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Rizzo Sep 3, 2013 10:54 PM
I mean don't get me wrong, I think the bikes look fun, and maybe it's only meant for that. Sometimes there's some embellishment behind the designer stated to the vehicle's purpose.

I'm approaching it more form the angle that there might need to be some regulation of larger novelty bikes on our roads. I've noticed in Chicago some pretty funky looking bikes that are fun, but really test the capacity of our streets and bike lanes to handle them. Imagine trying to pull around one of these things in busy traffic.

I realize it's probably not the most important thing to discuss as I doubt these will pop up everywhere, but I think as bicycling becomes more popular, people will come up with some crazy inventions that could cause problems.

M II A II R II K Sep 10, 2013 5:42 PM
In Bloomberg’s City of Bike Lanes, Data Show, Cabs Gain a Little Speed

Read More: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/05/ny...l?ref=nyregion

Quote:
.....

Citing GPS data from the city’s yellow cabs, the Bloomberg administration said that average traffic speeds in Manhattan’s primary central business district, south of 60th Street, had increased nearly 7 percent since 2008.

- And it is not as though the streets have become less congested: traffic volume has remained relatively level in recent years, as transit ridership and bike commuting have increased. In 2008, about 756,000 cars entered Manhattan south of 60th Street each day, transportation officials said. In 2011, the most recent year for which full data is available, the figure was 764,000. “We’re not, despite our reputation, trying to take from one and give to the other,” Bruce Schaller, the department’s deputy commissioner for traffic and planning, said. “It isn’t a zero-sum game.”

- The most recent speed data, part of an annual report known as the Sustainable Streets Index, was calculated using taxi trip logs, drawing on the distance and duration of a trip, including time spent stopped in traffic or at lights. The report also includes a section on taxi driver behavior in the rain — cabbies, happily, were found to drive 11.9 percent slower on days with at least an inch of precipitation — and an appraisal of the city’s bike-share program, which has attracted more than 75,000 annual members.

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http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/...ticleLarge.jpg




At Safe Streets Rally, SFPD Blocks Bike Lane to Make Point of Victim-Blaming

Read More: http://sf.streetsblog.org/2013/08/21...ictim-blaming/

Quote:
San Francisco Police Sergeant Richard Ernst apparently decided that the best way to make Folsom Street safer was to purposefully park his car in the bike lane this morning and force bicycle commuters into motor traffic.

Staff from the SF Bicycle Coalition were out at Folsom and Sixth Streets, handing out flyers calling for safety improvements on SoMa’s freeway-like streets in the wake of the death of Amelie Le Moullac, who was run over at the intersection last week by a truck driver who appeared to have made an illegal right-turn across the bike lane on to Sixth.

When Ernst arrived on the scene, he didn’t express sympathy for Le Moullac and other victims, or show support for safety improvements. Instead, he illegally parked his cruiser in the bike lane next to an empty parking space for up to 10 minutes, stating that he wanted to send a message to people on bicycles that the onus was on them to pass to the left of right-turning cars. He reportedly made no mention of widespread violations by drivers who turn across bike lanes instead of merging fully into them.

According to SFBC Executive Director Leah Shahum, Ernst blamed all three victims who were killed by truck drivers in SoMa and the Mission this year, and refused to leave until she “understood that it was the bicyclist’s fault.”

“This was shocking to hear, as I was told just a day ago by [SFPD Traffic] Commander [Mikail] Ali that the case was still under investigation and no cause had yet been determined,” Shahum said in a written account of the incident. While Ernst’s car was in the bike lane, “a steady stream of people biking on Folsom St. were blocked and forced to make sudden and sometimes-dangerous veers into the travel lane, which was busy with fast-moving car traffic during the peak of morning rush hour.”

.....
• Video Link




Plan to Put Bike Lanes on Figueroa Divides Community

Read More: http://www.ladowntownnews.com/news/p...a4bcf887a.html

Quote:
The Figueroa Streetscape Project may not be on the radar for everyone in Downtown, but for cycling advocates and stakeholders on the stretch of Figueroa Street that runs from the Financial District to Exposition Park, no issue is more important.

The project, which recently saw the completion of an environmental impact report, is on the front burner, as key funding depends on starting construction by January. That is partly why a public discussion Thursday morning on the issue generated a passionate response. During the session at the Financial District offices of the firm HMC Architects, Ninth District City Councilman Curren Price called the project, also known as MyFigueroa, “promising,” and said he does not want to see it delayed. However, he also said he believes more questions need to be answered.

