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Daley Plaza is the “realest” public space in Chicago

July 17, 2013 / / 18 Comments

People in Daley Plaza from Steven Vance on Vimeo.

I find that Daley Plaza is Chicago’s “realest” public space in the city. Real in the tradition of public spaces in cities around the world where history is made in the form of speeches and protests and where people are not afraid to occupy the space to relax, be idle, chat, and eat. Also real in that the legally space is owned by the city, and by extension its citizens, but never its corporations. Real in that commercial interests for that space are maintained. Real in that people have adopted the space as a natural, close, and unblocked meeting point.

Where Daley Plaza isn’t a real public space is that it is surrounded by roaring machines on three sides (the fourth doesn’t function as part of the plaza). It becomes less peaceful because of the metal boxes hurtling through space at every edge and vertex of the granite.

Millennium Park fails as a public space because it has rules. Because private security enforces these rules and bothers guests for the most normal of activities. The space is managed by contract from the city to a corporation. It has hours of use. You surely can’t protest, let alone ride a bike. Half of it was paid for by the names that adorn its features.

In Millennium Park, and many other corporate “plazas”, you can be told to leave.

Panorama of Daley Plaza during Critical Mass in March 2013. 

It would be disingenuous of me to only compare Millennium Park as an example of real public space in Chicago. It’s the extreme opposite of Daley Plaza in the spectrum of public spaces here. Grant Park is closer to Daley Plaza, but lacks the closeness, the tight feeling that you are in a community of other humans. There are smaller spaces that would be in the same vein as Daley Plaza, like Giddings Plaza in Lincoln Square, and Federal Plaza just down the street at Adams. There are plenty of smaller examples, like the sidewalks and tiny plazas at Blue Island, Loomis, and 18th Street.

Daley Plaza’s water fountain near the southwest corner does a good job of masking the rumbling automobile engines and tires rubbing on the pavement. It provides stimulation for other senses, including vision (the water seems infinite!) and tactile perception (the water has a temperature and a texture against the skin).

I wrote this on June 18, 2013. I have a tendency to draft articles and then not publish for a long time. I have a draft about Berlin, Germany, from September 2012. 

My experience with Divvy today: smooth and slow

June 29, 2013 / / 8 Comments

Trading one bike for another.

In short, the functionality was everything I expected it to be.

Read more about the Divvy launch on Streetsblog Chicago here, here, here, and here (all posted today). 

I biked to the station at Damen Ave & Pierce St (Damen Blue Line station), locked my WorkCycles Fr8 to a potential sucker pole (it still had its bolt), grabbed my tote bag from its basket and stuffed that into the oddly shaped carrier on the Divvy bicycle. I inserted my key into the slot and waited for the green light. I only saw yellow. It was either never going to turn green on this bike, or I didn’t wait long enough. I tried the next bike and it unlocked.

To undock, lift the bicycle by its saddle and pull backwards. I adjusted the seat to its maximum. I also adjusted the quick release because someone had loosened it so it wouldn’t tighten the seat post. Off I went, through the congested streets of Wicker Park.

I wanted to hit up every dock on my way to my destination: Eckhart Park. My friend told me this station wasn’t there although the map said a couple of days ago it was there. Divvy’s spokesperson, Elliot Greenberger, told me it was moved from the corner of Chicago Ave & Noble St to inside the park (east of the field house) for traffic safety reasons that he didn’t specify in the quick email. The station was offline.

On the way I stopped at the station outside the Walgreens at Wood St & Milwaukee Ave. I returned my bike and checked it out less than 5 seconds later – this is called docksurfing (thanks Doug). I biked over to the next station on the way to the park: Noble St & Milwaukee Ave.

Rebalancing by removing bikes from this station to take them to another. 

There was a guy here with one of the blue Sprinter vans loading bikes into the van. I asked if he was rebalancing. Yep. I asked how many could fit inside: “22 if I’m lazy, or 24 if I play Tetris right”. He asked me what I was doing and I said I was trying Divvy for the first time. He said “Have a great ride!” Aw, how nice.

I found the station at Eckhart Park just as it started raining. But like most storms this week, it stopped raining after 5-10 minutes. I got nervous because I didn’t know when I checked out this bike and I didn’t want to run over my free 30 minute period. I’ll have to pay better attention next time and perhaps get this kitchen timer on a rope (it has a magnet, too; thanks for the idea, Robert).

I biked the Divvy steed over Noble Street’s potholes, cracks, and bumps, with extreme comfort and agility. My WorkCycles Fr8 isn’t this comfortable (except it better matches my height). The aluminum frame and wide Schwalbe tires wonderfully absorb bumps. I docked the bike, then sat on it and texted a few more people about how cool Divvy is. After a couple minutes, I checked out the same bike and rode it back over to Damen Ave & Pierce St. I traded back to my Fr8 and came home.

The awkward carrier, but it held my tote bag.

Whining about the bike as being heavy is uncalled for: many of the bikes people ride in Chicago are within 25% of the weight of a Divvy (which is around 45 pounds). Think about all those vintage Schwinns people are riding: they weigh the same yet Divvy rolls so much smoother and more comfortably and it won’t flat as often. Then there’re the mountain bikes from department stores like Walmart and Target. Those have no consideration of longevity, efficiency, or “weight savings”: they’re just as heavy and wear out within a year. The Divvy bike, I believe, is the first universally-designed setup I’ve seen. Bicycle shops will be doing themselves a service to stock the closest-feeling bike as some Divvy members are going to migrate to owning their bicycle and will seek the Divvy equivalent.

