Looking north on Marshall Boulevard last April; Cars are parked in the bike lanes.

In November, Chicago Department of Transportation crews installed bike lanes on Marshall Boulevard from Sacramento Drive in Douglas Park to 24th Boulevard in Little Village, near Maria Saucedo Scholastic Academy. On most of this stretch the lanes are protected by parked cars on the west side of the street; to make room for the protected lanes, car parking was removed from the east side.

However, CDOT didn’t remove signs for rush hour parking restrictions along Marshall, and they didn’t install “No Parking” signs on the east side of the street, or “bike lane” signs anywhere. As a result, drivers have been parking in the bike lanes, making them unusable. There have been periodic ticketing stings, the latest on June 9, which have understandably upset local residents since there are no signs to inform them that parking in the lanes is illegal.

Dan Korn, who lives in The Hub, a co-op building on Marshall owned by bike advocates, has exchanged several emails with Transportation Commissioner Gabe Klein since November in an effort to fix the problem. “I’m worried that the way this is being handled by the city is just making things worse for cyclists in the neighborhood,” Korn wrote Klein in November. “I was already yelled at on my ride to work this morning by someone whose car had been towed.” Klein responded immediately saying, “I am asking my team to jump on this to prevent any further damage. The signs must go in with the install, or this is what happens.”

Five days after I contacted CDOT for an update on the situation, I have yet to receive a response, but here’s an update that Korn sent me today:

They replaced the signage last week. It all seems to be properly marked now. Today they were out installing plastic bollards. People are mostly honoring the parking restrictions, at least south of Cermak, but north of Cermak there are still cars parked in the bike lanes on both sides. The pavement under the Metra tracks is still in really bad shape, although there are some new white and orange striped barriers there, so hopefully they’ll fix that soon.

Korn noted last week that “some better dissemination of information to the neighborhood would be great.”

Insufficient public outreach by CDOT and 24th Ward Alderman Michael Chandler led to a backlash from residents on nearby Independence Boulevard after they were surprised to see new parking-protected bike lanes on their street last fall and began receiving tickets for parking curbside. Chandler, who had signed off on the design months earlier, responded to the outcry by demanding that CDOT remove the protected lanes; the department agreed to convert them to buffered lanes, and did so in January.

Potholes in the Marshall Boulevard bike lanes underneath the Metra tracks. Last week CDOT said staff would look at fixing these when crews come out to replace the signs.

To prevent this cycle of confused drivers parking in protected bike lanes, ticketing and backlash from residents, CDOT needs to do a better job of clarifying where people should and shouldn’t park. Labeling the new floating parking lanes with paint, thermoplastic letters, or temporary signage such as sandwich boards identifying the new parking lanes, plus better outreach, like flyers on cars instead of tickets, could make a big difference in encouraging compliance. These strategies could also help foster a more positive attitude towards bike infrastructure from non-cyclists, so protected bike lanes won’t be downgraded or removed in the future.

Flowers and candles near the Carissa Hinz crash site. Photo: Chicago Tribune

Last week two different people lost their lives to hit-and-run drivers, in two different South Side neighborhoods, on the same day. Both of the drivers are still at large.

On Friday at about 3:40 a.m., a southbound motorist fatally struck Timothy Jones, 41, of the 200 block of South Sacramento, in the 6000 block of South Yale, below the CTA Green Line elevated tracks, according to police. Jones was found unresponsive in the street after the crash; as of Saturday, the exact cause of death was still under investigation, according to the Chicago Tribune.

This section of Yale is a frontage road for the Dan Ryan Expressway with few intersections, making it an easy place to speed, especially late at night. The police department’s Major Accidents Investigation Unit has issued a community alert, asking anyone with information about the crash to call MAIU at 312-745-4521, or submit an anonymous tip at tipsoft.com.

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6100 block of South Yale Avenue.

That evening, shortly before midnight, another southbound driver struck and killed Carissa Hinz, 21, of the 3300 block of South Lowe Avenue, as she crossed Morgan Street near the Co-Prosperity Sphere Gallery, 3219 South Morgan, according to police. Hinz, who volunteered at the gallery, was taking out the garbage during an event when the driver of a dark-colored vehicle, possibly a Honda Accord, struck her and then fled the scene, witnesses said.

The crash threw Hinz about 100 feet and she landed on the rear windshield of another car, according to police. She died at the scene. An autopsy conducted on Saturday determined that she died from injuries sustained during the crash and ruled the death an accident, according to the Tribune.

Carissa Hinz

MAIU is currently investingating the crash, according to Police News Affairs’ Officer Mike Sullivan. Anyone with information should contact the investigations unit.

Bob Cunningham, who has lived in an apartment overlooking Morgan for 17 years, told the Tribune that motorists often speed down the street, which he described as a “grand speedway.” The fact that this section of Morgan is on a half-mile stretch with no stoplights may contribute to the speeding problem.

Hinz had graduated from the American Academy of Art, where she studied graphic design, a month earlier, and was working full time at the nearby Bridgeport Coffee. “Our deepest heartfelt sympathies go out to her family and friends,” reads a message on the café’s website. “She was an artistic soul with a generous heart, and was beloved by neighbors, customers and her co-workers.” Friends have placed flowers and lit candles by a light pole at the crash site.

Fatality Tracker: 2013 Chicago pedestrian and bicyclist deaths

Pedestrian: 10 (9 were from hit-and-run crashes, 2 in truck crashes)
Bicyclist: 2

In the late 1960s, much of Miami's Overtown neighborhood, a thriving black community, was cleared and replaced with a massive highway interchange. Image: Transit Miami

Overtown has never recovered. Image: Transit Miami

As decried by 70 year-old, long-time Overtown resident, General White:

Well there’s nothing but a big overpass now!

He’s referring to Interstates 95 and 395, which Nadege Green explains were built in the 1960s. After that:

Overtown was never the same. [Mr. General White] and thousands of other people here were forced out to make room for the highway.

The Florida Department of Transportation recently made a bid to take over more of the roads in the Overtown neighborhood. But City Commissioner Spence Jones issued a strong objection, saying the agency was responsible for destroying the neighborhood and displacing its residents. “FDOT gets an ‘F’ for our community in Overtown,” she told attendees at a City Commission meeting.

Elsewhere on the Network today: The State Smart Transportation Initiative reports that transit spending by state DOTs has increased slightly. We Are Mode Shift described the insane plans to widen two urban freeways in Detroit, despite the devastation such road projects have wreaked on that city. And A View from the Cycle Path considers how best to reach young people and teach them to become lifelong transportation cyclists.