Price recently filed a motion that asks the city departments of Planning and Transportation to provide an in-depth analysis to the City Council on how to mitigate the traffic congestion caused by the removal of auto lanes on South Figueroa Street.

The EIR for the plan to remake a three-mile section of Figueroa Street into a more bike- and pedestrian-friendly corridor addresses a host of concerns from critics who fear that the result will be gridlock. The project area, which runs from Seventh Street to Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, with a spur down 11th Street, would include north and southbound bike lanes. Two segments of the northbound corridor would get “cycle tracks,” or lanes separated from traffic by a new curb.

At the Thursday session organized by the Los Angeles chapter of the American Institute of Architects, Price said there are legitimate concerns that must be addressed regarding the $20 million project, which is funded by Prop 1C bond money. Dollars must be spent by the end of 2014. “It’s a promising project. Let’s not rush through it. Let’s make it a good deal for everybody,” he said, adding, “Major stakeholders have lingering concerns.”

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http://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townn...bcdf.image.jpg

mattb112885 Sep 15, 2013 5:13 PM
Divvy station breakdown and daily trip graphs
 
This is some interesting data from the Chicago tribune on the Divvy system between opening and August 15 (sure it's a little out of date but I didn't see it posted here). It includes a breakdown of trips by station - the most popular stations in the week they examined was Streeter Street and Illinois (Navy Pier). Other stations along the lakeside path were also among the most popular.

Average number of trips in the latest weeks is about 4000-5000 (24 hour + annual members) for weekdays and 6000-7000 for weekends.


http://www.chicagotribune.com/media/...0-18174940.pdf

Swede Sep 16, 2013 7:52 AM
A fine example of a suburban bike lane past a bus stop in Stockholm:
• Video Link

:\

mrnyc Sep 16, 2013 2:25 PM
100 days in the new nyc citi bike bikeshare program numbers show it has been a great success:


http://www.newsday.com/news/new-york...cess-1.6078927

M II A II R II K Sep 19, 2013 3:33 AM
How Can Chicago Fix the “Weak Links” That Mar Bike Access Downtown?

Read More: http://chi.streetsblog.org/2013/09/1...log+Chicago%29

Quote:
Biking downtown has improved substantially with the addition of protected bike lanes on Kinzie Street and Dearborn Street, but much work remains to be done to create a safe, cohesive bike network linking people to Chicago’s biggest employment center.

At last week’s meeting of the Mayor’s Bicycle Advisory Council, Michelle Stenzel, a community representative for the North Side, started the discussion about bikeways downtown. She began by noting that the Dearborn protected bike lane has been transformative. “I’m seeing so many more people biking downtown,” she said, but mentioned how east-west access to her office on Michigan Avenue near Madison is difficult. “A lot of my coworkers commute from the train stations and say, ‘I’d love to bike, but I’m afraid to bike in the Loop.’”

Luann Hamilton, deputy commissioner in the Chicago Department of Transportation, said that as part of the Central Loop Bus Rapid Transit project, protected bike lanes will be added to eastbound Washington Street and westbound Randolph Street, but not until December 2014. (The project will also create a two-way cycle track on southbound Clinton Street.) Commissioner Gabe Klein explained that IDOT “precluded us from doing Jackson through the Loop last year.”

Stenzel then turned the discussion to going north out of the Loop. “We have Wells, but there’s no good route back north, and I’ve tried everything,” she said. Wells Street has a buffered bike lane from the Chicago River north to Lincoln Avenue, but is southbound only from Erie Street to the Chicago River. Then there’s the two-way Dearborn cycle track, which ends just as it arrives on the north bank of the Chicago River. North of Kinzie Street, Stenzel said, “Dearborn is horrible.”

So currently there is no buffered or protected bike lane northbound out of the Loop, from Kinzie Street to Erie Street, and Wells and Dearborn are three blocks apart with no continuous bike lane linking them. The Chicago Department of Transportation did install new pavement markings on Kinzie between Wells and Dearborn this summer, consisting of sharrows and a block-long eastbound bike lane from LaSalle Street to Clark Street.

