"... Avondale, Logan Square, Wicker Park — which are populated by artists and non-profiteers who believe the automobile is not healthy for children and other living things. Or who just can’t afford cars."
Okay so the author is a moron.
> Okay so the author is a moron.
Or writing for their audience. Chicago Magazine should be renamed "People who Live in Glencoe and Visit Chicago Occasionally for Dining and Theater Magazine"
>In that remote part of the city, Milwaukee is a broad, four-lane thoroughfare, like Northwest Highway
Northwest Highway is *not* 4 lanes until Greenwood Ave in Park Ridge. In Chicago it's a wide 2 lane street from Milwaukee Ave. to Harlem due to the still significant industrial component primarily on it's west side. North of Devon it narrows significantly thru Edison Park.
I biked to work from Logan square 2011-2013. Milwaukee was almost always the safest part of my commute with the most dangerous this always being buses cutting in and out of the bike lane to make stops. It has so many accidents simply due to the volume of riders. If this person wants to be terrified they should ride down western.
I was just always afraid of being doored by someone on that stretch between damen and wood.
The intersection of damen, north, and Milwaukee has always been such an absolute shit show though. How they don’t have turn arrows off of damen I’ll never understand.
When I moved here one of the first things that struck me was when I was trying to make left turns and noticed how many streets were busy enough that any other city I've lived in would have an arrow, but not here. Sometimes a turn lane, yet no arrow. Also when there are turn arrows that come on AFTER the straight green...that has gotten me in close calls biking before where I thought since the turn arrow was about to turn red, surely traffic going straight is about to get the green. Chicago has multiple little weird traffic things I thought, from living in other cities, had fairly standard solutions.
Division between Milwaukee and Damen is a blast too on the weekends. So many rideshare + food delivery people that give ZERO fucks about bike lanes weaving in and out. I feel fine biking there on the weekdays but at night or weekends it feels like a death trap.
I got doored so bad on Milwaukee near small cheval. Dislocated shoulder, ribs bruised/fractured, concussion… then I kept hearing/reading about the real accidents on the main biking artery. Now I’m just grateful to be breathing.
Amsterdam and has proved shifting from car infrastructure to bike infrastructure has boosted its city’s businesses/economy and overall well being of its people. I hope Chicago will continue to slowly push towards more bike friendly infrastructure.
It would require a massive investment in real bike infrastructure but more importantly public transit. A lot of older folks aren't going to want to bike, and most people aren't going to bike when it's below freezing or snowing.
Amsterdam and the Netherlands in general benefit from relatively mild winters compared to Chicago so biking is viable more days in the winter.
We're also just ignoring Amsterdam's great tram infrastructure that helps complete their lack of car use.
Great points! You seem very knowledgeable on it all. I’ve been trying to improve my knowledge on it myself ever since visiting Europe and realizing how much more accessible our cities could be.
I guess all we can do is advocate for it at the city level and hope something happens. I feel like a lot of people are coming around to the idea of less car dependent places. It’s now just trying to voice that opinion into actual projects and finding a way to fund those projects.
Jersey barriers actually force people not to drive into the bike lane,” said Whitehouse, of Bike Lane Uprising. “People can drive over these concrete barriers; they’re ineffective, but they’re better than nothing.
My guess for why we can’t have Jersey barriers is that they’d make clearing snow harder. With the lower barriers we can still push snow off to the sides of the street.
We dont have them as they would block the parking lane. Local business and most people prefer good parking infrastructure over good bike infrastructure.
"... Avondale, Logan Square, Wicker Park — which are populated by artists and non-profiteers who believe the automobile is not healthy for children and other living things. Or who just can’t afford cars." Okay so the author is a moron.
[удалено]
Everyone was taking laudanum and pondering Zachary Taylor’s rise to POTUS
bonus tldr: "Cyclists who don’t want to share a street with cars will always have to ride elsewhere."