Get national headlines at Streetsblog Capitol Hill

Checking out the Divvy station at State and Randolph.

I went on a 25-mile bike ride yesterday to check up on livable streets projects around the city (final destination: Lao Beijing for dried chili chicken). On the trip I got a good look at the restriped bike lanes on King Drive in Bronzeville, the conversion of the Garfield Green Line station to a Green/Red/shuttle bus super station, the Red Line South reconstruction project, and lots of Divvy bike-share stations. I spotted three new Divvy locations and since my ride have heard about three more. Add the original Daley Plaza station and there are at least seven installed. Here’s a quick recap of where you can find Divvy stations so far, and in a separate post I’ll give a status report on the other projects.

Divvy stations can be found at:

• Randolph and State, in front of Walgreens on the State Street sidewalk
• Daley Plaza (the original, on the Washington Street sidewalk)
• Chase Plaza at the subway entrance to the Blue Line, on the Dearborn Street sidewalk
• Federal Plaza by the post office, on the Adams Street sidewalk
• Via Twitter: Washington and Clinton, Wells and Walton/Oak (one, two, three), and Larrabee and Kingsbury

The pace of installation should pick up. At a meeting last week, Chicago Department of Transportation Assistant Commissioner Sean Wiedel said that after Thursday and Friday, installations would move at a pace of eight per day.

The kiosks are attracting a lot of attention. At the State and Randolph location, I overheard one woman telling her son, “$7 [for the 24-hour pass], that’s okay.” Curiously, some of the stations’ names don’t quite match their locations. The station at Randolph and State, for instance, is called “State St & Lake St,” likely to link it with the nearby ‘L’ station nearby.

The maps on the kiosks will be a helpful new addition to downtown wayfinding, but they could use some improvement. Removing overlapping labels, reducing the prominence of alleys, and moving the legend closer to the map would make them more legible and useful.

This gives you a sense of how much space the Divvy station will occupy when full. More photos.

Researchers at the University of Utah and AAA found that using hands-free electronic devices and on-board technology can cause dangerous levels of driver distraction. Image: AAA

Distracted driving killed 3,331 people on American streets in 2011, yet car manufacturers continue to outdo each other to add more infotainment distractions in their vehicles. These systems are expected to increase five-fold by 2018, according to AAA. Carmakers seek to show their commitment to safety by making their distractions – onboard dinner reservation apps and social media, for example – hands-free. But a growing body of research indicates that there is no safe way to combine driving with tasks like dictating email or text messages.

AAA recently teamed up with experts at the University of Utah to conduct the most in-depth analysis to date of the impact of cognitive distractions on drivers’ performance. They found that some hands-free technologies, like voice-to-text email, can be far more dangerous than even handheld phone conversations. Unlike previous studies, they also found that conversations with passengers can be more distracting than those on the phone, but only if the passenger is kept unaware of what’s happening on the road.

The researchers had subjects first perform a series of eight tasks, ranging from nothing at all to usage of various electronic devices to something called OSPAN, or operation span, which sets the maximum demand the average adult brain can handle. For the OSPAN, the researchers gave subjects words and math problems to recall later, in the same order, as a way to “anchor the high end of the cognitive distraction scale developed by the research team,” according to AAA’s Jake Nelson.

The more mental energy an activity requires, the more it slows drivers' reaction time. Image: AAA

The subjects then performed these eight tasks while operating a driving simulator, and then while driving on residential streets in an “instrumented” vehicle that captures information about the driver’s eye movements and brain activity.

In each environment, researchers studied how the additional tasks added to subjects’ “cognitive workload” and diminished their eye movements. They found that as drivers devote more mental energy to other tasks in addition to driving, the less observant they become, and the more they fail to scan for roadway hazards.

This bolsters the conclusions of previous experiments: that when drivers are mentally distracted by some other task, they get tunnel vision. They keep their eyes fixed on the road in front of them to the exclusion of everything else — the rear-view mirror, side mirrors, and “safety critical roadside objects” and “cross traffic threats” — such as pedestrians.

The AAA study also found that greater “cognitive workloads” slow drivers’ reactions to events like a ball rolling in front of the car and a kid running out to catch it. (Reaction times were measured with the simulator, not the instrumented vehicle driving on real streets.)

The researchers conclude that hands-free communications can be significantly more distracting and dangerous for drivers to engage in than passive tasks like listening to music:

Some activities, such as listening to the radio or a book on tape, are not very distracting. Other activities, such as conversing with a passenger or talking on a hand-held or hands- free cell phone, are associated with moderate/significant increases in cognitive distraction. Finally, there are in-vehicle activities, such as using a speech-to-text system to send and receive text or e-mail messages, which produced a relatively high level of cognitive distraction. The data suggest that a rush to voice-based interactions in the vehicle may have unintended consequences that adversely affect traffic safety.

Distracted drivers get tunnel vision, looking ahead without checking for other potential trouble spots. Image: AAA

The researchers note that of the eight tasks, only one required subjects to take their hands off the wheel (using the handheld phone), and none involved taking their eyes off the road, so the decreased attention and increased reaction times were are all attributable to cognitive distraction – something all the hands-free gizmos in the world can’t fix.

Increased use of these distracting technologies contribute to a “looming public safety crisis,” said AAA President and CEO Robert Darbelnet in a statement.

The study authors say they hope their findings will be used to craft “scientifically-based policies on driver distraction,” particularly in relation to cognitive distraction.

AAA’s recommendations include:

• Limiting the use of voice-activated technology to core driving-related activities such as climate control, windshield wipers and cruise control, and ensuring that these applications do not lead to increased safety risk due to mental distraction while the car is moving.
• Disabling certain uses of voice-to-text technologies including social media, e-mail and text messaging, so that they are inoperable while the vehicle is in motion.
• Educating vehicle owners and mobile device users about the responsible use and safety risks of in-vehicle technologies.

AAA has met with safety advocates and provided copies of the report to CEOs of all major U.S. automakers as part of its effort to raise awareness of the safety implications of emerging in-vehicle technologies.

Clybourn, a couple blocks northwest of the crash site. Photo: John Greenfield

This February, Steven Vance reported that the Illinois Department of Transportation has been prohibiting the installation of protected bike lanes on state jurisdiction roads in Chicago at least until the Chicago Department of Transportation collects three years of “safety data” on existing Chicago protected lanes. That means the earliest the ban would be lifted would be July 2014, three years after Chicago’s first protected lanes opened on Kinzie. IDOT is not blocking installation of buffered lanes.