CDOT bikeways engineer Nathan Roseberry said more robust bikeway options were incompatible with existing left turn lanes, which the agency wants to keep for safety reasons. ”Half of the distance there’s either a left turn lane or a taper for a left turn lane,” he said. “Because of all the short blocks, we looked at removing left turns and it wasn’t feasible; they provide safety benefits. We needed to balance providing a safe street for bicyclists as well as pedestrians.” He explained via email that “based on federal studies, left turn lanes have a 36 percent crash reduction factor for injury crashes. They improve visibility for left turns and provide space for left turning vehicles to exit a through lane.”

Stenzel called those three blocks a “weak link,” adding, “I have no problems biking on them as an experienced cyclist, but would I take a 10-year-old child on it with me? Probably not.” That’s the problem with using sharrows: Without dedicated space for bicycling, people who are “interested but concerned” about biking won’t want to use the route.

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http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7340/9...eb9dbfba_z.jpg




http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5447/9...e89147d8_z.jpg




http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7351/9...94305fc2_z.jpg




Here are the 4 ways protected bike lanes help local businesses

Read More: http://greenlaneproject.org/blog/vie...cal-businesses

Quote:
.....

1) Protected bike lanes increase retail visibility and volume. It turns out that when people use bikes for errands, they're the perfect kind of retail customer: the kind that comes back again and again. They spend as much per month as people who arrive in cars, require far less parking while they shop and are easier to lure off the street for an impulse visit.

2) Protected bike lanes make workers healthier and more productive. From Philadelphia to Chicago to Portland, the story is the same: people go out of their way to use protected bike lanes. By drawing clear, safe barriers between auto and bike traffic, protected bike lanes get more people in the saddle -- burning calories, clearing the mental cobwebs, and strengthening hearts, hips and lungs.

3) Protected bike lanes make real estate more desirable. By calming traffic and creating an alternative to auto travel lanes, protected bike lanes help build the sort of neighborhoods that everyone enjoys walking around in. By extending the geographic range of non-car travel, bike lanes help urban neighborhoods develop without waiting years for new transit service to show up.

4) Protected bike lanes help companies score talented workers. Workers of all ages, but especially young ones, increasingly prefer downtown jobs and nearby homes, the sort of lifestyles that make city life feel like city life. Because protected bike lanes make biking more comfortable and popular, they help companies locate downtown without breaking the bank on auto parking space, and allow workers to reach their desk the way they increasingly prefer: under their own power.

.....

Swede Sep 19, 2013 10:25 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by M II A II R II K (Post 6261612)
At Safe Streets Rally, SFPD Blocks Bike Lane to Make Point of Victim-Blaming
Read More: http://sf.streetsblog.org/2013/08/21...ictim-blaming/
• Video Link
What that cop did is illegal in Sweden. Quite common, but parking (or even stopping or of course driving) your car in a bike lane is illegal.

fflint Sep 20, 2013 3:10 AM
^He's a total pig, and the SFPD Chief finally had to apologize for his misbehavior and admit that his claims were factually wrong.

skyfan Sep 21, 2013 2:45 PM
LINK DETROIT CONSTRUCTION BEGINS

http://wearemodeshift.org/sites/defa.../Rendering.png


Quote:
On your mark, get set, go! Detroit's next big biking and walking project is about to rush past the starting line.

Construction on Link Detroit, a multi-modal enhancement plan put forth by the city to enhance and connect existing greenways projects is now underway. When completed in November 2014, it will create an accessible network of routes for cyclists and pedestrians between major destinations like Eastern Market, Hamtramck, the RiverWalk, downtown Detroit and Midtown.

...
To start with, Eastern Market will be getting a major upgrade. The street curbs on Russell Street will be lined up in a consistent manner, and the area will be spruced up with trees and greenery. In addition, new bike parking structures will be installed at the district's main parking lot and at the corner of Russell and Wilkins.

The market will also feature easy access to the Dequindre Cut, a below-street level biking and walking path built on an old railroad line in downtown Detroit, which will be extended as part of the project. Currently, it runs from Woodbridge Street near the Milliken State Park at the riverfront to Gratiot Avenue. The extension will take it a mile north to Mack Avenue. Three bridges spanning the Cut will also be repaired and another taken down.

Another connection will link Eastern Market with Detroit's Midtown neighborhood, home to cultural attractions like the Michigan Science Center and the Detroit Institute of Arts. A new phase of the 1.8 mile Midtown Loop greenway will allow cyclists and pedestrians easy access to the market along a route that stretches across Mack, Brush and Wilkins
http://wearemodeshift.org/link-detro...lets-celebrate

Doug Sep 21, 2013 8:01 PM
THe Calgary Greenway now has corporate sponsorship:
http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/ca...767/story.html

Greenway gets a name, anticipates 2016 completion surrounding city
BY SHERRI ZICKEFOOSE, CALGARY HERALD SEPTEMBER 19, 2013

Calgary’s ambitious pathway project is steps closer to linking trails citywide and making history.