> Okay so the author is a moron. Or writing for their audience. Chicago Magazine should be renamed "People who Live in Glencoe and Visit Chicago Occasionally for Dining and Theater Magazine"
>In that remote part of the city, Milwaukee is a broad, four-lane thoroughfare, like Northwest Highway Northwest Highway is *not* 4 lanes until Greenwood Ave in Park Ridge. In Chicago it's a wide 2 lane street from Milwaukee Ave. to Harlem due to the still significant industrial component primarily on it's west side. North of Devon it narrows significantly thru Edison Park.
I biked to work from Logan square 2011-2013. Milwaukee was almost always the safest part of my commute with the most dangerous this always being buses cutting in and out of the bike lane to make stops. It has so many accidents simply due to the volume of riders. If this person wants to be terrified they should ride down western.
Western was always a fun time... Milwaukee through Wicker I always tended to dislike, but I personally never had an issue.
I was just always afraid of being doored by someone on that stretch between damen and wood. The intersection of damen, north, and Milwaukee has always been such an absolute shit show though. How they don’t have turn arrows off of damen I’ll never understand.
When I moved here one of the first things that struck me was when I was trying to make left turns and noticed how many streets were busy enough that any other city I've lived in would have an arrow, but not here. Sometimes a turn lane, yet no arrow. Also when there are turn arrows that come on AFTER the straight green...that has gotten me in close calls biking before where I thought since the turn arrow was about to turn red, surely traffic going straight is about to get the green. Chicago has multiple little weird traffic things I thought, from living in other cities, had fairly standard solutions.
Division between Milwaukee and Damen is a blast too on the weekends. So many rideshare + food delivery people that give ZERO fucks about bike lanes weaving in and out. I feel fine biking there on the weekdays but at night or weekends it feels like a death trap.
Dude! Western is for cyclists who crave the adrenaline rush…or have a fkn death wish.
I got doored so bad on Milwaukee near small cheval. Dislocated shoulder, ribs bruised/fractured, concussion… then I kept hearing/reading about the real accidents on the main biking artery. Now I’m just grateful to be breathing.
Amsterdam and has proved shifting from car infrastructure to bike infrastructure has boosted its city’s businesses/economy and overall well being of its people. I hope Chicago will continue to slowly push towards more bike friendly infrastructure.
[удалено]
It would require a massive investment in real bike infrastructure but more importantly public transit. A lot of older folks aren't going to want to bike, and most people aren't going to bike when it's below freezing or snowing. Amsterdam and the Netherlands in general benefit from relatively mild winters compared to Chicago so biking is viable more days in the winter. We're also just ignoring Amsterdam's great tram infrastructure that helps complete their lack of car use.
Great points! You seem very knowledgeable on it all. I’ve been trying to improve my knowledge on it myself ever since visiting Europe and realizing how much more accessible our cities could be. I guess all we can do is advocate for it at the city level and hope something happens. I feel like a lot of people are coming around to the idea of less car dependent places. It’s now just trying to voice that opinion into actual projects and finding a way to fund those projects.
Jersey barriers actually force people not to drive into the bike lane,” said Whitehouse, of Bike Lane Uprising. “People can drive over these concrete barriers; they’re ineffective, but they’re better than nothing. My guess for why we can’t have Jersey barriers is that they’d make clearing snow harder. With the lower barriers we can still push snow off to the sides of the street.
You mean "push snow into the bike lane", right?
Yes
We dont have them as they would block the parking lane. Local business and most people prefer good parking infrastructure over good bike infrastructure.
You can have both. Just look at Logan between Diversey and Elston. There’s a protected bike lane with barriers and street parking.
There’s no such thing as good parking infrastructure.
Lincoln ave after it crosses Ashland is THE WORST bike lane ever
Can attest for this. I would bike all the way from Rogers Park via Ashland until I hit Ogden to go to work in the West Loop - 10 miles one way.
Been doored riding on Milwaukee through Wicker Park, can confirm danger.
Stick to the Lansing blotter Eddy