IDOT’s anti-protected lane policy came into sharp focus after cyclist Robert “Bobby” Cann was fatally struck by an allegedly drunk, speeding driver, on Clybourn Avenue, a state jurisdiction street, on May 29. Chicago’s Streets for Cycling Plan 2020 designates Clybourn as a bike-priority “Spoke Route,” and the street is wide enough for protected lanes. Had IDOT not been blocking protected lanes on Clybourn, it’s possible that the city would have built them prior to the crash.

The circumstances of Cann’s death are still unclear and, since the crash may have happened in an intersection, it’s not certain that PBLs would have shielded Cann from an out-of-control driver. However, protected bike lanes on Clybourn could definitely help prevent similar tragedies. Since protected lanes are off the table, CDOT has announced plans to stripe buffered lanes, which do not shield cyclists from cars, on Clybourn from Division to Belmont, with construction likely starting this week. IDOT is cooperating with the project.

IDOT Project Engineer Aren Kriks, second row, center, at last week's meeting. Photo: John Greenfield

At last Wednesday’s Mayor’s Bicycle Advisory Council meeting at City Hall, attorney Brendan Kevenides (a Streetsblog Chicago sponsor) asked IDOT Project Engineer Aren Kriks why his department is prohibiting protected bike lanes on streets like Clybourn, despite evidence from other cities that protected lanes improve safety for all road users. CDOT Deputy Commissioner Luann Hamilton was involved in the discussion, as was I. Here’s a transcript.

Brendan Kevenides: I did have a question I wanted to pose to the IDOT guy if I may. As many of us know, Bobby Cann was killed by a drunk driver who was speeding on May 29th. As [CDOT Commissioner] Gabe Klein mentioned at the beginning of this meeting, it’s not’s not quite clear whether he was killed in the intersection or on Clybourn but it’s been reported that there’s a desire among CDOT and many other cyclists in Chicago to have car-protected bike lanes on Clybourn and on other streets.

As I understand it, and correct me if I’m wrong, CDOT has either proposed a car-protected bike lane on Clybourn or at least stated that it wants it. My understanding is that IDOT is blocking that.

Luann Hamilton: That’s not really accurate. I can speak to this.

BK: Well, it’s been reported, so I wanted to…

LH: They have our plans under review, so we haven’t gotten all their responses yet and we’re supposed to get them this week. They didn’t block it, they’re just going through their process and it just takes a while.

John Greenfield: But there’s a blanket ban on barrier-protected bike lanes on IDOT roads.

LH: Well, if it’s on state jurisdiction roads there’s a ban.

BK: Right, that’s what I’m saying and Clybourn, as I understand it, is under IDOT control [it is]. That’s why I mentioned Clybourn specifically. It’s been reported that it’s because there’s not enough data and that IDOT wants three years of data. There’s plenty of data from places like New York who’ve used protected bike lanes for a while and I guess, respectfully, the one piece of data we got on May 29th seems awfully powerful. Could you explain why IDOT doesn’t want protected bike lanes on Streets like Clybourn that are…

Brendan Kevenides at a seminar on legal issues related to the Cann case, last Tuesday at REI in Lincoln Park. Photo: Serge Lubomudrov

LH: I don’t think it’s really fair to ask a staff person a policy-level question. Do not comment on that.

Aren Kriks: I mean, I can speak to it just a little bit. As you said, really that is a policy-level thing, but I can say that, especially in light of everything that’s happening right now, these studies are taking place and it’s driven us to start a district bicycle and pedestrian study where, you know, the state bike plan is going on right now. And this is meant to look at the current policies, and we will be changing them in the future. But, as most people in this room know, these changes won’t happen overnight.

This one [crash] will probably bring to light, be a driving force to help get these studies going again. But whether or not the change is going to happen immediately at the state level, I can’t say. I can say that we’re studying it. That’s really all I can offer.

In comparison to a place like New York, we’re looking at state policies. When you get into counties and local practices, it might not be comparing the same thing necessarily. I don’t know if that answers the question but I can say that we are studying accommodations like protected bike lanes, whereas previously they were not being studied.

BK: So if I’m understanding you, and I know you might not be in a position to answer this, we may not have to wait for three years of data.

LH: No, he’s not is a position to answer that. I don’t think it’s fair. I’m going to cut it off.

If Denver could repair this parking crater (top: before; bottom: after), there's hope for cities everywhere. Image: Nick De Wolf via Flickr

In the 1990s, this type of legislation helped dramatically transform part of Denver from a surface parking wasteland into more of a real downtown. Today, other cities are considering laws along the same lines, including Tulsa, which recently took home Streetsblog’s Golden Crater Award for America’s worst downtown parking crater.

Network blog GUD Thoughts (based in Kansas City and short for Good Urban Deeds) reviews some of the better ordinances addressing this issue around the country:

Over in Salt Lake City, city council “recently” passed a demolition ordinance that does the following:

1. Buildings in the downtown area cannot be demolished for parking garages (heck yeah)
2. Parking garages cannot be built on corners, or along Main street
3. New surface parking lots are allowed either behind buildings, or 75 feet away from the street

That’s all really great news in my opinion, especially when parking lots supposedly cover 20% of downtown. In addition to the above, city council is also working their way toward banning demolition of buildings throughout the entire city, unless an owner has submitted plans to replace the structure. Thankfully, city council is thinking this little tidbit through: normally, if an ordinance forbids demolition, but a property owner really, really wants the building gone, they sometimes let it fall into disrepair, making it unsafe and eligible for demo. Not the case with this ordinance. In the event that a building is deemed unsafe, the owner actually has to provide a bond for landscaping and maintenance of the site. Clever, right?

GUD Thoughts also cites Knoxville and the Tulsa proposal as promising examples, and says Kansas City needs to do better when it comes to creating a walkable environment:

Awesome… but what about Kansas City? What the heck is up with us? Here we are spending all kinds of crazy money on a street car to promote walkability downtown, and yet we’re still totally fine with not only demolishing buildings, but demolishing buildings and erecting parking garages. And, guess what – we seem to be a city that endorses the silent nudge nudge policy of tearing your building down if it becomes “dangerous.”

Didn’t anyone ever tell the folks in our local government that missing teeth (empty lots as a result of demolition – often to accommodate street parking) and parking garages really kill the life on streets?

