Roll the Tollway (Illinois)

Chicago Paddling-Fishing

http://pages.ripco.net/~jwn/tmp/rollthetollway.jpg showed that my Garmin Topo
map software is more than a little out of date... I bought it 2 years ago max
and I just realized it doesn't show the Interstate 355 tollway at all.

Not sure if anyone else did the ride and what numbers you got but just doing
it once my garmin 305 got 26.01 miles (1.5 miles of that was riding from where
we parked to the ride entrance). Getting there was a mess as the roads were 2
lane with no shoulder and there were thousands of cars carrying bikes trying
to get to it...

Anyone use a Garmin Forerunner or Edge? How accurate do you find the elevation
info? (when looking at the grade and elevation chart on the .jpg file, keep in
mind that was a loop and should have been a repeating pattern)

--
John Nelson
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Mike Kruger

Chicago Paddling-Fishing wrote:
> http://pages.ripco.net/~jwn/tmp/rollthetollway.jpg showed that my
> Garmin Topo map software is more than a little out of date... I
> bought it 2 years ago max and I just realized it doesn't show the
> Interstate 355 tollway at all.
>
> Not sure if anyone else did the ride and what numbers you got but
> just doing it once my garmin 305 got 26.01 miles (1.5 miles of that
> was riding from where we parked to the ride entrance). Getting there
> was a mess as the roads were 2 lane with no shoulder and there were
> thousands of cars carrying bikes trying to get to it...
>
> Anyone use a Garmin Forerunner or Edge? How accurate do you find the
> elevation info? (when looking at the grade and elevation chart on the
> .jpg file, keep in mind that was a loop and should have been a
> repeating pattern)

I did the ride, but don't use any GPS.

Traffic was heavy on Lemont Rd / State St when I came through about 8 a.m.
The ride was to start at 9, but they mercifully let some waves to early
since there were so many of us standing around. I parked considerably
closer, and had 34 miles (two loops of the south portion).

The ride was sold out at 5,000. I did not see any checking of credentials.
There seemed to be a lot of crashers coming in at the south end (from US 6).

The CBF did a good job on media publicity and the ride was on the local news
and in a story on the local NPR station. I think the main effect will be to
convince people that there must be a lot of bicyclists out there, if you can
sell out a ride at 5,000 riders on a cold November day.

I was surprised at the large number of police along the route. What were
they expecting, some sort of Critical Mass Lemont? At one point, as we went
under an overpass one rider went off the paved lane and rode up on the paved
area underneath the overpass, then came back down to the route. It was sort
of a poor-man's half-pipe manuever. Immediately a police car hit lights and
a bit of siren and hurried up to give him a talking-to. Looked like
overzealousness created by boredom. Perhaps they expected the bicyclists
to be constantly using the bus lane to pass; that's not unreasonable given
what happens on other large rides.

--
Mike Kruger
Error is eternal, and wisdom consists in living with it, not letting
our vanity tell us that it has been transcended. - Michael T. Ghiselin

max

"Mike Kruger" <MikeKr@mouse-potato.com> wrote:

> Chicago Paddling-Fishing wrote:
> > http://pages.ripco.net/~jwn/tmp/rollthetollway.jpg showed that my
> > Garmin Topo map software is more than a little out of date... I
> > bought it 2 years ago max and I just realized it doesn't show the
> > Interstate 355 tollway at all.
>
> I did the ride, but don't use any GPS.
>
> Traffic was heavy on Lemont Rd / State St when I came through about 8 a.m.
> The ride was to start at 9, but they mercifully let some waves to early
> since there were so many of us standing around. I parked considerably
> closer, and had 34 miles (two loops of the south portion).

I had to work so i coulnd't go, sadly. I look forward to ppl posting a
few pix. It was a fairly "nice" day for this time of year. <cough>.

..max

--
The part of betatron @ earthlink . net was played by a garden gnome

Chicago Paddling-Fishing

In rec.bicycles.rides max <betatron@earthlink.net> wrote:
: "Mike Kruger" <MikeKr@mouse-potato.com> wrote:

: > Chicago Paddling-Fishing wrote:
: > > http://pages.ripco.net/~jwn/tmp/rollthetollway.jpg showed that my
: > > Garmin Topo map software is more than a little out of date... I
: > > bought it 2 years ago max and I just realized it doesn't show the
: > > Interstate 355 tollway at all.
: >
: > I did the ride, but don't use any GPS.
: >
: > Traffic was heavy on Lemont Rd / State St when I came through about 8 a.m.
: > The ride was to start at 9, but they mercifully let some waves to early
: > since there were so many of us standing around. I parked considerably
: > closer, and had 34 miles (two loops of the south portion).

