The Chainlink

I tried the search feature, and it isn't working.  I'm sure this is a common gripe. But why can't the city do anything about all the cars double parked in the bike lane.  ESPECIALLY UPS, FedEx, and USPS.  I could gather 4 or 5 pictures daily of these guys double parked in an obvious bike lane.

Maybe that is what I should do.  Start stopping and taking pictures with my cell. Then writing to the owners of companies.

"Forcing bikes to quickly merge with traffic is dangerous.  The city has created these wonderfully useful "Bike lanes"  however, we are unable to use them, because you keep parking your delivery trucks in them.  This is not a delivery lane. It is a bike lane.  Please instruct your drivers that this is unsafe, and Illegal."

Now if we could just get the CPD to do something about it.

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it is a simple solution, yes, but thats exactly where the problem in the thought lies (and what doug has been trying to explain). it is far more complex than "no parking at this time, viola".

different industries deliver at different times. food is delivered early, beer later, parcels are delivered throughout the day.

another layer is that there are thousands of businesses in chicago, millions of residences. obviously, not everyone is going to get a delivery at the same time unless a delivery company has its fleet increased exponentially. that is incredibly unrealistic.  and to have a total of 4 hours taken away on a delivery route is also nonsensical in any capacity except for the convenience of the bicycle commuter that has his lane taken (which only affects him the distance equal to the length of the truck and the time it takes him/her to safely pass it on its left)

last, clearly non of this was conceptualized (couldnt have been) when chicago streets were designed after the fire or followed along old indian trails (all them diagonal streets).  this is an intrinsic problem that manifests with increased sprawl, business development, which increases traffic, and ultimately perpetuates the cycles itself on these old small urban streets

there is no simple solution. unless you wipe the grid and start fresh of course. (fuck it, lets have another fire). 

OR, you could safely look over your shoulder, extend your left hand to signal your intentions to the motorist or cyclist behind you, and pass the truck in under 10 seconds.

that, actually is rather simple.



Mark said:

There is really a simple solution to the problem.  Amend the law.  Something as simple as, "No double parking from 7am to 9am, and 4pm to 6pm.  And then enforce it! This still leaves delivery trucks PLENTY of peak time to make deliveries as well as cutting down on the possibility of a cycle/vehicle incident.  Since this is when most cyclists and cars are on the road at the same time.

I look at double parked cars, along with many other of the joys of city life, as an opportunity to practice tolerance. Sometimes I'm more successful than other times. When I'm successful, I find myself noticing that on a quiet street, it makes little difference. On a busy street, it slows traffic down, which is itself good.

Ultimately, I just keep trying to remind myself that tolerance is a virtue.

After a quick scan of this thread, all I can think is, "God bless the internet." Maybe I better go throw something up on the GIF thread.

amen, brother!

Justin B Newman said:

I look at double parked cars, along with many other of the joys of city life, as an opportunity to practice tolerance. Sometimes I'm more successful than other times. When I'm successful, I find myself noticing that on a quiet street, it makes little difference. On a busy street, it slows traffic down, which is itself good.

Ultimately, I just keep trying to remind myself that tolerance is a virtue.

False.

Mark said:

We want to promote corporate greed, by making that driver deliver more packages of junk to consumers, faster, so instead of him having to find a LEGAL parking spot, we will let him endanger cyclists in the bike lane, so we can keep the corporate bottom line going.

Please provide proof.

Mark said:

Something as simple as, "No double parking from 7am to 9am, and 4pm to 6pm.  And then enforce it! This still leaves delivery trucks PLENTY of peak time to make deliveries as well as cutting down on the possibility of a cycle/vehicle incident.

Beautifully said. +1

Justin B Newman said:

I look at double parked cars, along with many other of the joys of city life, as an opportunity to practice tolerance. Sometimes I'm more successful than other times.

Before I read through this thread, I sided with the delivery-restriction crowd. But Dug's points are quite good and I have changed my opinion as a result.

I know people love to talk down this site but as far as I'm concerned: +1 Chainlink

I agree, good comments in defense of it not being that big a deal to just go around the delivery truck.

 

How about this: one of the reasons it's not that big a deal to merge into traffic and go around the truck is that the cars themselves have to slow down to pass the truck because the travel lane has been narrowed.

 

Thus, a problem with the buffered bike lanes is that trucks/cars can park in them without narrowing the adjacent traffic lane at all. This makes it more dangerous for a cyclist to merge into traffic to pass, because the traffic does not need to slow down due to the double-park.

Well I think it's resolved. Next to the paintings of bicyclists on the roads in the bike lanes, the city should also paint images of delivery trucks. And mini vans with moms and school children. And regular cars.

Wait, a simpler solution than that. Just get rid of the bike lane. That way delivery trucks, moms, and people wanting starbucks can park there.

I think this post is forgetting the reason why the bike lanes were installed in the first place. To separate bicyclists from traffic for safety reasons. Bike lanes are not meant as secondary parking for any vehicle. Please let me know, where did delivery trucks park before there were bike lanes? Did they double-park in what was the right-hand traffic lane at the time? People seem to be upset at the idea of trucks parking in the traffic lane, but that is probably what they used to do. And I bet drivers were annoyed at that too when they had to merge into the left-hand lane, slowing down and traffic backing up.

Another factor to this is that for corporate vehicles, it's a pretty big deal to not obey traffic laws. Most companies have rules that if you get too many tickets, your driving privilege for work will be suspended, or you could even get fired. So I'm really surprised that these delivery trucks are even taking this chance if the possibility exists for a ticket.

Also, just to add some more humor to this discussion.

You do realize that when they painted the bike lanes the roads did not magically grow, right?  The delivery trucks used to park exactly where they do now and cars and bikes just had to go around them.



Christine said:

Well I think it's resolved. Next to the paintings of bicyclists on the roads in the bike lanes, the city should also paint images of delivery trucks. And mini vans with moms and school children. And regular cars.

Wait, a simpler solution than that. Just get rid of the bike lane. That way delivery trucks, moms, and people wanting starbucks can park there.

I think this post is forgetting the reason why the bike lanes were installed in the first place. To separate bicyclists from traffic for safety reasons. Bike lanes are not meant as secondary parking for any vehicle. Please let me know, where did delivery trucks park before there were bike lanes? Did they double-park in what was the right-hand traffic lane at the time? People seem to be upset at the idea of trucks parking in the traffic lane, but that is probably what they used to do. And I bet drivers were annoyed at that too when they had to merge into the left-hand lane, slowing down and traffic backing up.

Another factor to this is that for corporate vehicles, it's a pretty big deal to not obey traffic laws. Most companies have rules that if you get too many tickets, your driving privilege for work will be suspended, or you could even get fired. So I'm really surprised that these delivery trucks are even taking this chance if the possibility exists for a ticket.

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