On 3/6/2016 11:05 AM, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On 3/5/2016 9:09 PM, Mike A Schwab wrote:
On Saturday, March 5, 2016 at 7:40:11 PM UTC-6, Frank
Krygowski wrote:
On 3/5/2016 10:53 AM, AMuzi wrote:
Three items of note today:

separate lanes
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/c...304-story.html


From the article: "... the Clybourn curb-protected
lane, a state
project, pegged at roughly $700,000..." If that's
"between Division
Street and North Avenue" as in the first photo's caption,
that's for
just 0.8 miles of roadway. Seems pretty expensive!


--
- Frank Krygowski

http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago...t?oid=20305324


Held up for three years by a staffer for political
reasons. City supported them, Governor Quinn supported
them, but a staffer kept them from going through.

I'm sorry, but that article reads like distorted propaganda.

First, there's the introductory tug at the heartstrings,
that if only this evil IDOT person hadn't asked for safety
data before constructing cycletracks, that poor Bobby Cann
would be alive today. It's repeated later in the article,
and highlighted by a ghost bike photo.

But the crash that killed him happened at an intersection!
Cycletracks, whether behind concrete curbs, parked cars or
plastic posts, do NOT increase safety at intersections! If
anything, they tend to surprise motorists who must cross
them. See this, for one example:
https://vimeo.com/23743067

Second, there is the continuing assertion that politics
would be the only reason that anyone would object to the
cycletracks. But IDOT was asking for three years of safety
data. That's hardly unreasonable! Cycletracks are the hot,
fashionable "innovative" street treatment that this
Streetsblog site (and others) now say we MUST have. But the
most prominent bike facility design manual, by AASHTO, has
for decades listed a about a dozen reasons why such
facilities are likely to be bad ideas. AASHTO is an
engineering organization, and has no particular politics. It
looks at traffic interactions, vehicle motion, driver
capabilities and expectations, etc.

The author claims there's no reason to ask for safety data,
because there's data claiming cycletracks add safety. He
does NOT admit that there's also data showing cycletracks
add danger! In fact, the only true before-vs-after study of
cycletracks (in Copenhagen) showed very significant
increases in crash rates. (Jensen, "Bicycle Tracks and
Lanes: A Before-After Study",
http://vehicularcyclist.com/copenhagen2.pdf )

And speaking of Copenhagen, even the rabidly pro-facility
website "Copenhagenize" is adamantly against two-direction
cycletracks on one side of the road.
See
http://www.copenhagenize.com/2014/06...cle-track.html


Another example is Davis, California, one of the most famous
American cities for bike facilities and bike use. Its bike
mode share has been extremely high since the U of California
campus there exploded in size, and made it near illegal to
have cars on that campus. The little, flat town with a
perfect climate began building lots of bike facilities,
trying lots of designs. But they abandoned cycletracks early
on, because they proved dangerous. See
http://john-s-allen.com/blog/?p=1927

Less well known, in Columbus Ohio during the 1970s,
officials added a cycletrack to one of the streets bordering
the OSU campus. (A cycling friend of mine lives within a
few blocks.) That cycletrack lasted just a couple years
before it was ripped out. Why? Because of a big increase
in crash rates!

I think it's very likely that the engineers at IDOT were
well aware that cycletracks are not magic. They were
certainly aware that one would not prevent a fatality at an
intersection - the very place that cycletracks remove
"protection" and increase confusion. They were probably
justifiably outraged at Streetsblog's 3000-person attempt at
traffic Engineering By Petition.

But Streetsblog isn't really about engineering. It's about
paint and path, by whatever means necessary. That's their
mission, and that's the behavior you get with True Believers.


Regarding your DC video, much of that trouble was mitigated
in NYC with the pithy admonition to car drivers, "don't
block the box".

About wrong-way kiddie paths on streets, I just routinely
ignore them and ride right side lane, as any other vehicle.
I rode a couple of miles this morning across the street from
one of those killer segregated whatnots. As the old sticker
proclaimed , "I Am Traffic." But hey, YMMV; make your own
decision.

Note to Gene: Today's Ride was balmy with a spectacularly
colorful sunrise halfway through.

--
Andrew Muzi
www.yellowjersey.org/
Open every day since 1 April, 1971