What I dislike about the Divvy bicycles is its low gearing. My average speed was less than 10 MPH while on my Fr8 it’s just over 12 MPH. Whatever. In most places in Chicago, you shouldn’t be going fast because you won’t be able to spot and anticipate all the drivers who have inattentional blindness and won’t see you before dooring you or swerving into your path.

(Whet thinks he hit 15 MPH, which I told him I doubted, but I would love to have a Divvy race with him!)

I saw one other person riding a Divvy on my short (less than 45 minutes) journey on Divvy in Wicker Park and around Eckhart Park. 

An app that shows real-time availability is available in Cyclefinder, but the Divvy staff didn’t promote this until people inquired on Twitter and Facebook. The app was updated by the Divvy hardware vendor on June 21 to include the Chicago system in the iTunes App Store and Google Play Store, but you had to search for “divvy” to find it and since it wasn’t branded as “Divvy” I bet a lot of people avoided installing it.

You can also buy and download my app, the Chicago Bike Guide, which has Divvy station location integrated (read how). However, I must warn you that it’s already slightly out of date and I’m working on fixing this. I’m also working on real-time availability as I’ve just discovered the API. This is going to take me at least a week.

Don’t forget there’s a hidden bell by your left thumb. 

Shaming dangerous drivers, like they did in Bogotá

June 27, 2013 / / 0 Comments

My friend D.D. said:

Oh, and the documentary i mentioned to you about Bogotá is on YouTube now
Cities on Speed: Bogotá Change
My favorite initiative Antanas Mockus started was he hired clowns to stand in intersections and make fun of drivers that disobeyed traffic laws

His reasoning was that Colombians care more about looking foolish than being fined.

I think something like that could work here:

Like, every day video an example of terrible driving and shame the person. Maybe follow them home, ask them what was so important that they had to risk the safety of other. Then they’ll say “well, i wanted to watch game of thrones” and look foolish.

Updating street life on Milwaukee Avenue

May 19, 2013 / / 16 Comments

Photo of the new on-street bike parking corral at Revolution Brewing (2323 N Milwaukee Avenue) in Logan Square, less than 10 hours after being installed. 

First, Revolution Brewing now has 20 (or more) new bike parking spaces in what used to hold about two cars. Kudos to that awesome restaurant and brewery for working through the arduous process with the Chicago Department of Transportation and Alderman Moreno (who likely helped with the transfer of the metered car parking spaces). CDOT’s Scott Kubly admitted to having a bad process for businesses who want to install their own bike parking.

Wicker Park-Bucktown SSA had issues after the first round of bike racks we* installed in 2011. We donated the bike racks to the city for them to install at mutually agreeable locations at which they marked the spot for the contractor. We wanted to repeat the process in 2012 and bought the racks but they couldn’t be installed because CDOT, accepting the racks as donations in 2011 said that that wasn’t the right process and couldn’t do it again. So they had to figure out a new process. The racks were manufactured and delivered in 2012 to CDOT but weren’t installed until April 2013. Before the fix came in April 2013, we were going to have to go through the most basic process of buying a permit for each one (for $50) and then pay to have them installed ourselves.

The fix was great for the SSA, and I’m glad CDOT was able to make it happen: they got IDOT to amend the existing bike parking contract to allow the contractor to install non-city-paid-for bike racks. (This was the issue for the 2011 racks.)

Second, I’m proposing that private automobile traffic be banned on Milwaukee Avenue from Paulina Avenue to Damen Avenue. It would be better for the residents, and the businesses, and would encourage more cycling in the neighborhood, as well as surrounding neighborhoods having residents who would bike on Milwaukee Avenue if it was safer (there’s a big dooring and general crash issue). I reference the single, car-free block on Nørrebrogade in Nørrebro, Copenhagen, Denmark. One single block (plus bikeway and pedestrian-way improvements on the other blocks) and car traffic goes down but bus and bike traffic go up.

What Milwaukee Avenue looks like every afternoon. 

What Milwaukee Avenue could look like every afternoon. 

* I volunteer on the transportation committee, since about May 2011.

Just in case you’re new here

May 1, 2013 / / 0 Comments

Welcome to Steven Can Plan. Here’s some stuff I’ve posted recently around the interwebs…

On my other blog, Streetsblog Chicago, I wrote about how we need to do a better job counting bicyclists.

In Copenhagen, a permanently installed device counts cyclists all day, every day. 

And a guy from Brooklyn was visiting his friend in Chicago and was struck by a car whose driver escaped – he spent the night in the hospital for cranial bleeding and went back home on Sunday. The Chicago Police Department is its slow self in getting the lawyer the crash report and witness information.

The scene of the crash. 

I issued two updates to the Chicago Bike Guide app for iOS (formerly called Chicago Bike Map) and talked about its new features here and here. Head over to iTunes to buy and download it.

The Chicago Bike Guide includes my burrito recommendations. 

Lastly, on this blog, I boasted about how cool it is that anyone can improve OpenStreetMap: I showed you how much I drew to make Willow Creek Community Church appear in South Barrington, Illinois. It was previously an empty space! If you want something changed on OpenStreetMap, I’ll do it for you.

A screenshot shows what I added: parking lots, parking aisles, driveways, retention ponds, and the church building. 

That’s the kind of stuff you can expect from me; my tone isn’t always so negative. I also post a lot of articles about GIS, QGIS, and geocoding, but I haven’t in a while.