Interesting article about moves afoot in Chicago:
<http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-0606110303jun11,1,5066691.s
tory?coll=chi-news-hed&ctrack=1&cset=true>
CHICAGO'S MASTER PLAN
DON'T DRIVE. JUST BIKE.
City peddling new proposal for 500-mile network of paths to be finished
by 2015
By Noreen S. Ahmed-Ullah and James Janega
Tribune staff reporters
Published June 11, 2006
Chicago is set to unveil new plans for becoming a bicyclist's haven. And
this time, it means business.
The new Bike 2015 Plan wastes little time on breezy rides in the park.
Instead, the city's Department of Transportation is bent on getting
people to bike to work, to school, to stores and to mass transit stops,
cobbling together a 500-mile network of designated routes.
Understanding that bicyclists' greatest enemies--aside from sloth--are
car doors, right-lane passers and other street perils, planners looked
around the world for new safety ideas.
From Geneva, Switzerland, they got the idea of raised bike lanes, a
layer of pavement above street level and below the curb that would help
dissuade motorists from veering into cycling territory. By 2010, the
city hopes to experiment with raised lanes in a few locations.
In Copenhagen, Cambridge and other places, planners saw bicycle lanes
colored a startling shade of teal green, thermoplastic markings they
hope to duplicate at some Chicago intersections to try to warn
right-turning cars to watch for bikes.
Like its predecessor in 1992, the new strategic plan lays out the city's
vision to make bicycling an integral part of Chicagoans' daily lives.
It offers few details and specifies no costs, though it does point to
federal grants and private funding.
The plan does not say where the new miles of bike lanes and improvements
would be located.
But, with a strong track record of delivering for cyclists, the city is
thinking big: a bike route within a half-mile of every resident; a
50-mile circuit of bike trails, with some off-road paths to be announced
later this year; 185 miles of new bikeways altogether.
By 2015, planners hope, 5 percent of all trips shorter than 5 miles long
will be made by bike.
"It's truly putting Chicago on the forefront of improving cycling across
the country," said Andy Clarke, executive director of the Washington
D.C.-based League of American Bicyclists, adding that unlike most cities
where bike plans are shelved, they frequently are implemented in
Chicago, with the backing of Mayor Richard Daley, an avid biker.
But for new bike lanes to lure new cyclists, riders say a culture change
needs to take root among drivers. The biggest threat isn't animosity,
they say. It's ignorance--most drivers seem not to realize cyclists are
even vying for road space.
"I've been doored," said Greg Ehrendreich, 31, describing most cyclers'
worst fear--a car door opening suddenly in their path. "I've been almost
doored a couple of times."
"You've got to get people to think a different way," said Scott Parrish,
50, who has biked Chicago for half his life. "If the culture doesn't
change when you put these bike lanes out, you could put 50 million bike
lanes in and it wouldn't matter."
Of course, he said, cars are not the only deterrent: "Try to get a girl
to go on a date with you on a bike."
Global inspiration
As the city and its consultant, Chicagoland Bicycle Federation, began
researching the plan three years ago, the mayor encouraged them to seek
inspiration across the globe.
Next year, planners hope to shut down a network of streets for biking on
a Sunday morning, as pioneered in Bogota, Colombia, and Guadalajara,
Mexico.
In Victoria, Canada, a bicycle commuter challenge among private
companies--funded by them too--drew thousands of participants. Chicago
would like to try its own in 2008.
When asked to describe the perfect urban biking, Chicago riders also
looked abroad:
"Amsterdam," said Parrish, while stopped at the corner of Belmont Avenue
and Clark Street on Friday.
"Shanghai," sighed Ehrendreich. "Whole streets are bikes only."
Closer to home, the city is currently working on a Mapquest of sorts for
bikers, laying out online bike routes to a person's destination.
Millennium Park's popular bike station has inspired plans for a similar
center with showers and lockers at the Ogilvie Transportation Center by
2010.
To encourage students, the city hopes to build bikeways for up to 70
schools by 2010.
They want to teach students at 500 schools all about bike safety.
The city even hired an intern to ride the streets, looking for bike
lanes that need work and pavement that needs repair.
The key step to encouraging more cycling, experts and riders agree, is
making riding safer.
As an opening bid, the city hopes to try the teal markings at 10
locations, including Elston Avenue and Division Street and Roosevelt
Road and Damen Avenue, said Ben Gomberg, bicycle program coordinator for
the Department of Transportation.
Current bike lane markings are not sufficient, said Joseph Schofer,
professor of civil and environmental engineering at Northwestern
University. Bright teal could catch the eyes of motorists who may not be
paying attention, he said.
Higher ground
The city could also try raising bike lanes in two or three undetermined
locations as early as 2008 to see whether that may deter speeding
motorists from entering the bike lane.
But that could have drawbacks, according to Christopher Hagelin, senior
research associate for the Center for Urban Transportation Research at
the University of South Florida. Based on a description of the Chicago
plan, he said the raised lanes might make it harder for bicyclists to
merge into the center travel lane to turn left.
At some intersections in Oregon, bicycles line up ahead of cars in
specially marked boxes. That gives them a head start when the light
turns green, makes them more visible to motorists and maybe even gives
them a little psychological edge over the four-wheelers.
That's an idea Chicago planners are still considering.
--
Shane Stanley