: I had to work so i coulnd't go, sadly. I look forward to ppl posting a
: few pix. It was a fairly "nice" day for this time of year. <cough>.

Well, I guess I was in the 9am wave (got off I-55 around 7:45 and I was just
jammed in traffic forever on 135th street)... talk1.jpg you can see the time
is 9:02 and was taken after we got bored listening to the announcer...
15minuteslater.jpg was of course taken 15 minutes later as we slowly weaved
our way thru the still standing crowd. (State?) Senator Maloney was our
"leader" for our wave...

People were chanting "Let us ride" because the talking went on forever and
ever...

http://pages.ripco.net/~jwn/tmp/talk1.jpg
http://pages.ripco.net/~jwn/tmp/15minuteslater.jpg
http://pages.ripco.net/~jwn/tmp/theroad.jpg
http://pages.ripco.net/~jwn/tmp/turnaround.jpg
http://pages.ripco.net/~jwn/tmp/ipass.jpg
http://pages.ripco.net/~jwn/tmp/festnfire.jpg

I had the little ATC2k camera going but I made the mistake of starting it on
the entry ramp and by the time the speeches were finished it was blinking
low battery and they went dead on the DesPlaines river bridge...

The vets along the sides were pretty amusing with their "It's all uphill
from here" chants...

Did they stop you at the far end as well? The troopers stopped us for about
15 minutes at U.S. 6 ramp and then let us go again never saying why we were
stopped... no speeches there, just stand still on top of the bridge in the
wind for a while.

--
John Nelson
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chicago Area Paddling/Fishing Page
http://www.chicagopaddling.org http://www.chicagofishing.org
(A Non-Commercial Web Site: No Sponsors, No Paid Ads and Nothing to Sell)

Chicago Paddling-Fishing

In rec.bicycles.misc Mike Kruger <MikeKr@mouse-potato.com> wrote:
<snip>

: The ride was sold out at 5,000. I did not see any checking of credentials.
: There seemed to be a lot of crashers coming in at the south end (from US 6).

At the 127th street entrance there was a woman yelling for you to hold up your
arm and show your bracelet, but there were so many people riding by she was
doomed.

: The CBF did a good job on media publicity and the ride was on the local news
: and in a story on the local NPR station. I think the main effect will be to
: convince people that there must be a lot of bicyclists out there, if you can
: sell out a ride at 5,000 riders on a cold November day.

Yes, although if your expecting 5000 riders, you need to anticipate 5k people
parking (although in my case, I had multiple riders in my car)

: I was surprised at the large number of police along the route. What were
: they expecting, some sort of Critical Mass Lemont? At one point, as we went
: under an overpass one rider went off the paved lane and rode up on the paved
: area underneath the overpass, then came back down to the route. It was sort
: of a poor-man's half-pipe manuever. Immediately a police car hit lights and
: a bit of siren and hurried up to give him a talking-to. Looked like
: overzealousness created by boredom. Perhaps they expected the bicyclists
: to be constantly using the bus lane to pass; that's not unreasonable given
: what happens on other large rides.

Yes, it did seem like a huge waste of taxpayer $'s as far as police presence.
I don't understand what they were expecting. If they were there to help one
or 2 cars would have sufficed, but the number of cars and motorcylist the
police had on hand was overkill for the situation unless they felt it was a
P.R. event for them as well...

--
John Nelson
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chicago Area Paddling/Fishing Page
http://www.chicagopaddling.org http://www.chicagofishing.org
(A Non-Commercial Web Site: No Sponsors, No Paid Ads and Nothing to Sell)

Chicago Paddling-Fishing

In rec.bicycles.soc Chicago Paddling-Fishing <jwn@ripco.com> wrote:
: In rec.bicycles.misc Mike Kruger <MikeKr@mouse-potato.com> wrote:
: <snip>

: : I was surprised at the large number of police along the route. What were
: : they expecting, some sort of Critical Mass Lemont? <snip>

http://pages.ripco.net/~jwn/tmp/statepolicebikers.jpg is a picture of the
state police motorcycle officers (i'm not sure if there were more than one
pair)... I guess they figured what better way to fight off hords of $ paying
cyclist than officers on motorcycles. They had regular trooper cars, trooper
SUV's, and unmarked cars all driving around us for some reason.