Elsewhere on the Network today: Walkable Dallas Fort Worth says that TxDOT is acting more like a propaganda arm for big highway projects than a dispassionate public agency. My Wheels are Turning writes that block parties can be a first step in reclaiming streets for communities. And Cap’n Transit explains why large cities need transit.

Get national headlines at Streetsblog Capitol Hill

Deputy commissioner Scott Kubly speaks to WBEZ reporter Robin Amer about Divvy.

Two of the major topics of the Mayor’s Bicycle Advisory Council meeting on Wednesday were bike-share and the Dearborn Street bike lane.

Divvy bike-share was supposed to launch with 40 stations today during the Bike To Work Day Rally, but on Tuesday, the company announced that the system would launch on June 28 with 75 stations. Sean Wiedel, assistant commissioner for the Chicago Department of Transportation, said that a proprietary bolt used in the stations had just arrived this week. Meanwhile, New York’s recently-launched bike-share system, Citi Bike, which uses the same components and software as Divvy, has experienced some bugs in the beginning, including occasional power failures at the stations. Still, in the 19 days since launch, over 212,000 trips have been made.

The Divvy station neighborhood map.

Metropolitan Planning Council Vice President Peter Skosey, an MBAC member, asked that since the Tribune reported “no one is going to use bike sharing, how many members are there?” Wiedel replied that more than 1,300 people have purchased an annual membership. This is lower than the sign-up rate for Citi Bike, which sold 10,000 annual memberships in 30 days, but since New York launched with more than 300 stations, it’s more or less proportional, given the smaller size of Chicago’s initial bike-share network.

Some companies are also signing up for corporate memberships, which give their employees a discount on bike-share subscriptions. Skosey mentioned that MPC has added a free membership for Divvy to their employee benefits package.

The first Divvy station was installed Thursday night at the southeast corner of Daley Plaza (at Washington and Dearborn Streets) with 23 docks. Wiedel said that four more would be installed on Friday, as part of training the crew, who will then work in two teams of four to install eight stations a day until June 28. Each station has two neighborhood maps — one showing the area within a 5-minute walk and the other showing a 5-minute biking radius. “It will show cultural institutions, libraries, and ‘business districts,’ so as not to show favoritism,” Wiedel explained.

Also revealed at the meeting: Dearborn Street will be receiving some much-needed upgrades soon, including fresh green paint and longer-lasting, more visible thermoplastic pavement markings. Additionally, to mitigate conflicts between cyclists and other street users at alleys and driveways, CDOT will add “rumble strips” for cyclists in the form of thicker thermoplastic. Rumble strips tell bicyclists to slow down and green paint should make it more obvious that this is a lane for a biking.

Some valet operators use the bike lane for customers' cars. Photo: Justin Haugens.

MBAC community representative Michelle Stenzel also wanted to know how CDOT will deal with the delivery, valet, and taxi drivers who park daily in the bike lane. ”For valets, [the parking is] temporary for them, but it’s permanent for bicyclists,” she said. “[The same with] government vehicles. This impedes visibility and makes it dangerous. Truck drivers don’t know it’s a bike lane because their visibility is blocked. Having a raised curb there would stop this.”

CDOT complete streets manager Janet Attarian said “that is the long-term plan.” After Stenzel asked when the long-term plan would be implemented, Klein noted that, in the meantime, “we’re going to add [flexible posts] at the conflict zones.”

The other issue with Dearborn is poor drainage between Adams and Jackson (a.k.a. “Lake Kluczynski”) and at Randolph (“Lake Petterino’s”). Deep, wide puddles can remain even days after it rains. Klein said that the problem by Randolph was caused by a clogged drain while the other “lake,” adjacent to Federal Plaza, has no drain. Smith said that CDOT would look at these when they go out to install the thermoplastic. CDOT Deputy Commissioner Scott Kubly also advised calling 311, saying “motorists never hesitate” to call.

It wasn’t mentioned at the meeting, but Streetsblog reader Justin Haugens, who rides to and from Rogers Park several times a week, told us that the left-side, one-way bike lane on Dearborn that starts at Kinzie Street has been extended past Chicago Avenue to Walton Street, at the Newberry Library, where Dearborn becomes two-way. The purpose of this extension is to connect with the northbound bike lane on Clark Street.

The bike lane lake that won't go away.

The next MBAC meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, September 11, 2013, from 3-4:30 PM in Room 1103 at City Hall, 121 N LaSalle Street.

Emanuel surprised the crowd by taking a lap around Daley Plaza on a Divvy. Photo: John Greenfield

The annual Bike to Work Rally serves as a state of the union for Chicago cycling, and this year there’s a lot of news to report, with the impending launch of the Divvy bike-share system, completion of the Milwaukee protected lanes, and financing secured for the Chicago Riverwalk. This was the first time Mayor Rahm Emanuel has appeared at the rally and he seemed to enjoy soaking in the crowd’s enthusiasm for the many bike initiatives that have launched since he took office about two years ago.

Transportation Commissioner Gabe Klein kicked off the speeches by announcing the recipients of the Mayor’s Bike Advisory Council Awards. Commissioner Rosemary Krimbel of the Department of Business Affairs Consumer Protection was recognized for helping to develop anti-dooring stickers for cabs. Brian Bonanno from the Andersonville Development Corporation has helped get a People Spot parklet and two on-street bike parking corrals installed on Clark Street, with four more corrals and another parklet debuting this summer. Longtime bike activist Kathy Schubert was recognized for her letter-writing campaign that resulted in metal-grate bridges being retrofitted with non-slip “Kathy plates.”

Klein said he rode to the rally in his suit. “It’s to send a message: you can wear a suit and bike to work,” he said, an apparent dig at the Trib’s Jon Hilkevitch, who recently questioned whether such a thing was possible.

The crowd at the Bike to Work Rally. Photo: John Greenfield

The commissioner heralded the opening of the Milwaukee lanes. “That would not have happened – it wouldn’t have happened this quick – without our mayor,” he said. “Every time I met with him he said, ‘The bike plan looks great, but what about Milwaukee Avenue, when are you doing that?’ And so with his support and leadership and pushing me, we got that done for Bike to Work Week. I’m really proud of that.”

He outlined how the new bike-share system will work for Chicagoans. “If you need to go to work: Divvy. If you’re jumping off the CTA, need to get that last mile to your destination: Divvy. If you have friends visiting and want to show them Chicago and go from point to point to point: Divvy. So Divvy is for everyone and anyone that needs to get somewhere.”

