Chicago Looks Globally for Ideas To Solve Biking Issues

By Rachelle Bowden in News on Jun 12, 2006 11:27AM

Yesterday the city announced plans to link together a 500-mile network of bike routes, including almost 200 miles of new street routes. More bike paths = good, but also great are the safety issues the plan addresses.

Some of the biggest dangers to cyclists are car doors opening and people passing in the right lane. City planners went global and looked around the world for new safety ideas. From Geneva, Switzerland, they got the idea for the raised bike lanes. A layer of pavement above street level but below the curb will help to keep motorists from veering into the cycling path. An idea taken from Copenhagen, Cambridge and a few other places was to make bicyle lanes a really bold, bright color. Doing this at intersections helps to warn motorists making right turns to watch for bikes.

In the plans is to shut down several streets for biking on Sunday mornings. This is supposed to start next year and is something that is already done in Bogota, Colombia, and Guadalajara, Mexico. Also, the bike station at Millennium Park would be duplicated under the proposal. Another center with showers and lockers would be built at the Ogilvie Transportation Center.

And speaking of bike stations, did you hear that McDonalds is giving $5 million to support the Millennium Park cycling station for the next 50 years? Now we can't remember.... Was this always the McDonald's Cycling Center or did the one last thing in Millennium Park that didn't have a corporate sponsor just get one?

Also this weekend, 200 Chicago bikers gathered in Wicker Park for a ten-mile ride. Except this was no normal ride. Everyone was naked, or nearly naked. The bare-bottomed bikers were protesting oil dependency and car culture. If you're brave (remember the Seinfeld about "bad naked"?) and not at work, check out photos from around the world on World Naked Bike Ride days.

"Bicycle Station sign" via Wildcat Dunny