There obviously more work to be done and I love that Chicago is so far ahead of so many cities when it comes to bicycle infrastructure.
Is this the same Chicago that sold all their parking meters to Wall Street making infrastructure changes really difficult because it would cut into parking meter profits?
Yeah and I kind of love it anyway. Since the sale, meter pricing has sky rocketed which discourages driving. Fuck cars!!
Discouraging driving is good but when a city can’t close or repurpose roads because of a parking meter contract, it kind of sucks.
I think the terms require that a specific number of street parking spaces be available. Clever design could repurpose the roads without impacting the number of spaces.
What I see here in Chicago sometimes is moving parking into a repurposed travel lane and then cycle lane between the relocated parking and sidewalk.
The sale of the meters certainly has an impact, but I don’t think it’s a show stopper. Fuck cars!
I was thinking that might be a thing. Actually kind of poetic. Love it.
That’s probably why it’s so expensive. I guess it’s good to know that the loss of revenue is already baked into the cost of the project.
I live in small city where the exact opposite applies. The cycleways don’t extend through richer neighbourhoods. The poorer neighbourhoods are plastered with cycleways. But there’s lots of NIMBY people here.
Ok that’s great but that’s a weird reason to build bike lanes.
Chicago has a long history of segregation in the city. It’s worse than a lot of cities in the US. POC are leaving the city in droves because the city hasn’t well addressed the issues of the past. While I think wording it for pedestrian safety makes a lot of sense, this also makes sense in the context of Chicago
This. Chicago is super segregated even in 2023. This may seem like a weird reason to people who haven’t spent time the Chicago, but it’s a real thing.
While transit equity is valid, I would prefer if the answers to racism and inequitality was “reparations and the dismantlement of racial hierarchies.”
Awesome!
Can’t wait! Still would like to see fully protected bike lanes in Chicago. The waterfront trail is amazing though!
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I’m thinking that unless they also add a program to give low income Chicagoans bicycles, we’re going to see a crime wave. Just sayin’
The article says they did:
Earlier in the pandemic, Chicago launched a program to give away 5,000 bikes to eligible Chicago residents by 2026.
besides that working bikes and other groups and organizations give access to affordable bikes.and of course chicago already has miles of bike lanes of all kinds to this just makes it that much better.
@feduser934 They should have VINs just like motorcycles or chips built in because those free bikes are going in to someones van every night.
From my POV, as long as they’re ridden by anybody then the program was a success
They should require all bikes be registered with https://project529.com/garage with the cops checking often, it is the best way to solve the problem. Not a perfect solution, but the best chance
why? why would added bicycle infrastructure = crime wave?
More people buying used bikes to ride in the new lanes and fewer people selling used bikes (that weren’t stolen) presumably.
there’s already a massive amount of bicycle infrastructure in chicago and plenty of means to obtain cheap/free bikes already. I doubt there would be any notable increase in stolen bicycles.
There are plenty of charities that can do that, if needed because really bikes are cheap on the grand scheme of transportation options. Only the government can add bike lanes, that’s what they need to focus on.
Nice I can get shot on a bike now!
The concept of Chicago being super dangerous is a incorrect right wing meme.
It has half the violent crime rate of Memphis, for example. And that violence is highly concentrated in particular neighborhoods.
100%
Chicago is dope