When the mayor took the mic, he had an additional suggestion. “In case you have family come visit and you want to get them out of the house: Divvy. Yes, you can go see our neighborhoods, but get out my house, man, you’re driving me crazy at this point.”

LaHood, Emanuel, Klein, CDOT Deputy Commissioner Luann Hamilton, 32nd Ward Alderman Pat Dowell, 27th Ward Alderman Walter Burnett. Photo: John Greenfield

Touting the riverwalk funding, Emanuel thanked his personal friend, outgoing U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, visiting from Washington. “None of this, bike-sharing program, bike lanes, would be possible if it wasn’t for the support of Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood,” Emanuel said.

The mayor argued that building a bike-friendly city attracts technology startups whose young employees don’t want to rely of cars for transportation. “Having protected bike lanes and encouraging biking as a form of transportation has also encouraged another part of the economy to take hold and take root here in the city of Chicago,” he said. “We are providing 7,000 digital jobs that have started up, just in the River North area alone.” Emanuel also said he’s proud that Divvy program will include an apprentice program for 100 low-income teens that will teach them bike mechanics and job skills.

Chicago's first Divvy station in Daley Plaza. Photo: Steven Vance

The mayor closed by noting that bike improvements are part of his bigger plan to provide a range of viable transportation options. “Yes we are building a new Red Line and we are also building new stations throughout the city,” he said. “We’re buying new buses and trains. But a modern city is also opening up a new form of transportation, and that is biking to work and making the bike lanes and bike culture part of the public transportation system of the city of Chicago.”

An energized LaHood said he’s witnessed the success of Capital Bikeshare in D.C., and Chicagoans should expect similar results with Divvy. “Get ready Chicago,” he said. “People are going to take advantage of Divvy. You’re going to see cyclists all over the city… This will really put Chicago on the map.”

Chicago's Bicycling Ambassadors with Alderman Walter Burnett. Photo: John Greenfield

LaHood also stressed the importance of improving safety for cyclists. “We know that cyclists pay attention,” he said. “They know the rules of the road. We want to persuade those people in cars to be respectful of cyclists. Make sure that you give them their right-of-way. Yield to them, give them the opportunity to cycle safely… Now that Chicago is going to be one of the largest cycling cities in America, we need to continue to emphasize safety. Wear those helmets and be respectful, but the people who are driving those cars need to be respectful of cyclists also.”

Active Transportation Alliance Director Ron Burke noted that, under Emanuel, Chicago has reached cycling milestones that would have seemed far-fetched a few years ago. “If you had been at this rally in 2009 or 2010 and someone had said to you, ‘Hey folks, we’re going to have a protected bike lane all the way through the Loop on Dearborn…We’re going to have protected bike lanes on the South Side, the West Side, the North Side, we’re going to have one of the largest bike-share programs in the country, and that’s all going to happen in three years,’ I think you might have said, ‘Whoa! Slow down! You’re maybe a little too ambitious here.’ No. It’s happening, it’s happened, it’s here.”

Raquel Nelson's long legal ordeal is finally over, but people around the country must still deal with the dangerous conditions that claimed her son's life. Image: T4A

Charges of vehicular homicide against Nelson — who was crossing the street outside a crosswalk when her son A.J. was struck and killed — were dropped yesterday in exchange for a guilty plea on jaywalking charges alone. She will pay a $200 fine, according to Transportation for America.

Nelson’s case gained national attention as an illustration of poor road design as a civil rights issue. The homicide charge was based on the idea that she was recklessly “jaywalking,” but Nelson was simply trying to get from the bus stop to her apartment, and the closest crosswalk was one-third of a mile away.

David Goldberg at Transportation for America says that while Nelson was finally cleared of the unjust charges, many other people around the country face the same kind of conditions that took the life of her son:

That particular ordeal is over for Raquel Nelson. But the underlying crime persists – not just in Cobb County, GA, but also in cities and inner-ring suburbs all over the country. Areas built since the 1950s to be automobile dependent now are home to many lower-income families who don’t have access to cars. Nevertheless, the busy roads around them typically have not been retrofitted with safety measures for people on foot, bicycle or getting to and from the bus. The situation is getting exponentially worse as low-wage workers and recent immigrants move to these areas for their more affordable housing.

Fortunately, Goldberg reports, some progress has come out of this case. Greater Atlanta is starting to change the way it approaches road design:

The good news from Georgia is that this case — and similar tragedies, as the pedestrian fatality rate rises in metro Atlanta — have led the Georgia Department of Transportation to take a serious look at these issues, according to Sally Flocks, the executive director of Atlanta’s PEDS.

“I’ve been really impressed by the extent to which the Georgia DOT now sees the need for safe crossings on busy roads, and mid-block crossings at transit stops,” Flocks said. PEDS is working with GDOT to help identify solutions and ways to evaluate the places to fix. The department now is changing policy to use federal safety money in proportion with the fatality rates, Flocks said.

Hopefully other cities will see the light and prevent similar tragedies.

Elsewhere on the Network today: Human Transit says that cynicism regarding transit problems is tantamount to accepting the current state of affairs. Urban Velo shares a news story explaining how bikes have given immigrant women in the Twin Cities new independence and power. And Bike Portland reports that city is surveying women to promote gender equality in cycling.

Get national headlines at Streetsblog Capitol Hill

The bikeway upgrades on Milwaukee Avenue between Elston Avenue and Kinzie Street were completed Wednesday, adding bike lanes separated from traffic with parking and flexible posts. Other features include green striping before intersections and the city’s first two-lane bike lanes allowing faster cyclists to pass slower ones on the bridge over the Ohio Street ramp to the Kennedy Expressway.

Chicago's first passing lane for bike traffic.

Chicago Department of Transportation bikeways planner David Smith gave an overview of the changes at the Mayor’s Bicycle Advisory Council meeting on Wednesday. One feature Smith mentioned is the new signal timing at Milwaukee and Elston. In the northbound direction, the right-turn lane and the bike lane have been swapped, eliminating the dreaded center bike lane where drivers consistently merged across the path of cyclists. Now, bicyclists have a dedicated bike signal designed to eliminate conflicts with right-turning drivers.

Smith also said that traffic signals at Milwaukee and Ogden Avenue would be modified soon, bringing in a new “protected left turn” — in which northbound traffic will have a dedicated left-turn signal. This will eliminate the “yellow trap” seen at this kind of six-way crossing, in which turning drivers and bicyclists are caught in the middle of an intersection when their light turns red, while, unbeknownst to them, oncoming traffic still has a green. Two weeks ago I was on the wrong end of a yellow trap at this intersection and almost got broadsided by a motorist.