http://pages.ripco.net/~jwn/tmp/sp1.jpg
http://pages.ripco.net/~jwn/tmp/sp2.jpg
http://pages.ripco.net/~jwn/tmp/sp3.jpg
http://pages.ripco.net/~jwn/tmp/sp4.jpg (there are 4 cars in this pic alone)

Not sure if the moto guys red light was burnt out or if they were flashing and
I just got lucky catching the other with both on. A friend of mine used to
insist that if a police car pulled you over for a traffic violation and it
had a burnt out light, that you could use that they were in violation of the
law as a defense, but I've never needed to try that (besides, if you try to
get out to check their tail lights, they'd probably tase you anyways...)

Maybe they had so many police because it was named Veterans Memorial Tollway...
Perhaps they were expecting a (that's for you John R.) anti-war protest ?

--
John Nelson
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
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http://www.chicagopaddling.org http://www.chicagofishing.org
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Chicago Paddling-Fishing

Here's a video... it's a hand held camera so the sound is just wind noise,
no vibrations coming up thru a camera mount...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5xVF-PNEAU

In the process of posting it, I spotted this video;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TNTq3nhuh0

This is must see, especially at the end when he's using a hammer and spike
to break open a bike lock and the NYC police stop and tell the camera man he
can't be in the street and ignore the man stealing the bike...

--
John Nelson
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
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http://www.chicagopaddling.org http://www.chicagofishing.org
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John Everett

On Mon, 12 Nov 2007 04:53:40 GMT, "Mike Kruger"
<MikeKr@mouse-potato.com> wrote:

>Chicago Paddling-Fishing wrote:
>> http://pages.ripco.net/~jwn/tmp/rollthetollway.jpg showed that my
>> Garmin Topo map software is more than a little out of date... I
>> bought it 2 years ago max and I just realized it doesn't show the
>> Interstate 355 tollway at all.
>>
>I did the ride, but don't use any GPS.

Rather than pay $1.00 per mile to ride up and down a strip of concrete
with 4,999 of my cycling friends, I got out the MTB and led a club
ride from West Chicago. We cycled through Blackwell Forest Preserve to
the Illinois Prairie Path, then west on the Aurora Spur to the Fox
River Trail, turned north to Batavia, then returned via Fermi Lab.
About 30 uncrowded miles, and the price was right. ;-)


--
jeverett3<AT>sbcglobal<DOT>net (John V. Everett)

Mike Kruger

Chicago Paddling-Fishing wrote:
>
> Did they stop you at the far end as well? The troopers stopped us
> for about 15 minutes at U.S. 6 ramp and then let us go again never
> saying why we were stopped... no speeches there, just stand still on
> top of the bridge in the wind for a while.

No, they didn't stop us there. That was where there seemed to be a lot of
(likely non-paying) people entering, but that's a ride-organizer problem
rather than a police problem -- there probably weren't enough to make a
difference in crowd control.

Chicago Paddling-Fishing

In chi.general Mike Kruger <MikeKr@mouse-potato.com> wrote:
: Chicago Paddling-Fishing wrote:
: >
: > Did they stop you at the far end as well? The troopers stopped us
: > for about 15 minutes at U.S. 6 ramp and then let us go again never
: > saying why we were stopped... no speeches there, just stand still on
: > top of the bridge in the wind for a while.

: No, they didn't stop us there. That was where there seemed to be a lot of
: (likely non-paying) people entering, but that's a ride-organizer problem
: rather than a police problem -- there probably weren't enough to make a
: difference in crowd control.

Not sure why they made us go around that ramp like that (that did open up
the roadway to anyone else riding on bikes). Surely there was a turnaround
farther down the way they could have used to prevent outside access to the
road. They didn't ask to see bracelets at that point, they just delayed us
for about 15 minutes until the chanters caught up with us. Then passing was
painful again because we were all bunched up...

--
John Nelson
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chicago Area Paddling/Fishing Page
http://www.chicagopaddling.org http://www.chicagofishing.org
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Chicago Paddling-Fishing

In rec.bicycles.misc John Everett <jeverett3@sbcglobal.defeat.uce.bots.net> wrote:
: On Mon, 12 Nov 2007 04:53:40 GMT, "Mike Kruger"
: <MikeKr@mouse-potato.com> wrote:

: >Chicago Paddling-Fishing wrote:
: >> http://pages.ripco.net/~jwn/tmp/rollthetollway.jpg showed that my
: >> Garmin Topo map software is more than a little out of date... I
: >> bought it 2 years ago max and I just realized it doesn't show the
: >> Interstate 355 tollway at all.
: >>
: >I did the ride, but don't use any GPS.

