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October is fire prevention month all across the country.  October was chosen because of the psychological impact of the Great Chicago Fire.  In memory to the lives lost in that horrific disaster, and to promote fire safety awareness, I propose we use the burn perimeter of the Great Chicago Fire as our route for the September, 2014 Critical Mass Ride.

Please make suggestions.  I don't think I made any wrong-way mistakes. 

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WHERE:  Daly Plaza at the Chicago Picasso

WHEN:  6pm, September 26, 2014

WHAT:  CRITICAL MASS Great Chicago Fire burn perimeter ride

Route: 

West on Washington

R on Wabash

L on Jackson

R on Columbus

E on Balbo

L on Michigan

R on Roosevelt

R on Jefferson

R on Taylor

R on Clinton

R on DeKoven (origin of the fire)

R on Jefferson

R on Taylor

L on Canal

R on Jackson

L on Wacker

L on Franklin

R on Orleans

L on Hubbard

R on Kingsbury (becomes Cambridge)

R on hobbie

L on Cleveland

R on Division

L on Wells

L on Goethe

R on Sedgewick

R on Schiller

L on N Park Ave

L on Concord

R on Sedgewick

L on Eugenie

R on Willow

L on Fern Ct.

R on Menomonee

L on Orleans

R on Wisconsin

L on Clark

bear R onto N. Lincoln Park West

R on Fullerton

End at Nature Museum (Fullerton and N Cannon Drive)

(May continue ride farther, but this is the end of the perimeter).

Jeff

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I think you mean east on Washington at the beginning.  Tired, so a general comment or two:

1) In recent history the police have more often than not prevented the mass from going east of Michigan for fear that it will head for Lake Shore Drive.  Testing that early on in the ride could result in an unrecoverable mess like the one that had a police standoff and arrests in the southwest loop near Roosevelt a few years ago.

2) Early in the ride you have the mass turning right 4 or 5 times in fairly short increments.  September is usually our largest ride-- ~3,000 if the weather cooperates.  You're going to have a mess when the ride hits itself halfway through (apart from snarling automobile traffic for at least a 1/4 mile radius because adjacent streets are blocked by the mass.)

It's good we have an early start and I hope it gets worked out.

In August, the mass went east of Michigan and onto Columbus south, or am I mistaken?

Good points. YES, E on W Washington---that was ambiguous.  Sorry.

 Obviously, if this is to be a fire perimeter themed ride, we at least need to get to the O'Leary property at DeKoven and Taylor, and then up the East bank of the river.  The route I made up is pretty close to the real fire, but we could modify the route as we want/need to.

Yes, we did go to Roosevelt recently, but that's where the fire started!

There are a lot of turns in the approximate perimeter, and I agree the circling the fire origin is unwise.  That needs to be cut.

Is the Franklin street bridge over the river one way North?  or two way?

The ride has gone east of Michigan a couple times recently.  BUT, the police were subtly posted at Columbus to make sure we turned onto Columbus instead of continuing east to LSD! 

This is not a very long ride, it could be added to at the end, after a short break at the park to mass up.  Good thing is the park is very large and can accommodate 4,000 riders in the grounds/parking lot East of Cannon Drive, or between Stockton and the ponds. 

When we finalize the turns, I can get route diagrams on a 1/4 sheet of paper made. 

Jeff

Yes. That was what I meant by "more often than not." You never really know what the reaction is going to be in a given month.


Alex Z said:

In August, the mass went east of Michigan and onto Columbus south, or am I mistaken?

I think the right turns around the Jefferson/Taylor/Clinton/DeKoven block are an interesting suggestion.  With a strong leadership helping to organize things up front, this might work.  Riders coming off DeKoven would merge into NB riders on Jefferson, and everyone would need to decide at some point whether to continue EB on Taylor or SB on Clinton.  Some might never ride on DeKoven and some might do several rides around the block.  It'd be fun to see, but it would definitely muck up traffic on these (albeit low-volume) streets.

And the Franklin St. bridge is technically the Orleans St. bridge, and it's one-way northbound.

h' 1.0 said:

Jeff, wondering if the specific suggestions I tried to make didn't come across?
 
Jeff Hazzard said:

Good points. YES, E on W Washington---that was ambiguous.  Sorry.

 Obviously, if this is to be a fire perimeter themed ride, we at least need to get to the O'Leary property at DeKoven and Taylor, and then up the East bank of the river.  The route I made up is pretty close to the real fire, but we could modify the route as we want/need to.

Yes, we did go to Roosevelt recently, but that's where the fire started!

There are a lot of turns in the approximate perimeter, and I agree the circling the fire origin is unwise.  That needs to be cut.

Is the Franklin street bridge over the river one way North?  or two way?

The ride has gone east of Michigan a couple times recently.  BUT, the police were subtly posted at Columbus to make sure we turned onto Columbus instead of continuing east to LSD! 

This is not a very long ride, it could be added to at the end, after a short break at the park to mass up.  Good thing is the park is very large and can accommodate 4,000 riders in the grounds/parking lot East of Cannon Drive, or between Stockton and the ponds. 

When we finalize the turns, I can get route diagrams on a 1/4 sheet of paper made. 

Jeff

Can anyone bring a bullhorn to announce what we are doing at the beginning? Should we modify the route to pass some fire stations?

I rode the part of the route near the end (N of Division) today, and those are narrow streets, but neat neighborhoods with some civil war- era wood frames, which pre-existed and survived the fire along the route. I would like to keep the serpentine parts, N of North Ave, in, if we can. It would add to the ride.

I have not gotten any map software or apps to let me plot this course out. Can someone please help by doing that and then uploading it as an attachment? THANKS in advance, if you are able!

Jeff
Yes h' 1.0, I think I got your 2-3 suggestions and commented back that I agreed with them, but did I miss something more?
Jeff

I just couldn't see how your comments related to what I wrote, sorry.

How do you envision working on this collaboratively? Collect suggestions and then post a revised route?

I would be careful about relying on 'leadership' to work out anything too complex. Many months there's not much more than one person willing to be near the front and try to keep the ride on whatever route may have been distributed. Particularly in September, the largest month-- I'll just note one more time that it may not be the best month to have the mass circle back into itself and I won't mention it again.


Jeff Hazzard said:

Yes h' 1.0, I think I got your 2-3 suggestions and commented back that I agreed with them, but did I miss something more?
Jeff

No, no, you've been very helpful.  And I took all your suggestions, except would like to stick to using Columbus.   

Yes, I will wait until Sunday and then put out a revised route incorporating all the suggestions.

Jeff

Good stuff.  I've cross posted a link to here on the "CCM Forecast" group on Facebook.

PLEASE Google Map it.

So, this month marks the 17th anniversary of Chicago Critical Mass, and some of us thought it would be cool to end at a spot where we could have a fire, and it looks like NW corner of Kedzie & Carrol may be an option.

This doesn't seem like a long route, perhaps we could take the ride west for a fire and space to hang out?

Jeff started a new thread after updating his route.  Jeff, don't know if you're aware you can edit the original post indefinitely and close your thread if you like.

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