Chi: Roosevelt road
 

i commute roosevelt road everyday. there is a bike lane..er.. was a bike lane. i go home for spring break last week then come back to find no stripes and no elongated bikes on the ground. what is going on! there are people parking in the bike lane, driving in the bike lane, and i still yell at them. am i justified? well...of course i am. but what happened to the bike lanes on roosevelt road between michigan and who knows where west?

Yeah this kinda blows but im still gonna ride like its mine.

Apparently they stripped us to aleviate conjestion during rush hour becuause of the DAN RYAN constuction.

Heres an article on it:http://www.biketraffic.org/content.php?id=748_0_16_0_C

all the loop workers need to get tp the alternate Ashland Ave to Avoid Dan Ryan Congestion..........that construction is going to **** chicago up for the next six months everywhere

Not to sound like a total cynic, but when isn't construction ******** up things somewhere in Chicago?

true, but this is really going to casue some havoc. If the dan ryan is bad that means the south bound kennedy will be bad from about Fullerton. This means evryone is going to try to reroute on any major street east of California. The feeder ramps from the Eisenhower and Stevenson are also going to cause really big delays for traffic going into the city. Making any large street running east bound a reroute as well, so in terms of driving at the "bad" times of day, not only are all the expresways going to be a mess, but I'd think that Western, Damen, California, Ashland, Halstead, Lake Shore Drive, Michigan Ave, Roosevelt Road, Ogden Ave, Washington / Warren, Lake St., 22nd street and Archer ave are all going to be very slow going as well, if moving at all.

I say to all thos who normally drive cars and extensively use the RYAN: *** the trafic, hop on a bike

agreed, just saying I dont think anyone realizes how bad this might make traveling by car.

I really don't think chicago is exclusive to that, I think every city has that problem. But then my point of view could be skewed... I mean I do live in Boston.

Yeah but back to the OP. This pisses me off to no end.

I too ride roosevelt road 2-4x a day, and more if I get groceries or see friends. It's sad but even without bike lanes it is still the safest way for me to get to and from school. I don't understand why the hell they would erase bike lanes:

1) Riding a bicycle is pretty safe in bumper to bumper traffic.
2) Cyclists are still going to ride it, and cars are still going to hit them, but now the fines are less and cops can say "Tough **** sherlock you should have rode in a bike lane instead of a car lane". (OH like that other bike lane that goes from racine to state street south of my house. what was that called? SIXTY-SEVENTH STREET?!).
3) most of the areas between canal and ashland cannot accommodate another lane, give the 3ft to me if they aren't gonna use it.
4) Cyclists do not jam up traffic in any way, removing the lanes will not somehow reduce congestion
5) for ****s sake you want to know how to avoid congestion? RIDE A BIKE.

Sorry for the rant, but I really hate this. Who is up for a guerrilla repainting of the bike lanes??? I'll buy the paint, if anyone has access to a road contracting company's equipment...please PM. OOh and who wants to make the man on a bike stencil?

efarrar, that's the best thing i've heard so far this morning. as for the stencil, cardstock and i saw something in SF that was a good idea. it's a stencil of a car and under it says "DEATH MONSTERS AHEAD". i say we use that and the bike man.

hee hee hee. that makes me happy.

i remember a couple years ago when i lived in pilsen and went to the lowrider shop to get a chain for my conversion. it was sweet because it was gold, but not a real great idea...i threw it while hammering my way up the bridge on roosevelt road heading west. there was a bike lane then, but it was still super scary to eat it so near to the very heavy roosevelt traffic.

i want to see pictures of the repaint, please.

The repaint is something that could probably be done during the day if you wore vests and stole a couple construction horses with the blinking lights. use a roller and a big bucket of white paint.........it would be bad ass, it is just alot of bike lane to repaint. A mile or so?

i think it stretches from michigan to western and ogden maybe?

the bike lane still exists west of ashland

basically it is just canal to des plaines, then halsted to ashland.

I would be happy if we just did halsted to ashland.

edit: erm i take that back i mean canal to des plaines.

let's do the whole city. fight club style with a huge glowing bicycle on the sears tower and a big anti-hummer on the hancock building. that would rock some socks!