Streetsblog Chicago

Chicago/Ogden/Milwaukee, one of the city's worst intersections for bicycle crashes, slated for improvements as part of the Milwaukee protected bike lane project. Photo by John Greenfield

[This article also ran in Checkerboard City, John Greenfield's weekly column in Newcity magazine, which hits the streets on Wednesday evenings.]

Last summer when I visited Copenhagen, I hung out with with Mikael Colville-Andersen, one of the world’s most influential and controversial bicycle advocates, in his lush back yard while his kids practiced soccer and picked flowers. Colville-Andersen heads the consulting firm Copenhagenize, advising politicians, planners and advocates on ways to copy the success of the bike-friendly Danish capital, but he’s probably better known for his wildly popular photo blog, Copenhagen Cycle Chic.

Among the many topics we discussed was his attitude toward bike helmets. He thinks they’re totally unnecessary for urban commuting, and he believes that promoting helmet use is actually counterproductive to making cycling safer. In northern European bicycle meccas like Copenhagen and Amsterdam, more than a third of all trips are made by bike, almost nobody wears a helmet, and yet injury rates are much lower than in the United States, where lots of people wear helmets.

One reason crashes are relatively rare in these cities is the safety-in-numbers factor. There are so many cyclists in these places that drivers are always looking out for them, and wouldn’t dream of making a right turn or opening a car door without first checking that the coast is clear. And part of the reason there are so many people on bikes is because cycling feels so safe that strapping a Styrofoam and plastic shell on your head really does seem superfluous.

Mikael Colville-Andersen with his kids Felix and Lulu. Photo by John Greenfield.

Colville-Andersen doesn’t have a problem with folks choosing to wear helmets if it makes them feel safer. But he argues that, in the long run, cycling with no helmet is a lot better for your health than not biking at all. “In Europe … we want to get more people onto bikes,” he says. “You really sense that in America the general focus is getting people into helmets.”

It’s easy for Colville-Andersen to say that helmets are unnecessary when he lives in a pedaler’s paradise. Copenhagen cyclists never have to share the road with high-speed traffic. Virtually all major streets have raised bicycle lanes, elevated a few inches above the roadway, and neighborhood streets are designed so that cars must travel at a mellow speed.

Things are different here in Chicago and other North American cities where biking is relatively rare and fast, reckless, distracted and/or drunk driving is common. Ask Dustin Valenta, who was doored by one motorist in Wicker Park last February, then run over by a second who fled the scene. Miraculously, he survived, but he suffered a cracked skull and vertebrae, broken shoulder blades and pelvis, twenty-three fractured ribs and a punctured lung.

Or talk to Justin Carver, who’s making an amazing recovery from serious brain damage, after being “left-hooked” in Berwyn last December by a teenage driver who tested positive for marijuana. Their cases are a sobering reminder that even if you’re doing everything right on a bike, you could be the victim of someone else’s dangerous behavior, suggesting that it’s a good idea to wear a helmet while biking Chicago-area streets.

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Voting in the 5th Ward Participatory Budgeting election. Photo courtesy of PB Chicago.

The results of last week’s participatory budgeting elections show that, when you give them a chance, Chicago residents are happy to support projects that make our streets safer, more efficient and more vibrant. The 5th, 45th, 46th and 49th wards took part in the PB process, which allows citizens to propose ideas for each district’s $1.3 million in discretionary “menu” money and then vote on the projects that make it on the final ballot. While aldermen traditionally decide how menu money is used, and normally opt for basic street, sidewalk and lighting improvements, these results mean several innovative walking, biking, transit and public space initiatives will debut in the near future.

A whopping 1,400 participants cast ballots in the Far North Side’s 49th Ward, where Alderman Joe Moore first pioneered the process in 2010. “The participatory budgeting elections have exceeded even my wildest dreams,” said Moore in a statement. ”They are more than elections.  They are community celebrations and an affirmation that people will participate in the civic affairs of their community if given real power to make real decisions.”

His constituents voted to spend $30,000 on a pedestrian safety engineering study on Sheridan, which could lead to improvements like curb extensions to shorten crossing distances, and changes to stoplight and walk signal timing. They also voted to use $75,000 to install shared-lane markings for bikes on Clark from Howard to Albion. Other proposals that won funding included new sidewalks, the restoration of cobblestones on Glennwood, and cherry blossom trees and a new water fountain at Touhy Park.

