Some Drivers Never Understand

Here's a link to the photos much larger, you can clearly see that at least 3 of them have absolutely no business blocking the lane.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/j...

The ugly law of unintended consequences strikes again.

Only because the law of intended consequences has not operated. Ticket these trucks and they will have to decide whether it's worth it block the lane. If we're going to do this bike lane thing, we need to really do it, not paint them and hope everyone obeys the law.

I used to be in a position to talk to a great number of delivery drivers on a daily basis. One of the things I learned was that many companies simply accept tickets as part of the cost of doing business downtown. Add up the amount companies make per day delivering several hundred packages to five or six buildings within cart distance of their illegally-parked truck, and you'll see a piddly little parking ticket doesn't really compare. I doubt the effect even very strict enforcement would have on the problem.

Win/win. City gets more money, bikers feel like the city is on their side. And *some* delivery drivers may change their behavior. No reason not to ticket.

Didn't say it was reason not to ticket. I said ticketing wouldn't change behavior. Hence, the unintended consequences twocee referred to, in that an attempt to make things safer for bicyclists now forces bicyclists to randomly duck into traffic. Hardly a win/win. 

Oh. So the way was clear before? No ducking into traffic back then? What a shame.

"Ticketing won't change behavior." OK. I say that if we want it to it can. Eyore disagrees, so I guess we should just get rid of bike lanes. Oh well.

Who's Eyore? Is he the bipolar cousin of Eeyore?

No, he's Eeyore's spelling-challenged nephew and he's very sensitive. Back off.

Oh. So the way was clear before?

As a matter of fact, it was just fine before. Kinzie was wide enough that a bicyclist had room to maneuver around things without coming into conflict with cars. That's why there were never bike wrecks there. Now there's far less room, so that moving out of the bike lane means moving directly into the path of a car.

Eyore disagrees, so I guess we should just get rid of the bike lanes.

Nice lawyer move, there, though it doesn't address the point that Kinzie is less safe than it was before the bike lanes.

No, no. I'm with you. I don't ride a bike or drive through there. Just tear it out. Causes too many internet fights anyway.

Another option would be to leave well enough alone. 

Yup, I see ticketed trucks all the time.  They park where they need to park and accept the tickets if/when they get them.

Time to increase fees on blocking bike lanes then.

Increased fees probably wouldn't do it unless it were unacceptably high (from an average joe perspective).  If, on the other hand, CPD or city employees actually ticketed on a consistent basis, it might help.

I think we need both:  higher fines and increased enforcement.

Well, yeah, but Chicago has a history of "hoping" people obey traffic laws, rather than actually forcing them to.

Perhaps by pointing out to Rahm that ticketing these trucks would bring in additional revenue we might get more tickets issued.  But doing it just because they are breaking the law?  Yeah, right.

In a few of those photos is doesn't really make sense for them to be where they are.  Is the first truck delivering to a man under the overpass?  Fedex guy was to lazy to park on the other side of the street like everybody else.  There's parking in the bottom left photo, but the car didn't care.

What necessity does what appears to be a tanker truck (of some sort) have to be there? There's nothing there at Jefferson/Kinzie that would require a truck like that to park there. Is it dumping oil into the sewer? My guess is they just didn't give a shit and parked to go talk to somebody at Blommers or wherever.., never mind that there *is* parking there...

the tanker truck is related to Blommer’s Chocolate factory (I’m assuming) - sometimes there are too many trucks to fit in front of the factory at once.

They've got a dock and plenty of space on the side it looks like.  In the photo there are no other trucks or even cars around. In other words, they're parking because there are no other cars there and they aren't afraid of getting in trouble. The city needs to start ticketing and booting.

I work for a small manufacturer and trucks can't park around our building either, they also have to go the wrong way down a one way street to access our dock (the city makes an exception for them). That's just part of driving big trucks in a huge city.

What do they expect the delivery trucks to do?  There's no parking lane and they certainly can't park in the middle of the street.  It's easier for bikers to go momentarily into the non-bike lane portion of the street than vice versa...especially with those posts.

Trucks also park in bus stops. That's also illegal & makes a far bigger mess of traffic as most city streets have just one lane in each direction, which then forces the buses to stop in the traffic lane.
The worst offenders are the beer delivery trucks.

If the city intended vehicles to park there, they'd be parking spaces, not a lane designed for vehicles to move (bikes, in this case).  You don't park in a lane intended for cars to drive, do you?

The bike lane shouldn't a "park here if it's convenient for you" lane, as you'll quickly see it completely full of parked cars. 

I understand that, but it doesn't answer the question of where you expect these trucks to park when making deliveries.

I see trucks park illegally all the time and they get ticketed sometimes.  It's a cost of doing business, but it does seem a bit unfair to me.  I certainly wouldn't demonize the drivers.  Without deliveries, Chicago would starve.

On the same token, couldn't you ask the question "where are the bikes supposed to go?"

That's certainly a good question, and as I said before, I think they should go in the street to pass the trucks.  As I also mentioned earlier, those poles prevent cars from going into the bike areas if trucks block the street, and going into the opposing traffic lane may not be feasible, certainly is illegal, and is incredibly dangerous.

It's always feasible, not illegal (that I know of), and much less dangerous for a biker to get into the traffic lane.  I bike in the traffic lanes regularly when there is no bike lane.  It works fine for me.

Swerving into traffic to get around  vehicles blocking the bike lane (or space between park ed cars and traffic where there are no lanes) is indeed very dangerous.  You can't expect that drivers will make way for you, because most of the time they don't.

I propose we build a FedEx lane. And a USPS lane. 

Ah ... so you see my point. (One of them, at least.) These trucks won't be going anywhere anytime soon. I predict we'll see a similar problem along Elston, especially around the Lexus dealership.