[The $65 million Greenway project — a 138-kilometre network of parks and pathways encircling the city — is expected to be complete by 2016.

The massive perimeter route for cyclists, runners, strollers and in-line skaters will link 55 neighbourhoods and the city’s 1,000 km of existing network, making the Greenway the longest urban pathway and park system in the world.




http://www.calgaryherald.com/homes/D...043/story.html

Developers embrace civic Greenway plan

Project to encircle Calgary with ring of parkland gains momentum

BY JOSH SKAPIN, CALGARY HERALD SEPTEMBER 20, 2013

Five major land developers are helping pave the way for a citywide network of pathways, parks, playgrounds and green spaces.

The Rotary/Mattamy Greenway by Parks Foundation Calgary will encircle the city, spanning 138 kilometres and reaching 55 communities and almost 400,000 people.

“It’s a huge benefit to have this go through your community,” says Parks Foundation CEO Myrna Dube. “They have a free, fully accessible opportunity to get involved in outdoor recreation right outside their back door. It’s all about health and wellness and . . . it’s available to everyone at no charge.”

The project is expected to be an all-season amenity for enjoying the outdoors with activities including everything from cycling to cross-country skiing.

“Visionary projects like this provide new ways for Calgarians to get active, play and commute,” Mayor Naheed Nenshi said in a news release earlier this week. “And they ensure Calgary is one of Canada’s — and the world’s — most attractive and livable cities.”

The Rotary Club of Calgary said the project fit perfectly with its ideals.

“The Greenway embodies Rotary’s vision for a better future for Calgarians and the generations who follow. We are very proud to put our name to this community project,” Eva Friesen, president of the Rotary Club of Calgary, said in a release.

Among the developers on board with the Greenway is Mattamy Homes, which is a title co-sponsor with 13 Calgary Rotary clubs, plus the Rotary Club of Cochrane and Rotaract.

“The greenway provides a permanently accessible vehicle for families to connect with their city and live healthy, active lives,” says Mattamy Homes Calgary division president Greg Mills. Mattamy is developing communities in Airdrie and Chestermere. Earlier this year it opened its first Calgary project, Cityscape.

“The Mattamy Homes community of Cityscape, as well as another Mattamy future community in the northwest, are fortunate to lie along the proposed Greenway alignment,” says Mills. “In addition, the Cityscape community’s 115 acre (46-hectare) natural preserve has been identified as one of a dozen or so feature parks along the route as a Wetland Interpretive Area.

“The Greenway, in this area, will allow for a very unique, educational and scenic environment for Greenway users.”

Other developers who have contributed to the Greenway include Brookfield Residential, Hopewell Residential Communities, Qualico Communities and Walton Development Corp. The developers are building approximately $5 million of the Greenway as a gift in-kind. However, other companies are in talks to join the project, but have not yet formally committed.

M II A II R II K Sep 23, 2013 7:12 PM
A cyclist’s mecca, with lessons for Boston

Read More: http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/201...ONM/story.html

Quote:
HOUTEN, the Netherlands — The intersection at De Koppeling Street is the kind of sight that might render a Bostonian speechless. It’s a double-decker roundabout. The top level functions like a normal rotary, cars entering and leaving from four directions. That bit of controlled chaos New Englanders know well. But on a level just below the cars, there’s another rotary, this one is just for bikes. As cars flow through the circle overhead, a steady stream of businessmen and moms and 12-year-olds wend their way through the intersection on their bicycles, safe, separated from cars, and undisturbed.

- To the average American, that’s exactly how Dutch bicycle traffic seems. This is a place with more bikes than people, where about 26 percent of commuting trips are taken by bicycle, where toddlers and 85-year-olds ride happily in traffic, and where the likelihood of getting killed on a bike is among the lowest in the world, about five times less than the United States. Almost every major street features separated bike lanes, bike-specific traffic lights, bike highways, and yield signs that, together, deliver one message: The bicycle is king. It’s the kind of European fantasy that sure as heck would never work in Boston. Except, it might.