In Leslie Hairston’s 5th Ward, on the south lakefront, the transportation committee for the PB process proposed 23 different projects, including many nontraditional ideas for promoting biking and transit use. However, unlike the other three aldermen, Hairston decided to designate these as “service requests” that should instead be funded by city departments, the CTA or the park district. The alderman has asked members of the committee to follow up with the relevant agencies to make sure these projects are completed, with the understanding that she has prioritized them, although she declined to fund them. However, street, sidewalk and lighting repairs, which can also be paid for by city agencies, were left on the PB ballot.

Perhaps not coincidentally, turnout in the 5th Ward PB election was relatively low, with only about 100 voters. “As word spreads, we look forward to more people taking part in next year’s Participatory Budgeting process,” said 5th Ward Chief of Staff Kimberl Webb in a statement. The winning three projects are an urban garden, street lamp improvements, and new lighting in Metra viaducts.

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A bike sharing station will be installed at Pritzker Park downtown.

Last month we reported on the first bike-share stations locations to be made public. Now more station locations are being revealed every day on the official Divvy Bikes Facebook page, and 1st Ward Alderman Proco “Joe” Moreno has released a map of 19 locations.

The Divvy Bikes Facebook page will reveal another location each day, showing the station location on a map describing some of the nearby points of interest, as well as revealing the name of the sponsor. Currently all are sponsored by the Chicago Department of Transportation. CDOT spokesperson Pete Scales said that a full map will be on the Divvy website “when it starts to accept memberships later this month,” and possibly in two weeks.

Ten locations have been posted:

• Taylor & May, near Sheridan Park in Little Italy and a lot of retail, shopping, and services.
• Pritzker Park across from the Harold Washington Library Center at State & Van Buren.
• Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum near the Lincoln Park Zoo, Lincoln Park lagoon, and the Lakefront Trail.
• Damen & Pierce, for the Damen Blue Line station.
• 19th & Wells for Ping Tom Memorial Park in Chinatown.
• McCormick Place Metra for the convention center and hotel.
• Streeter Dr & Illinois St for Navy Pier
• Museum Campus, between the Field Museum and Shedd Aquarium
• Clinton & Washington, serving Northwestern Train Station
• Dayton & North, for North/Clybourn Red Line Station and shopping centers

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The new taxi sticker design.

Yesterday Mayor Rahm Emanuel introduced the 2013 Bicycle Safety Ordinance to City Council, including plans to double the fines for motorists who door bicyclists from $500 to $1,000, as well as to raise fines for cyclists who break traffic laws from $25 to a range of $50-$200, depending on the infraction. Emanuel also announced that all 7,000 Chicago taxicabs will be required to display “Look! Before Opening Your Door” stickers to help prevent injuries to people on bikes and other road users. The ordinance was sent to the Pedestrian and Traffic Safety Committee for consideration.

“If they are sharing the roadway with vehicles, cyclists need to obey all traffic laws, including yielding to pedestrians, stopping at traffic signals and indicating when they are making turns,” Emanuel said in a statement. “When the traffic laws are obeyed, everyone is safer. By increasing the fines for failing to obey the law, cyclists will behave more responsibly, increasing safety and encouraging others to ride bikes.”

There were more than 250 dooring crashes in the city last year. In addition to doubling the dooring fine, the new ordinance would raise the penalty for leaving a vehicle door open in traffic from $150 to $300. The new red, transparent taxi stickers were designed by MINIMAL design studios, whose employee Neill Townsend was killed after he swerved to avoid a car door and was over by a truck on the Near North Side as he rode to work.

“Taxicab drivers need to be aware of cyclists traveling near their vehicles, but their customers must also take the time to look before opening doors into traffic,” Mayor Emanuel said. “These stickers will remind taxi customers to be more conscious of their surroundings before they exit the vehicle,” Emanuel said.

While cyclists have applauded the anti-dooring initiatives, some aren’t happy about the city raising the fines for bicycle violations, since running stop signs or stoplights on a bike is much less likely to cause injury to others than breaking the same laws in a car. “I’m all for safety but there are certainly non-reckless ways to go through a red light [on a bike],” Tony Adams posted on The Chainlink, a local social networking site for cyclists. “It makes no sense to sit at a red light, or come to a complete stop at a stop sign if there is no cross traffic with the right of way.”

