Dearborn Street Bike Lane Named Best Protected Route of 2013
By Lizzie Schiffman on December 4, 2013 2:26pm | Updated on December 4, 2013 2:26pm
THE LOOP — Two of Chicago's new protected bike lanes were named in a cycling advocacy group's roundup of the 10 best buffered routes in the country.
People for Bikes named the Dearborn Street protected bike lane the best in the U.S. Tuesday.
"Chicago’s 1.2-mile showpiece isn’t the country’s most sophisticated downtown bikeway because of its on-street markings, though they’re excellent, or its quick-and-simple plastic-post barriers. The really remarkable thing about Dearborn is that bikes get their own traffic signals." wrote Michael Andersen, a staff writer at People for Bikes' protected barrier advocacy program, The Green Lane Project, which partnered with Chicago and five other cities this year to support bike lane expansion with technical and strategic assistance and grant money.
"Maybe that's why stoplight compliance has soared from 31 percent to 81 percent and bike traffic has more than doubled since the lane went in. Did we mention that one of its local fans has given the lane its own Twitter feed? We challenge any other street project in the country to inspire such devotion."
Mayor Rahm Emanuel's office accepted the designation proudly, Tweeting Wednesday: "It's official. @DearbornBikeLn named best protected bike lane in America."
The protected bike lane on Milwaukee Avenue in River North also got a nod, ranked seventh in a list that includes paths in Seattle, San Francisco and Austin.
Andersen praised the Milwaukee Avenue path's combination of "physically protected lanes with stretches buffered by paint" as "a lesson to planners: the best place to put a buffered lane isn't necessarily where you wish people would pedal, but where they're already pedaling."
When the protected lanes were planned, however, residents and business owners were not thrilled about the lanes taking away their precious few parking spots. And further northwest on Milwaukee Avenue in Wicker Park, cyclists have complained about a "dooring epidemic" that has injured many riders.
"I'm really getting fed up with hearing about cyclists' blood being spilled on Milwaukee Avenue, Wicker Park and Logan Square from dooring crashes that might have been prevented by protected bike lanes," Streetsblog Chicago editor John Greenfield wrote over the summer. "The time to act is now, before a fatal crash makes the need for safer biking conditions even more painfully obvious."
http://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/20131204/loop/dearborn-street-bike-l...
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Julie Aberman (Hochstadter) on
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Permalink Reply by Kevin C Dormant on
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Jeez. I was misquoted and I didn't even speak to her. All she had to do was cut and paste my comment, and she wasn't able to do that correctly. Julie's name is spelled two different ways...
Julie Hochstadter said:
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Wow. Between the time I posted that and right now, the edits have been made (corrected). Hi Rosalind!
Kevin C said:Jeez. I was misquoted and I didn't even speak to her. All she had to do was cut and paste my comment, and she wasn't able to do that correctly. Julie's name is spelled two different ways...
Julie Hochstadter said:
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My name is still spelled wrong with a K instead of an H the second time around, but I'm sure that will be fixed soon too.
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Look at it now.
OK watch this:
Last sentence should be: We can do so much better.’’
Julie Hochstadter said:My name is still spelled wrong with a K instead of an H the second time around, but I'm sure that will be fixed soon too.
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My last name is spelled correct now.
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Permalink Reply by Sarah D. on
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Good try, Kevin... :)
Kevin C said:Look at it now.
OK watch this:
Last sentence should be: We can do so much better.’’
Julie Hochstadter said:My name is still spelled wrong with a K instead of an H the second time around, but I'm sure that will be fixed soon too.
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