- As local transportation officials and engineers work to improve safety for Boston’s cyclists, they’re starting to realize that the things we think make Boston bad for bikes — cramped streets, crowded roadways, a desperate need for parking spots that leaves little room for bike lanes — are exactly the factors that made the Dutch bicycle revolution possible half a century ago. In fact, politicians, government leaders, and urban planners in Boston are increasingly looking to the Netherlands to figure out how to improve bike safety, and with it, bike usage, at home. Largely, American planners inspired by the Dutch experience have taken an “if you build it, they will come” approach: If American cities invest the money to redesign their roads, transportation experts say, children, senior citizens, and men and women in suits will try out cycling.

- But the Dutch have another lesson to share: Better bicycle infrastructure isn’t enough. You need better cyclists, too, and more bike-aware motorists. Universal in-school bicycle education guarantees that every Dutch child can comfortably ride in traffic. By the time they get their drivers’ license, they’ve used bicycles as their primary form of transportation for years — and that habit continues into adulthood. Rob van der Bijl, an urban planner in Amsterdam, said it’s a common assumption: “Well, there are a lot of amenities, infrastructure, et cetera for bicycles — so, hence, bicycles are successful,” he said. But he argues that in reality, the opposite is true: “The existence of all these facilities and infrastructure are the result of the success, not the cause of the success.” In short, the answer to replicating the Dutch bicyling success in America might be a lot more complicated than building better bike lanes. “In one word,” van der Bijl said, “I would say it’s a matter of culture.”

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http://c.o0bg.com/rf/image_460w/Bost...side-12337.jpg




Bike Index Sets Out to Create Universal Registry to Fight Bike Theft

Read More: http://chi.streetsblog.org/2013/09/2...log+Chicago%29

Quote:
Bike theft is a problem in Chicago. The Chicago Stolen Bike Registry has received 98 stolen bike reports already this month. That’s at least 98 people who need to get a new ride to work or school. The Chicago Police Department accepts reports of bike theft but doesn’t track them, so we don’t have more reliable stats on how many bikes are stolen in Chicago.

- Enter Bike Index, a venture founded in Chicago that catalogs bikes before they’re stolen as well as after. The goal is create a universal registry that will make it much easier for people to avoid buying stolen bikes. And if the market for stolen bikes dries up, bike theft won’t be so prevalent anymore.

- Founder Seth Herr envisions Bike Index as a way to solve the “awareness problem” — awareness of existing registries and of a bike’s identifying information. In an interview for the Bike Index promo video, Yojimbo’s Garage owner Marcus Moore said, “A common problem when people get their bikes stolen is that it’s like the first time the owner thinks about ‘What was my serial number?’ and other details that are important in recovering a stolen bike.” If every bike shop integrated Bike Index registration at the point of sale, that would make it easy for victims of bike theft to accurately report a stolen bike, and for bike purchasers to verify that they aren’t buying stolen goods.

- While Bike Index aims to be a national registry, it could collaborate with local efforts to catalog and prevent bike theft. The Chicago Stolen Bike Registry and Bike Index have talked about integrating their two sites so that people who post to CSBR get more exposure on Bike Index and vice versa. Justin Newman, a technical contributor to CSBR, said, “We’ll support virtually any attempt to increase bike registration because it gives people some shot of being able to identify and recover” a stolen bike.

- Bike Index needs to grow and gain exposure if it’s going to work as intended. On Kickstarter, Bike Index is trying to raise $50,000 to continue developing the website registry and travel around the United States to meet with bike shop owners and discuss integrating registration into the bike purchase. The Bike Lane (a sponsor of Streetsblog Chicago) is already doing that by paying the $5 registration cost for customers when they buy a bicycle.

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http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3779/9...ae086895_z.jpg

Nexis4Jersey Sep 24, 2013 7:19 AM
• Video Link

M II A II R II K Sep 24, 2013 6:28 PM
Bike Share Finds Success in Small Cities

Read More: http://momentummag.com/features/bike...n-small-cities

Quote:
While many of the United States’ largest cities have just started to adopt bike share, several of the country’s smaller cities have been at it for years. These nimble cities were among America’s bike share pioneers, and they’ve proven that bike share can succeed with little more than community support, good leadership, and effective partnerships.