Active Transportation Alliance Director Ron Burke said his organization supports higher fines for dangerous behavior by cyclists. “Like motorists and even pedestrians who use roads recklessly, people who ride bikes recklessly should also be ticketed,” he said in a post on the group’s website. “We don’t endorse ticketing cyclists and drivers for minor violations that put no one at risk. Let the police focus on more important matters. But if you’re putting people at risk, a ticket is warranted whether you’re biking, walking or driving.”

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95th Street through Oak Lawn is a typical suburban arterial: very wide, with high-speed traffic. Photo: Oak Lawn Public Library.

A recent decision by Illinois’s 1st District Court of Appeals could make it harder to hold city governments and individual drivers accountable for pedestrian safety.

The ruling by Justice Sheldon Harris [PDF] concerns a case in a which pedestrian was struck and killed by a driver on 95th Street in Oak Lawn. By creating a new legal precedent with a restrictive view of people’s right to walk in unmarked crosswalks, the ruling could have serious implications for pedestrian safety in the eyes of the law.

On November 9, 2009, Joan Orth, 51, was crossing 95th Street at Kenton Avenue at around 5:45 p.m. in the Village of Oak Lawn. Before she could get to the other side of the street, a driver struck and killed her. Diane Dunet, Orth’s estate administrator, filed lawsuits against Oak Lawn as well as ComEd because nearby streetlights weren’t working at the time.

The village and ComEd denied responsibility and the case was thrown out. Oak Lawn said it didn’t owe anything, arguing that Orth “was not an intended and permitted user of the street where the accident occurred” because there was no marked crosswalk, according to the ruling. The village government also argued that the darkened street lights didn’t cause the crash but “presented an opportunity” for it, adding that the crash was the fault of the driver of the vehicle who struck Orth, for which Oak Lawn could not be held liable.

A look at a satellite image of the intersection taken on November 23, 2009 (see map below), confirms there is an unmarked crosswalk across 95th Street, which has six travel lanes and two parking lanes. Orth was struck in a westbound lane, near the center of the street. Attorneys say that Flanagan’s ruling sets a precedent that could weaken the legal protections for everyone using unmarked crosswalks in Cook County.

This case is a little hard to wrap your head around, but the important precedent hinges on the following three concepts that attorney Jim Freeman helpfully explained:

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Yes, the ad actually says, "No booty call shall go unanswered."

On a recent trip on my “other bike,” AKA the ‘L,’ I spotted two advertisements promoting Zipcar that could have easily been converted into advertisements for bike-share. Car-share and bike-share serve different purposes, but there’s also some overlap — car-share providers want to capture some trips that you could also make on a public bike. With Chicago’s Divvy bike-share system set to launch soon, let’s see whether we can adapt these Zipcar ads to the bike-share context.

The first ad, above, says, “No booty call shall go unanswered.” Too saucy for a public bike system? Maybe, but there’s no doubt Divvy bikes can help you with that (and it’s cheaper than renting a car). Bike-share would also give you a bit more flexibility than Zipcar’s hourly rates, since the trip on Divvy would be free in each direction as long as you can pedal there in 30 minutes or less.

Zipcar marketing trades on the fact that car ownership is a hassle.

The smaller text in the same advertisement says, “Hundreds of cars and vans across Chicago are available by the hour or day. Gas and insurance included.” This part would have to change to advertise bike-share. The Divvy version could say, “Thousands of bicycles across Chicago are available for unlimited 30 minute trips around town, and you don’t have to pay for gas or insurance.”

The second ad, which I saw behind the seats, says, “It’s like owning a car without all the sucky parts.” Ah yes, sometimes owning the vehicle, even if that vehicle is a low-cost bicycle, has sucky parts. For Divvy, I’d propose, “It’s like owning a bike without all the sucky parts, like flat tires, rusty chains, and stolen seats.”

Divvy will launch in June with 75 stations in downtown Chicago and River North. A day pass will cost $7, less than one hour of driving a Zipcar (and that doesn’t include the cost of parking). An annual Divvy membership will be $75.

Finally, it’s good to see that these Zipcar ads, unlike some of the company’s prior campaigns (below), don’t disparage people who ride bikes or take transit.

Zipcar's old ads disparaged biking and transit instead of owning a car.

Kids at a PlayStreets car-free event. Photo courtesy of CLOCC.