: Rather than pay $1.00 per mile to ride up and down a strip of concrete
: with 4,999 of my cycling friends, I got out the MTB and led a club
: ride from West Chicago. We cycled through Blackwell Forest Preserve to
: the Illinois Prairie Path, then west on the Aurora Spur to the Fox
: River Trail, turned north to Batavia, then returned via Fermi Lab.
: About 30 uncrowded miles, and the price was right. ;-)

Well, lets face it, there was only one reason to do it, because it won't
be offered again. Bike the Drive is fun but far crazier, especially at
the MSI rest stop...

--
John Nelson
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chicago Area Paddling/Fishing Page
http://www.chicagopaddling.org http://www.chicagofishing.org
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Scott in SoCal

On Mon, 12 Nov 2007 19:58:32 +0000 (UTC), Chicago Paddling-Fishing
<jwn@ripco.com> wrote:

>In rec.bicycles.soc Chicago Paddling-Fishing <jwn@ripco.com> wrote:
>: In rec.bicycles.misc Mike Kruger <MikeKr@mouse-potato.com> wrote:
>: <snip>
>
>: : I was surprised at the large number of police along the route. What were
>: : they expecting, some sort of Critical Mass Lemont? <snip>
>
>http://pages.ripco.net/~jwn/tmp/statepolicebikers.jpg is a picture of the
>state police motorcycle officers (i'm not sure if there were more than one
>pair)... I guess they figured what better way to fight off hords of $ paying
>cyclist than officers on motorcycles. They had regular trooper cars, trooper
>SUV's, and unmarked cars all driving around us for some reason.

Checking for foam hats, no doubt.

Jim Boyer

"John Everett" <jeverett3@sbcglobal.DEFEAT.UCE.BOTS.net> wrote in message
newsvjhj3h1aobkjo6c5r6s4f249rfib7agc1@4ax.com...
> On Mon, 12 Nov 2007 04:53:40 GMT, "Mike Kruger"
> <MikeKr@mouse-potato.com> wrote:
>
>>Chicago Paddling-Fishing wrote:
>>> http://pages.ripco.net/~jwn/tmp/rollthetollway.jpg showed that my
>>> Garmin Topo map software is more than a little out of date... I
>>> bought it 2 years ago max and I just realized it doesn't show the
>>> Interstate 355 tollway at all.
>>>
>>I did the ride, but don't use any GPS.
>
> Rather than pay $1.00 per mile to ride up and down a strip of concrete
> with 4,999 of my cycling friends, I got out the MTB and led a club
> ride from West Chicago. We cycled through Blackwell Forest Preserve to
> the Illinois Prairie Path, then west on the Aurora Spur to the Fox
> River Trail, turned north to Batavia, then returned via Fermi Lab.
> About 30 uncrowded miles, and the price was right. ;-)
>

Yeah, but you missed the whole point. It was a fund raiser to build a bike
path.....like the one you enjoyed, as you say, for the right price.

jb

Chicago Paddling-Fishing

In rec.bicycles.rides Scott in SoCal <scottenaztlan@yahoo.com> wrote:
: On Mon, 12 Nov 2007 19:58:32 +0000 (UTC), Chicago Paddling-Fishing
: <jwn@ripco.com> wrote:

: >In rec.bicycles.soc Chicago Paddling-Fishing <jwn@ripco.com> wrote:
: >: In rec.bicycles.misc Mike Kruger <MikeKr@mouse-potato.com> wrote:
: >: <snip>
: >
: >: : I was surprised at the large number of police along the route. What were
: >: : they expecting, some sort of Critical Mass Lemont? <snip>
: >
: >http://pages.ripco.net/~jwn/tmp/statepolicebikers.jpg is a picture of the
: >state police motorcycle officers (i'm not sure if there were more than one
: >pair)... I guess they figured what better way to fight off hords of $ paying
: >cyclist than officers on motorcycles. They had regular trooper cars, trooper
: >SUV's, and unmarked cars all driving around us for some reason.

: Checking for foam hats, no doubt.

Your probably right... luckily no one was tased that I know of...

--
John Nelson
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
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