- But why have small cities taken to bike share? Well, largely because bike share is a low-cost solution for smaller cities to attract young talent and enhance their transportation network. In Chattanooga, Pugliese said that a “concerted effort was made to re-orient the community into one that was more environmentally friendly, sustainable, and attractive to both residents and future businesses.” And as Phoenix, AZ, prepares to welcome its bike share program later this year, Mayor Stanton said, “Bike-friendly cities are the ones that are going to advance in this new economy. If we want to attract and retain the right kind of jobs and entrepreneurs to our city, becoming more bikeable is critical.”

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MADISON B-CYCLE

35 Stations

225 Bikes

240,323 City Population

CHATTANOOGA BICYCLE TRANSIT SYSTEM

32 Stations

300 Bikes

171,279 City Population

BOULDER B-CYCLE

22 Stations

150 Bikes

97,385 City Population

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http://momentummag.com/downloads/854...Mat-Barlow.jpg




The dangerisation of cycling?

Read More: http://www.cyclelicio.us/2013/the-da...on-of-cycling/

Quote:
Several years ago, Jonathan Maus of Bike Portland began his crusade to excise labels such as “cyclist” from the vocabulary of cycling advocates.

Earlier today, he discovered this paper on the “Language of Promoting Cycling from New Zealand transportation researcher Glen Koorey at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch. Maus is obviously delighted to find this paper “about all the cycling language stuff I’ve been pontificating about for years!”

Koorey believes labels such as “cyclists” identifies us as the scary “other” in the context of communicating to the general public. But I’d like to touch on another hotbutton that Koorey addresses: what he calls “The Dangerisation of Cycling.”

If you ask many people why they don’t cycle and they will respond “because it’s not safe”. While we probably all can think of particular cycling hazards in our districts, this perception of the danger of cycling is not helped by much of the discussion that goes with cycling, whether from advocates, politicians, professionals, researchers or the media.

The media are also commonly guilty of emphasising the safety aspects of cycling. For example, in March this year, over half of the front page of the main Christchurch newspaper was devoted to coverage of two deaths and three serious injuries to cyclists the previous weekend (The Press 2007). At the bottom of this, a couple of paragraphs mentioned the fact that two other motor vehicle occupants had also died in New Zealand that weekend. And it was only on the inside page that details were given of a horrific two-car crash that saw nine people injured.

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http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2790/4...17b595a8ea.jpg




ARE YOU A CYCLIST OR DO YOU CYCLE? THE LANGUAGE OF PROMOTING CYCLING

PDF: http://ir.canterbury.ac.nz/bitstream...DoYouCycle.pdf

Quote:
This paper will discuss some of the potential pitfalls encountered by the author over the years and try to suggest the best way forward. Other subtle examples of unintended bias against cyclists, often communicated by public officials and documents, will also be highlighted.

Promoting more cycling in New Zealand is still an exercise fraught with much adversity, both from the general public and from decision- and policy-makers. It is therefore crucial that anyone advocating for a better cycling environment is careful in how they present their case, lest they end up “scoring an own goal” or furthering existing mis-conceptions.

Some key examples of this include:

• Referring to “cyclists” rather than “people who cycle”, the former often conjuring up images of a relatively small bunch of “weird” people who only ever cycle.

• Asking to “provide cycle facilities” rather than “provide for cycling”, when many treatments that greatly benefit cyclists often involve no dedicated cycle facilities.

• Publicly highlighting safety problems for cyclists in an attempt to get improvements, when the net effect may be to increase the general perception of cycling as “dangerous”.

• Pushing strongly for on-road cycle provision, thus alienating the population who would prefer an off-road environment to cycle on; or vice versa.

.....

Rizzo Sep 25, 2013 12:39 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by M II A II R II K (Post 6272182)
How Can Chicago Fix the “Weak Links” That Mar Bike Access Downtown?




http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5447/9...e89147d8_z.jpg

]
Haha, this is on my commute home. The problem with the bike lane is it's on the wrong side. It should be on the right. What you see in the photo is the bike lane aligned besides one of the busiest turn areas in River North. Making a left will take you to a freeway. The cars bunch up so the lane to right of the bicycle lane gets used as left also. Drivers are normally courteous to cyclists here, but it's just too congested and I can't think of anything that will solve it unless they signal it special or something.

I've talked to many people on this and we think that maybe the city put it on the left side of Dearborn entirely by accident, as there is not a single rational reason why it's there, and many reasons why it should be on the right. But the damage is done. They put the cycle track on the left side of Dearborn (oops) so a crossover would be impossible to correct the bike lane north of the river.

skyfan Sep 25, 2013 2:54 AM
BUFFERED BIKE LANES, TWO-WAY CONVERSION COMING TO DETROIT'S SECOND AVENUE

Quote:
Detroit’s cycling community may be celebrating new lanes on the city’s East Side right now, but an upcoming development in Midtown promises to up the ante for bicycle-friendly infrastructure even further.