[This article also ran in Checkerboard City, John Greenfield's weekly column in Newcity magazine, which hits the streets on Wednesday evenings.]

“The built environment plays a huge role when it comes to people being able to be physically active,” says Grant Vitale, community programs manager for the Consortium to Lower Obesity in Chicago Children (CLOCC). The group, based out of the Lurie Children’s Hospital, is an association of many local, statewide and national organizations working to help kids maintain healthy weight levels by encouraging better nutrition, as well as walking, biking and active play.

The rate of childhood obesity in the U.S. has more than tripled over the last three decades, and in 2008 Chicago’s obesity rate for young kids entering school was 22 percent, more than twice the national average. In some neighborhoods, mostly low-income African-American and Latino communities, over half of all children are overweight or obese. These areas tend to have less green space and higher pedestrian crash rates than wealthier neighborhoods, which discourages active transportation and recreation.

Over the last two years, CLOCC has partnered with the Chicago Department of Public Health on a $5.8 million, federally funded anti-obesity campaign called Healthy Places. The program has focused on creating safe streets and parks, as well as creating healthier schools, eliminating food deserts and promoting breast feeding.

“Through Healthy Places we were able to provide financial support to ten community-based organizations across the city to implement community interventions,” Vitale says. “One intervention that we asked all the groups to implement was a walkability initiative. We trained them on CLOCC’s neighborhood walkability assessment tool, which helps identify barriers to walking and biking.” An assessment might show the need for traffic calming, like speed bumps, or infrastructure to make crossing the street safer, such as curb extensions or pedestrian refuge islands.

One of the community groups that Healthy Places funded was the Brighton Park Neighborhood Council, based in a predominantly Latino area on the Southwest Side, which wanted to make it easier for kids to access Kelly Park, 2725 West 41st. “Using our walkability tool, they looked at routes to the park,” Vitale says. “For example, they identified crosswalks that needed restriping. Many parents called 311 in an organized way and were able to get those crosswalks restriped in a short amount of time.”

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A community expo for the 5th Ward participatory budgeting process. Photo courtesy of PB Chicago.

Traditionally, Chicago aldermen choose to spend their discretionary “menu” funds on meat-and-potatoes infrastructure projects like street repaving, sidewalk repair, and streetlight replacement. This week, however, residents in four different wards are voting in participatory budgeting elections, helping to decide how their district’s $1.3 million in menu money will be spent. Three of the wards will have innovative walking, biking, and transit proposals on the ballot, but one of them won’t.

In Joe Moore’s 49th Ward, the Far North district that first pioneered the PB process here in 2010, options include shared-lane markings for bikes on Clark, bus stop benches, a 150-foot-long Metra platform shelter, and a pedestrian safety study for Sheridan Road. Constituents in John Arena’s 45th Ward, on the Far Northwest Side, can vote for buffered bike lanes on Milwaukee and Lawrence, bike parking corrals, and a pedestrian crossing light at the Jefferson Park Transit Center, which will also improve bus access.

James Cappleman’s 46th Ward, on the north lakefront, has several forward-thinking transportation items on the ballot: new bike lanes, a traffic-calmed “neighborhood greenway” on Leland, and pedestrian safety infrastructure like sidewalk bumpouts and countdown signals. One proposal calls for connecting a traffic island at Broadway/Sheridan/Montrose to create a new public space dubbed “SherMon Plaza.”

As I reported last month, there will be no nontraditional transportation projects on the ballot in Alderman Leslie Hairston’s 5th Ward, the only South Side district to participate. It’s not because her constituents don’t want them. During community meetings last fall to brainstorm items for the PB election, residents put forth 23 different proposals to the transportation committee, including many ideas to improve conditions for walking, biking, and transit.

They proposed new curb cuts to provide wheelchair access; realigning bus stops so that people exiting would step onto concrete, not muddy grass; new bus benches and shelters; and pedestrian safety improvements by the Hyde Park Neighborhood Club. Ideas to promote cycling included repairs to the Lakefront Trail and paths within Jackson Park; building a buffered bike lane delineated with flexible posts on 67th; and bike parking racks at Metra stations.

However, at a Valentine’s Day meeting, the transportation committee was told Hairston had designated all 23 ideas as “service requests,” which should be paid for by agencies like the Chicago Department of Transportation, the CTA and the park district. Therefore, none of these ideas would be on the PB ballot. “We don’t need to spend ward money on [those projects],” 5th Ward Chief of Staff Kimberly Webb told me last month. In my post on the subject I stated, “[Participatory budgeting] is not a truly a democratic process when all ideas for improving walking, biking, and transit are taken off the table.”