Bus stop-bike lane. This may become a concrete bus island, with the bike lane bypassing the bus stop on the right, after a water main project is completed.

Upgrades were made at Grand and Halsted as well, striping bike markings in both directions all the way up to and through the intersection, though northbound cyclists do ride through a bus stop on the far side of the intersection before the bike lane begins again.

Continuous bike lane on southbound Milwaukee at Grand.

It’s possible that the shared bike lane-bus stops could get upgraded to a design with less potential for conflict. CDOT has previously expressed interested in adding concrete bus islands with bike lanes bypassing on the right. That treatment could be in the works for Milwaukee, but not during this phase of the project. Much of the Milwaukee redesign is on newly resurfaced streets, but this segment, between Ogden and Erie Street, is scheduled to have water main repair work done soon. Deputy Commissioner Scott Kubly told Streetsblog that “we are absolutely looking at adding in concrete islands” but because of the water main project, “we are holding off on resurfacing until it is complete.”

With these modifications – and several others not touched on in this post (you have to see it for yourself) – Milwaukee Avenue, the city’s busiest street for bicycling, will become safer and less frustrating to ride, and some of the intersections that see the most bike crashes in Chicago will be improved. Specifically, the intersections of Grand-Halsted-Milwaukee (tied for sixth on the crash map) and Chicago-Ogden-Milwaukee (tied for second) may no longer be among the worst bike crash locations.

The next MBAC meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, September 11, 2013, from 3-4:30 PM in Room 1103 at City Hall, 121 N LaSalle Street.

Rob Reid, Mike Filipski, and Elisa Addlesperger. Photo: John Greenfield

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

I’ve walked the entirety of 11 Chicago streets in order to experience aspects of the pedestrian environment, plus local architecture and culture, that I might have overlooked using faster modes. So when Rob Reid, who writes the history blog Avondale Time Machine, invited me to join him and his friends to hike all 9.5 miles of Elston Avenue last month, I couldn’t say no.

The street’s namesake was Daniel Elston, a London merchant who immigrated to Chicago in the early 1800s. By 1830 he’d bought a 160-acre parcel in River West, located along a meandering wagon road then called the Woodstock Trail. The multitalented settler established several businesses, making soap, candles, bricks, beer and whiskey; he also served as a school inspector and an alderman, and founded a bank. While Elston was first living by the trail that would later bear his name, it was a plank toll road owned by Amos Snell, who charged travelers 2½ cents per mile to travel it. Displeased with this, local farmers staged a Boston Tea Party of sorts – they dressed up like Indians, chopped down the toll gates and burned them.

Nowadays, Elston parallels the Kennedy Expressway, and it’s a popular alternative for drivers trying to avoid expressway traffic jams, but it’s also a useful bicycle route, providing a relatively mellow alternative to hectic Milwaukee Avenue. Last year the Chicago Department of Transportation installed one of the city’s nicest protected bike lanes on the street from Milwaukee to North. Elston and Milwaukee are the only two streets in the city that intersect twice; pedaling north on one and then returning via the other is a circuit called “biking the knife,” for a reason that’s obvious if you look at a map.

The Elston Avenue protected bike lane at Division Street. Photo: John Greenfield

I show up at the south intersection of the two streets, just north of Chicago, a few minutes after the 5:30 p.m. meeting time and don’t notice Rob and his crew, so I hang out for a few minutes observing the massive amount of rush hour bike traffic on Milwaukee. Assuming the others have taken off already, or else that I’ve gotten the date wrong, I start walking north on Elston solo, hoping I’ll catch up with them at a tavern up the street.

The protected lane features smooth pavement, green paint at conflict points, and lines of flexible posts and parked cars to keep motorists out, but I see only a handful of bikes here, since it’s not as direct a route northwest as Milwaukee and has far less retail. Elston is generally an unwelcoming environment for pedestrians, with narrow sidewalks, some dangerous street crossings, and views mostly of industrial buildings, garages, gas stations and big box stores, but there are some gems along the way. Climbing a small hill to Division, I turn around and enjoy a stunning skyline vista.

Just before Division, Elston began curving northwest. I pass by the Morton Salt umbrella girl logo painted on the roof of the company’s massive riverside factory, and then arrive at North Avenue, where men with cardboard placards are asking motorists for change. Above them, the spinning sign for Stanley’s Produce features a caricature of the founder smoking a pipe, riding an airplane shaped like a watermelon. North of North, the protected lanes disappear and the street has a more desolate feel.

At Ashland and Elston. The pink mustache identifies the car as a Lyft on-demand ride-share vehicle. Photo: John Greenfield

At Cortland I pass by the Star Carwash, then come to the Horween Leather Factory, 2015 North Elston. One of the oldest tanneries in the country and the only one left in Chicago, it’s the exclusive supplier of leather for NBA basketballs and NFL footballs. It sits at the six-way junction of Elston, Armitage, and Ashland, one of the city’s worst intersections to navigate on foot or by bike. The dauntingly long crosswalk on the north leg of the juncture is almost completely faded, and I keep a keen eye for turning cars as I hustle across it.

A few blocks later I’m at Elston/Fullerton/Damen, much-hated by drivers, although I’ve never had any problem getting through it on a bike. To reduce congestion for motorists, next year the city will spend more than $36 million to reroute Elston through what’s now the front lot of the Vienna Beef hotdog factory so that it bypasses the junction. Unfortunately, WhirlyBall, where you can play an odd hybrid of polo, jai alai and bumper cars, will be demolished as part of the project. Vienna Beef plans to relocate to Bridgeport, and WhirlyBall will be moving to Lincoln Park.

Outside the Vienna Beef plant. In the future this space will be occupied by the Elston bypass of Fullerton/Damen. Photo: John Greenfield

After passing through the big box store hell zone between Fullerton and Logan, I catch up with Rob and his friends at Frank and Mary’s Tavern, 2905 North Elston, an old-timey Avondale pub. Along for the walk are Elisa Addlesperger, who contributes to his blog, and Mike Filipski, another avid historian.

When I tell them I started my walk at the intersection of Elston and Milwaukee, there’s a moment of confusion about whether we started at different Elston/Milwaukee junctures and are only crossing paths now, like the north- and south-going Zax from the Dr. Seuss story. Fortunate we figure out that we’re both going the same direction. Beneath stuffed deer heads, mounted bass and the famous “Avoid street congestion” ad for the ‘L’, we raise a toast to Daniel Elston.