The city’s first buffered bike lanes are scheduled to appear next year on Second Avenue between Temple and Warren. They’re part of a city council-approved project that will also involve converting the road from a one-way to a two-way street.

Construction for the lanes and street conversion carries an estimated price tag of about $200,000, a figure that doesn’t include inspection fees. The Michigan Department of Transportation will be overseeing the project, as part of that funding is coming from the federal government’s coffers.

“Second Avenue[’s] existing paved width is quite large,” Midtown Detroit Inc. Greenway & Non-Motorized Planner Jereen Rice told Mode Shift. “This street was a prime candidate for a ‘road diet.’ Providing a buffer lane was the perfect use of available width.”

The lanes will run a mile along both sides of the street with a diagonally striped buffer between the parking lane and travel lanes. The typical cross section will feature an 8-foot parking area, 5-foot bike lane, 3.5-foot buffer and 11-foot drive lane on each side of an 11-foot center turn lane.
http://wearemodeshift.org/buffered-b...-second-avenue


DETROIT'S EAST SIDE GETS NEW BIKE LANES

Quote:
DETROIT—Cyclists on Detroit's East Side have a reason to celebrate this month. Right now, the city's Department of Public Works is in the process of laying down a bike lanes on Kercheval that will ultimately stretch from Grand Boulevard to St. Jean.

Part of the route has already been set down and the rest is expected to be completed by the end of construction season. The Kercheval bike lanes are pretty basic, consisting of pavement markings and associated signage. When completed, they'll cover about four miles total, two on each side of the road.

Prasad Nannapaneni, a traffic engineer with the City of Detroit, says the new Kercheval bicycle route is intended for both transportation and recreation, adding that it's a segment of a larger undertaking.

Currently Detroit has 68 miles of bike projects. This includes 38 miles of bike lanes on city streets and five miles of bike lanes on MDOT streets, 10 miles of signed routes, and 15 miles of off road paths, according to Nannapaneni.

Altogether his department is planning to add about 50 new miles of bike lanes this year. In addition to the Kercheval lanes, the city is putting down 19.5 miles on Grand Boulevard from River Park to Belle Isle, 10.5 miles on Oakman Boulevard from Tireman to Highland Park's city limits, 4 miles on on Lafayette between I-375 and Grand Blvd, 2.8 miles on Forest between Dequindre and Cadillac, 3.7 miles on State Fair between Woodward to Dequindre and 3 miles on St. Jean/ Shoemaker/Conner between Mack and Harper.
http://wearemodeshift.org/node/950

SHiRO Sep 25, 2013 6:58 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by M II A II R II K (Post 6276777)
• Video Link

fflint Sep 25, 2013 7:40 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by SHiRO (Post 6278885)
This has already been posted on this page of this thread.

LMich Sep 25, 2013 7:57 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by skyfan (Post 6278711)
BUFFERED BIKE LANES, TWO-WAY CONVERSION COMING TO DETROIT'S SECOND AVENUE

http://wearemodeshift.org/buffered-b...-second-avenue


DETROIT'S EAST SIDE GETS NEW BIKE LANES

http://wearemodeshift.org/node/950
This is one of the very few silver linings of the emptying out of the city. You're basically getting to build up the city, again, how it should have been built in the first place. What I really want to see, though, is more done in the outer-city hoods and along the Mile roads.

SHiRO Sep 25, 2013 2:35 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by fflint (Post 6278906)
This has already been posted on this page of this thread.
It wasn't...

I quoted Mark and embedded the vid in his link for the benefit of those who didn't click the link and otherwise might have missed it.

Rizzo Sep 26, 2013 4:41 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by LMich (Post 6278908)
This is one of the very few silver linings of the emptying out of the city. You're basically getting to build up the city, again, how it should have been built in the first place. What I really want to see, though, is more done in the outer-city hoods and along the Mile roads.
Plus MDOT's design standards for buffered lanes are pretty generous. The cycle track in Lansing could be a cycle expressway lol

I wish our roads in Chicago were 4 feet wider. Basically the buffered bike lanes create narrow traffic lanes. So the cars are still close regardless


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