Crash statistics differences from 2011 to 2012
I posted this as a series of tweets on Friday night.
Category: Chicago
That wasn’t a joyride on Lake Shore Drive
Video starts at Ohio Street (you can see the W Hotel after the curve at Ontario Street); the camera holder and driver speak with expletives.
Craig Newman at the Sun Times is wrong about the person in this video, who was filmed riding a Divvy bike-share bike along the jersey barrier on northbound Lake Shore Drive. He blogged today:
All excellent questions. But let’s maybe simplify and throw a warning sticker on the bikes: NO RIDING ON EXPRESSWAYS
And yes, I am a consistent bike commuter who enjoys the benefits and routinely laments stupidity, four-wheeled, two-wheeled and on foot we all have to fight through daily. But come on. Lake Shore Drive?
This person didn’t want to be cycling there. There are several ways one could make the mistake of riding a bike on this roadway. And once you’re on, you’re on for good until the next exit (which in this Divvy rider’s case is 1/4 mile north from where the video was shot).
She might have known there was something called the Lake Shore Path (as some people call it) or the Lakefront Trail – she couldn’t remember which. She didn’t see any “Route X” signs, or “Interstate Y” signs.
She saw a road that looks like so many others. It’s called a drive, not an expressway (it doesn’t meet those technical standards). She most likely entered from Lower Wacker (which connects to Michigan Avenue, where many people ride Divvy against Alderman Reilly’s desire) and went up the center, northbound ramp to Lake Shore Drive.
Stony Island Avenue in Chicago. The only difference between this and Lake Shore Drive is the more frequent stopping (unless there’s congestion on LSD) and the shopping. Photo by Jeff Zoline.
It can be easily mistaken for a typical road, looking similar to the stroads near wherever she lives. Like Stony Island, Cicero, Columbus, Archer, in Chicago, or any countless “major street” in the suburbs. Maybe she comes from Roscoe Village, where Western Avenue goes over Belmont, or Bridgeport/Brighton Park, where Ashland Avenue goes over Pershing Avenue. Or some other city where regular roads cross other regular roads at different grades.
Local photographer Brent Knepper tweeted that he made the mistake before.
@stevevance @misskaz haha, no, I was on a street (don't remember which) that turned into an exit ramp with cars blocking any other way off.
— ? ? ?(???)? ? ? ? ? (@__aroo) November 13, 2013
We have a problem with our design such that the highway didn’t sufficient communicate, “No really, you shouldn’t bike here”. On the contrary, we have roads that should be shouting, “Hey, you really should be biking here!”
Maybe that’s why Netherlands makes it perfectly clear with red pavement.
Believe me, not even Casey Neistat would ride up here intentionally.
Updated with a better guess of where she entered Lake Shore Drive.
Stop locking your bike at the Clybourn Metra station overnight
This is a resolution.
WHEREAS, I love GIS.
WHEREAS, I was reading this blog post on the Azavea company blog about bike theft prediction and trends in Philadelphia.
WHEREAS, I analyzed bike theft location in Chicago in 2012 and the Clybourn Metra station emerged as the most frequent Metra theft location.
WHEREAS, I searched the Chicago Stolen Bike Registry for “clybourn” and several thefts have been reported to the registry in 2013.
WHEREAS, I believe the Chicago Police Department still doesn’t allow searching of their database for bike thefts thus leaving the CSBR as the premier source of data.
WHEREAS, I am watching this show called The Bletchley Circle wherein a group of four fictional women who cracked codes in World War II are solving a murder mystery in 1950s London.
BE IT RESOLVED that you should not leave your bicycle parked at the Clybourn Metra station overnight as it is a terrible place to leave a bicycle parked. Why? No one is around most of the time to socially secure your bicycle.
This is a great place to get your bike stolen. In the dark. Overnight. With no one around to see it happen.
On Active Transportation Alliance’s transportation summit
Active Transportation Alliance invited Eric Hanns and I to speak about “using data for advocacy” at their first annual transportation summit held after a member meeting two Saturdays ago. My and Eric’s talks were complementary and centered around the data tool I built and which Eric and the other volunteers in the 46th Ward participatory budgeting program used to prioritize and market infrastructure projects in Uptown.
The tool in question is the Chicago Crash Browser I made last year and improved this year to load data faster, with great help from the Smart Chicago Collaborative and several members of the OpenGov Hack Night group I cherish.
Click or tap a spot in Chicago to retrieve the number of bicyclist-car and pedestrian-car crashes within 150 feet. With this information, the PB volunteers could show the alderman how important it was for him to support bike and pedestrian infrastructure projects in the ward, and to persuade ward voters to fund these projects.
Find more information about the four other summit “breakout groups” on Active Trans’s website. Eric and I prepared a “Using Data for Advocacy: Making the Case with Compelling Facts” handout which you can download as a PDF or see on our Google Doc. I’ve conveniently listed the links from the handout below but if you want more pointed advice on where to look for specific data, or get an answer to questions you have but don’t grok the context of each of these tools, leave me a comment.
- BikeIndex and Chicago Stolen Bike Registry (bike registration)
- Close Calls, report your hairy situations
- Chicago Health Atlas (neighborhood demographics/health)
- NYT Census Browser, American FactFinder for decennial and annual census information which you may find difficult to use if you’re uninitiated to the site or data
- Second City Zoning, Vacant Building Finder by Open City Apps
- Service Tracker, Chicago Works (Open311 app)
- Capital projects (sewer work, repaving, etc.): your alderman’s office, website, and newsletter (Alderman Reilly has the most informative newsletters on Loop activity); the hard-to-navigate city website (here are 2013 water and sewer main projects)
- Other information: FOIA (Freedom of Information Act; this is a somewhat arduous process but it’s almost guaranteed to get you the information you need if simply asking doesn’t work)
- Chicago Department of Transportation plans: Streets for Cycling Plan 2020, Bike 2015 Plan, Complete Streets Design Guidelines, Sustainable Infrastructure Design Guidelines (see also: NACTO urban bikeway design guide, Active Trans’s Complete Streets, Complete Networks)
- Open-source mapping platforms: Google Fusion Tables, OpenStreetMap, GeoCommons, Scribble Maps
- Chicago Open Data Portal
- IDOT Traffic Counts
- CMAP Data (Demographics, Land Use, other)
Chicago’s train stations are dead zones
Perhaps not all of them: Millennium Station, serving Metra Electric and South Shore Line trains, was rebuilt and given a facelift and new tenants (including a few restaurants) when the City of Chicago constructed Millennium Park atop it. And not Northwestern Station since it has two food courts, activity from the thousands of workers above, and the new(ish) French Market.
But look at Union Station and LaSalle Station – they tell passengers to stay away. It’s obnoxious (and noxious) to be in them. These two stations have quite the space available for pleasant activities and waiting areas. Union Station has the Great Hall and a bar but it’s also a Great Distance away from the platforms. LaSalle Station is probably the worst: a dozen machines squawk at waiting passengers – if there are any – to tell people who are blind where each track is. Every 3 seconds.
I made a video to demonstrate a little of how unlovable train stations are in the United States. Not every station has the squawk boxes right in the main, but empty, waiting area, but the desolation and difficult access is widespread.
There’s a whole lot of nothing at LaSalle Station. Photo by Jeff Zoline.