Category: Bicycling

Biking is already super easy. There’s so little investment. And most people’s bikes aren’t even in top or good condition. Bikes will roll for so long before the last piece to break down actually goes ahead and breaks down. You don’t need a license, but you do need some lights. No helmet is required and neither is registration.

Buy a bike and go.

But it’s hard to go uphill, right? Fortunately, Chicago is flat. If you think there are hills, please vacation to Seattle and Portland to see what cyclists there have to deal with. The only hills we have in Chicago are bridges going over the different branches of the river, and a handful of overpasses – and these are mainly to go over railroads because Chicago’s expressways are smartly built below regular ground level.

A couple bike lifts, like this one mentioned and picture on CoolTown Studios, might be just what is needed to get half of a town’s cyclists up and over to the grocery store or music venue on the other side.

Just to quickly inform you how it works: There is a tinny escalator installed on the side of the road, but instead of steps, there are short poles. Stand over your bike with one foot on the pedal and the opposite foot on the end of the lift, waiting for a pole to show up so you can step on it (pushing it backwards) and be pulled and rolled up the hill. It’s kind of like a ski lift on a bunny hill.

The article I referenced indicates that hills are a problem for Vélib, the bike-sharing system that opened in Paris this summer. Many bikes are abandoned or returned to stations at the bottom of hills: bike renters didn’t want to pedal up and walked instead. Install some bike lifts on some strategic hills in the city and this problem could go away. This issue also presents problems for the system’s basic workings: there must be an equal distribution and flow of bikes being returned to their stations. In these cases, maintenance vans working for the bike-sharing system operator must pick up bikes overflowing at one station and drop them off at stations missing bikes – namely the stations at the tops of hills.

Technorati Tags: bike lift, biking, cycling, paris, velib

Davis retains platinum status as bike capital:
If Davis is considered a bike friendly city, then larger cities like New York and Chicago are only biking “acquaintance” cities. The two cities only express mere recognition of biking and bikers in their spaces.

Davis has built tunnels and overpasses to easily cross the highways traversing the town. No road will hinder any Davis cyclist. There are many off-street trails as well as bicycle boulevards: streets designed with cyclists taking first priority. Boulevards have lots of signage and lane markings and have very low speed limits for motor vehicles. Also on the boulevards are concrete islands and neckdowns to block vehicles but allow bikers.

Neckdowns are landscaped fixtures that jut into the street, narrowing it, which essentially causes motorists to slow down. It’s also a beautifying feature.

Davis also installs at many intersections light signaling for bikes.

In Chicago, we have none of this. I think we can start with Milwaukee Ave. because it’s a popular and well-used thoroughfare for commuters riding to downtown. The lakefront path could also use some work to increase average speed and keep out those users which hinder bikers. A north-south road could be converted to a bicycle highway – a street with no on-street car parking and all intersections (except for a handful) are yields in favor of cyclists.

Cars and drivers never fail to disappoint bicyclists.

Roadways and their accompanying sidewalks should be built for the least-protected user. In all cases, this happens to be the pedestrian; the walker; the person who decided to give their bike or car or motorcycle the day off.

Major cities are beginning to realize this concept (again!) and are taking away space from cars and giving it to people waiting for the bus, cyclists commuting to work and people who just want to cross the street.

StreetsBlog has done a wonderful job announcing and explaining all of the changes the City of New York is bringing forth.

Lately, it’s this bike lane on Ninth Avenue in the Chelsea neighborhood. A week ago, it was the announcement and presentation of design for the remake of Grand Army Plaza. And StreetsBlog has been heavily covering the debate and progress of roadway congestion pricing for lower Manhattan.

Already the protected mini bike-highway has been overrun by delivery vehicles.

It’s unknown whether the entrances to the separated bike lane will be guarded by retractable bollards

Technorati Tags: bike lane, chelsea, NYC, streetsblog

New York City has beat out Chicago in building a physically-separated bike lane.

The physically-separated bike lane is touted to be the the road device that will attract new cyclists to the streets and is part of both Chicago’s 2015 Bike Plan and PlaNYC 2030.

The first video of the new lane on 9th Avenue appeared on StreetsBlog. At the beginning of construction, only flexible bollards and lane striping will be present. Eventually, a concrete and landscaped median will fill up the empty, striped space between the bike lane (which abuts the sidewalk on the left side of the street) and the lane for parked cars.

From jschumacer.

This shows how bikers are kept away from moving cars. Cyclists are still at risk of left-turning cars, but better road striping and street signs will alert drivers of the changes in this roadway.

The bike lane is also very wide and basically allows the cyclist to temporarily stop having to pay so much attention to road hazards, AKA cars.

Chicago is investigating several physical-separation methods and is planning to implement all kinds for experimentation. I can’t wait.

Technorati Tags: bike lane, biking, chicago, nyc, streetsblog