http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/18655473-418/chicago-bike-lanes-...

- John Greenfield

Permalink Reply by Mike Zumwalt on March 7, 2013 at 2:12pm

I know there's no talk of a garage but the only dangerous section of Milwaukee is in Wicker to Logan with
metered parking. It does no good to put a bike lane on the bridge or in less trafficked areas.

Permalink Reply by Juan 2-3 or more mi. on March 7, 2013 at 3:17pm

Just keeps getting better...

Permalink Reply by John Greenfield on March 7, 2013 at 4:42pm

Mike,

The less congested an area is, the more people speed, so protected lanes make sense on Milwaukee south of Wicker Park as well. After all, that's where one of the city's worst intersections for bike crashes, Milwaukee/Chicago, is - that's where a pedestrian was killed by a speeding cab last summer.

- John Greenfield

Permalink Reply by Kevin C Dormant on March 7, 2013 at 4:50pm

I don't think the plastic bollards would have slowed that cab down very much.

John Greenfield said:

Mike,

The less congested an area is, the more people speed, so protected lanes make sense on Milwaukee south of Wicker Park as well. After all, that's where one of the city's worst intersections for bike crashes, Milwaukee/Chicago, is - that's where a pedestrian was killed by a speeding cab last summer.

- John Greenfield

Permalink Reply by John Greenfield on March 7, 2013 at 5:15pm

Kevin,

Narrower travel lanes due to the protected bike lanes will discourage speeding - they might have made a difference in that case.

- John Greenfield

Permalink Reply by Kevin C Dormant on March 7, 2013 at 6:35pm

So instead of the cab traveling 30-40 miles over the speed limit, we can expect the narrower travel lanes to reduce that to...?

John Greenfield said:

Kevin,

Narrower travel lanes due to the protected bike lanes will discourage speeding - they might have made a difference in that case.

- John Greenfield

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