Two weeks after I sent a link to the article to Hairston’s publicist Carole Parks, she wrote to say my statement that the alderman had eliminated sustainable transportation proposals from the process was false. “Some of those projects will be on the ballot,” she said. “Kimberly Webb made clear to you the alderman committed to ensuring the other PB5-generated projects would also be implemented by the respective agency.” She directed me to the ward’s page on the PB Chicago website, which features a slideshow from one of the community expos for the process. The slideshow includes the proposals for realigning bus stops and improvements to the lakefront and Jackson Park bike paths.

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A Rock Island train crosses the Dan Ryan Expressway, near where the incline over freight tracks will begin. Photo: Jeff Zoline

The Englewood Flyover is a bridge construction project near 63rd and State Streets that will eventually elevate the tracks for 78 weekday Metra Rock Island trains, so they don’t cross tracks for 60 daily freight and Amtrak trains at the same grade. Work began last September, and construction this weekend will close the Dan Ryan Expressway express lanes. By eliminating the conflict, not only will “a significant source of train delays” be gone, according to Metra, but neighborhood air quality will also improve and noise from idling trains will be reduced.

The construction work is not expected to create its own delays for the Rock Island line, Metra spokesperson Michael Gillis told Streetsblog. The project is part of CREATE, a multi-agency program to reduce freight rail, passenger rail, and transit delays around the region, comprising over 60 distinct projects. Since 2005, 25 percent of the projects have been completed, with full funding committed to 11 more.

When the Englewood Flyover is complete in fall 2014, two other projects to improve Metra and Amtrak service can begin: the 75th Street Corridor Improvement Project – a batch of improvements speeding SouthWest Service Metra trains and opening up room at Union Station for Amtrak and proposed high-speed rail service; and the Grand Crossing Project, which will cut 10-15 minutes from six Amtrak runs by eliminating the need to turn around the trains before they enter Union Station.

The blue line represents Metra Rock Island trains, and the orange line represents freight and Amtrak trains. The red marker indicates the conflict crossing that will be eliminated with a flyover.

Construction photo from Saturday; click for more. Photo: Anne Alt.

In some parts of the city, traffic on Sundays may soon resemble weekday rush hour. Photo: Ian Freimuth

On Monday, Mayor Rahm Emanuel outlined some changes he’s proposing to the infamous parking meter deal the City Council approved in 2009 (henceforth to be referred to as “The Parking Meter Deal,” in recognition of its unique awfulness). Unfortunately, Chicago isn’t getting a better deal. In fact, the city’s parking policy is set to get worse.

The 75-year contract with Chicago Parking Meters, LLC has been panned by drivers and non-drivers alike: It raises fees every year, tied to inflation instead of the actual demand for parking, and it complicates moving or removing parking in order to use the curb lane for other purposes, like bike lanes or bus lanes. No one likes it except the investment bankers at Morgan Stanley who created CPM.

In his campaign, Emanuel said he would try to make the contract better for Chicagoans, and Monday was the big reveal for the results of that attempt. The proposal extends meter hours: In areas where metering ends at 9 p.m., it would extend to 10 p.m., and in River North it would extend by three hours. The proposal also eliminates paid parking on Sundays in “neighborhoods” — defined as any place outside of the Central Business District and the Loop.

This doesn’t make the contract better for Chicagoans. First off, Emanuel positioned this ploy as “relief for churchgoers” — a double standard for anyone who pays a transit fare to get to church, not mention the many religious Chicagoans who don’t have services on Sunday. Secondly, free parking on Sundays means more traffic: more people will drive through already-congested intersections like Milwaukee/North/Damen in Wicker Park, and Halsted/Fullerton/Lincoln in Lincoln Park.

This proposal is not good for business or for traffic in neighborhood commercial areas. Chrissy Mancini Nichols, transportation director for the Metropolitan Planning Council, said that people who live on streets with “side street” parking, which is metered until 6 p.m., will park their cars in front of the meters from Saturday night to Monday morning, eliminating any space for customers driving for brunch and shopping. “It’s a bad way to manage parking demand and will most likely result in a lower customer base and more congestion from people circling even more to find a parking spot,” she said.

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