Dearborn protected bike lane

Yesterday Twitter users notified the Chicago Department of Transportation about an unpermitted closure of the Dearborn Street two-way protected bike lane and a crosswalk. To their credit, CDOT acted swiftly to shut down the illegal blockage at Randolph Street, caused by contractors working for SBC Communications.

Inspired by a post from Streetsblog USA's Angie Schmitt, I recently tried my hand at using a new-ish feature of Google Streetview to illustrate how Chicago street transformations have improved traffic safety and made neighborhoods more livable. Google now lets you access archived Street View images, so it's easy to see how our roadways have changed for the better.

While the headline of a recent Chicago Sun-Times article states that cyclist Matthew Gagui caused a crash that seriously injured a pedestrian in the Dearborn protected bike lanes, his lawyer says that wasn't the case.

The Dearborn protected bike lanes are one of the gems of Chicago’s bikeway network, but ever since the two-way route opened, poor drainage has been a major fly in the ointment.

A mysterious dumpster blocked both lanes of the Dearborn protected bike lane this morning, causing Chicagoans to tweet their displeasure.

Since transportation commissioner Gabe Klein announced he’s resigning at the end of the month, he’s received plenty of praise for his work promoting safer, more efficient and more vibrant Chicago streets. However, after all the bold initiatives he’s spearheaded, he probably didn’t expect his sendoff to be all wine and roses. Yesterday the Expired Meter featured a guest post by the pseudonymous "Moe Torrist," an open letter to Klein sarcastically thanking him for his work to “eliminate cars from the streets of Chicago.”

The Trattoria No. 10 restaurant at 10 N Dearborn Street installed their own "stop for pedestrians" signs (taped to bricks) on Tuesday in the middle of the two-way Dearborn bike lane. The Chicago Department of Transportation received notification via Twitter, to which they responded:

The quarterly Mayor’s Bike Advisory Council meetings, held on the 11th floor of City Hall, are an excellent way to get up to speed on local cycling initiatives. At Wednesday's meeting Mike Amsden, who manages the Chicago Department of Transportation’s bikeways projects, discussed the agency's proposal to build protected bike lanes on Milwaukee Avenue between Kinzie and Elston avenues, which would require parking removal. New on-street bike parking corrals, bike share kiosks and “People Spot” parklets might be part of the plan. “There are quite a few bars and restaurants, so we’ll be making sure, hey, if they’re losing a parking space they get a nice bike corral or a bike share station,” said CDOT Commissioner Gabe Klein.