Alywind Musical Instruments, 3219 North Elston. Photo: John Greenfield

We exit the tavern and stroll back into the hot spring evening, with the setting sun turning the sky a soft pink. At 3219 North Elston we come to Alywind Musical Instruments, a careworn storefront labeled “Accordians” (sic) in crooked pink vinyl letters. Owner Bea Zimmerman plays the squeezebox in Rob’s folk band the Astrohillbillies.

By the time we reach the Kelly Eisenberg hotdog factory, near Addison, it’s dark and a half moon hangs in the sky. After passing through a lovely cloud of honeysuckle scent around Drave Avenue, at Irving Park Road we have to make an inconvenient right-angle crossing, traversing the street twice, in order to continue northwest on Elston.

Phixx606Cycles. Photo: John Greenfield

Phixx606Cycles, 4075 North Elston, is a new bike shop specializing in custom fixed-gear bikes, for a young, Latino clientele, reflecting the growing popularity of the affordable speedy bikes with city youth. It’s a sultry night, and up the street teenage girls are hanging out on the sidewalk in plastic chairs.

The Two-Way Grill, a slender greasy-spoon wedged between Pulaski and Elston near Montrose, is reminiscent of Edward Hopper’s “Nighthawks at a Diner.” This area is the center of Chicago’s North African community, anchored by the Muslim Community Center, 4380 North Elston. There are a number of Moroccan, Algerian, and Tunisian businesses here, including boutiques, restaurants, delis and bakeries.

The Two-Way Grill, Elston and Pulaski. Photo: John Greenfield

It’s really warm out now, and I’ve started to break a sweat as we stride, which is unusual for me. After crossing over the Edens Expressway, on the 5100 block of North Elston we come upon the Trinity Slovak Lutheran Church with a slender concrete spire in front, topped with a crucifix. Across the street are the Knanaya Catholic Society and the Bong-Bool-Sa Temple, a storefront Korean Buddhist sanctuary.

At Foster, Rob takes us just west to Rabbits Bar & Grill, 4945 West Foster, one his favorite dives, which happens to have an excellent craft beer selection. As we’re bellied up to the bar, a thunderstorm materializes out of nowhere, with rain blowing at a 45-degree angle. Elisa, a bit delirious from all the walking, phones her husband for a ride home.

Rob and Mike at the northern intersection of Elston and Milwaukee. Photo: John Greenfield

At last the guys and I reluctantly venture into the downpour. We trudge past a DMV facility, the CTA’s Forest Glenn bus garage, and a seemingly endless series of squat, beige postwar two-flats. I regret that it’s too late to stop in at Smak-Tak, 5961 North Elston, a chalet-like Polish eatery known for having some of the best pierogies in town – its name translates to “Taste-Yes!”

Finally, drenched, we reach the northern juncture of Elston and Milwaukee, at about 6200 North, in the Norwood Park neighborhood. As the guys duck into nearby Jet’s Public house for a final pint, I take shelter under an awning and call the Regional Transportation Authority’s travel info hotline looking for a transit option.

It’s about midnight, the #56 Milwaukee bus has stopped running, and the guy on the other line apologetically tells me there’s virtually no way to get home to Logan Square by transit at this time of night. The flickering neon sign of the adjacent Esquire Motel flophouse beckons me to rent a room. Fortunately, it turns out there’s a taxi office near the bar, so I’m soon warm and dry in my own bed.

Photo: Josh Koonce/Flickr

Since then, hobbling has replaced walking for Howe, who runs Network Blog My Wheels are Turning and lives car-lite in this northern Michigan city.

The injury has been an eye-opener, he explains, showing how difficult things are for people who move at a slower pace:

I’ve written about walking speeds and speeds at crosswalk before. Normally, I’m one of the faster ones and well within the 4-feet per second that most people cross a street. With this injury, I’m reduced to about half of my normal pace, around 2-feet per second, maybe a tad faster, sometimes a little slower. I really noticed it the other day when my pace tested the patience of an otherwise considerate driver. The driver stopped (as is city ordinance) and waved me to cross, only to lose patience as I proceeded and finally giving me a gesture from behind the windshield communicating something like, “WTF? Can’t you go faster?”

Before the injury, I was already aware of the need for streets/sidewalks and crosswalk times to be designed with a wider range of abilities and speeds. During the last two months I now have the empirical understanding of what it is like for people with injuries, disabilities, or just slower cadence than the majority of people to get around.

I know how it feels to stub one’s injured foot on a broken sidewalk and surprisingly have a jolt of pain race up my leg that forces you to sit. Right there. Now.

And, I appreciate a bit more the feeling of holding up traffic because there is no higher gear.

I also have a new appreciation for my coming years as an older person who hopes to age in place. Even if my normal good health and luck carries into my elder years (I’m 40, and thinking about it) I can’t help but wonder what the City will be like when I’m not hobbled by injury, but just naturally slower.

Elsewhere on the Network today: Reconnecting America shares a new report ranking transit connections to American airports. Second Avenue Sagas looks at the real estate impact of a subway service change in New York City. And Rebuilding Place in the Urban Space thinks Walmart may have ulterior motives for occupying a mixed-use location in the Washington, D.C., area.

Get national headlines at Streetsblog Capitol Hill

Ghost Bike memorial to Bobby Cann the 1300 block of North Clybourn. Photo: John Greenfield

Last Thursday, about a week after the May 29th death of cyclist Robert “Bobby” Cann, killed by an allegedly drunk, speeding driver at Clybourn and Larrabee, the Chicago Department of Transportation announced plans to stripe buffered bike lanes on the entire 3.5-mile length of Clybourn, from Division to Belmont. Construction should start either this week or the following week, according to CDOT spokesperson Pete Scales.

According to police, Ryne San Hamel, 28, had a blood-alcohol content of .127 and was driving his Mercedes sedan at 50 mph when he struck Cann, 25, on the 1300 block of North Clybourn. San Hamel has been charged with reckless homicide, aggravated DUI, misdemeanor DUI, reckless driving, and failure to stay in the lane. Bail was set at $100,000; the driver has posted $10,000 and was released from police custody.

Several memorials and tributes have been held in honor of Cann, a Groupon employee widely described as a safe cycling advocate. Cann’s coworkers recently started a memorial Groupon that has raised over $40,000 for the Active Transportation Alliance’s Neighborhood Bikeways Campaign, which advocates for protected bike lanes. The Groupon was scheduled to end yesterday but has been extended. Bob Kastigar, a longtime Chicago bike activist and Critical Mass rider, launched a petition drive asking that the county’s top prosecutor, Anita Alvarez, send the case to court instead of making a plea bargain; Kastigar mailed Alvarez a 432-page printout with 5,274 signatures, which arrived yesterday.

Bobby Cann. Photo: Groupon

I got the news about the bike lanes from a RedEye article that described the lanes as “protected,” which highlights the confusion caused by CDOT reclassifying buffered lanes as “buffer-protected” last year. Rahm Emanuel’s 2011 transition plan called for building 100 miles of protected lanes in his first term, defining protected lanes as sitting “between the sidewalk and a row of parked cars that shield cyclists from street traffic.” Last year CDOT changed that definition so that “buffer-protected” lanes, could be counted towards the hundred-mile protected lane goal; parking-protected lanes were renamed “barrier-protected.” For the rest of this article I’ll use the standard, nationally accepted definitions of protected and buffered lanes.

In February, Steven Vance discovered that the Illinois Department of Transportation has been prohibiting the installation of protected lanes on state jurisdiction roads in Chicago at least until CDOT collects three years of “safety data” on existing Chicago protected lanes. That means the earliest than ban would be lifted would be July 2014, three years after Chicago’s first protected lanes opened on Kinzie. IDOT has not blocked installation of buffered lanes.

Because of this ban, installing 100 miles of protected lanes by 2015 became less likely, so it’s understandable that CDOT adjusted its 100-mile goal to include buffered lanes, but it was a mistake for the agency to change the definition of “protected” lanes to include facilities that are merely paint on the road. While real protected lanes provide a physical barrier to prevent reckless drivers from crashing into cyclists, buffered lanes don’t, and the two should not be confused.

Clybourn, a couple blocks northwest of the crash site. Photo: John Greenfield

The Cann tragedy makes this painfully clear. The city’s Streets for Cycling Plan 2020 classifies Clybourn as a “Crosstown Bike Route,” a bike-priority street connecting neighborhoods. Clybourn is generally about 52-feet-wide, which would be enough room for two seven-foot-wide parking lanes, two five-foot bike lanes with a three-foot buffer, and two 11-foot travel lanes. Alternatively, there could be eight-foot parking lanes and ten-foot travel lanes. If IDOT hadn’t been blocking the protected lanes, its likely CDOT would have installed them on the street instead of buffered lanes, possibly before the crash occured.

The circumstances of Cann’s death are still unclear. He may have been struck in the intersection, in which case protected bike lane wouldn’t have shielded him from San Hamel’s car. However, if the Clybourn parking lanes had been relocated to the left of protected lanes, this would have physically narrowed the travel lanes. That might have caused San Hamel to driver slower, which could have mitigated the crash. While it’s impossible to say whether protected lanes would have saved Cann, it’s certain that they would have improved safety on Clybourn for other cyclists, more so than the upcoming buffered lanes will.

In the wake of Cann’s death, IDOT tweeted support for CDOT’s plan for buffered lanes. As Steven wrote earlier, this is hypocritical, since the department blocked the protected lanes that might have made a difference in the crash, and IDOT has not changed its policies towards protected and buffered lanes at all in response to the case. The department is still blocking the protected lanes that could help prevent further loss of life.

Therefore, I have mixed feelings about the upcoming buffered lanes on Clybourn. CDOT is making the best of a bad situation by striping the lanes, which will be an improvement over the status quo. However, if IDOT actually cares about improving safety, the department needs to lift the ban on protected bike lanes immediately. That would make a real difference for keeping Chicago cyclists safe, and that would be a fitting legacy for Bobby Cann.

San Hamel is scheduled to appear at the Cook County courthouse at 26th and California on July 17 at 9 a.m. 18th District police officers are seeking volunteer court advocates, concerned citizens who appear in court to show their support for the victim. You can contact the 18th District CAPS officers at 312-742-5778 for more info. More details are available on The Chainlink from Active Trans’ Jason Jenkins.

Space that could be used for people to live near high-frequency transit should not be permanently preserved for agriculture, says Zane Selvans. Image: Flat Iron Bike

The problem, says Zane Selvans at Flat Iron Bike, is that from a sustainability perspective there are better uses for such a big parcel of urban land. Selvans says the proposal — on a property known as Long’s Garden in North Boulder — is at odds with the city’s goal to become more walkable and livable for people.

The proposal is problematic on a number of levels, he says:

The opportunity cost of acquiring the land’s development rights is very high in terms of land outside the city’s growth boundary that could be preserved with the same amount of money. For example, the City purchased a conservation easement on the 243 acre Windhover Ranch in 1993 for $1M, about a fifth the cost of the proposed agricultural easement on Long’s Garden. Two decades of inflation make that equivalent to roughly $1.6M today. The easement on the 25 acre Long’s Garden parcel is proposed to cost $4.7M. This means that per acre preserved, Long’s Garden costs nearly 30 times as much as the Windhover ranch.

Long’s Garden is immediately adjacent to the Broadway high frequency transit corridor. Purchasing an agricultural easement on this property would permanently degrade the value of our investments in transit service along Broadway by unnecessarily reducing the number of households and businesses that the transit corridor can serve. The functionality and economic efficiency of transit depends heavily on land use patterns. We should not needlessly hinder transit’s ability to serve our community, further incentivizing driving as the dominant mode of travel.

Long’s Garden is right in the center of North Boulder. By far the best use of that land, in the context of Boulder’s sustainability, is to ensure that it is eventually made into good city — city that is accessible to people on foot, by bike, and via transit, and that is a joy to inhabit as a human being. Preserving it in perpetuity in an undeveloped state only serves to unnecessarily separate destinations in one of the most centrally located portions of the city. Good cities — cities that embrace their urban state and form themselves around human beings rather than automobiles — are the most powerful platform on which to build a sustainable civilization. They give their citizens access to economic, social and recreational opportunities by virtue of proximity. This allows people to conveniently access their community by traveling short distances slowly, which is a fundamentally lower energy proposition than attempting to go long distances quickly.

Elsewhere on the Network today: Greater City Providence outlines the city’s renewed plans for a streetcar. The Fast Lane explains that demand for federal TIGER grants remains strong, about twenty times stronger, in fact, than available funding. And the Architect’s Newspaper reports that, for the first time in 16 years, Cincinnati’s Roebling Bridge over the Ohio River is open to cyclists and pedestrians.

Get national headlines at Streetsblog Capitol Hill