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god, not so loud. Someone might hear. After all, everyone's fed
up with traffic jams, tired of being afraid on the streets of
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the Chicagoland Bicycle Federation and are making a difference
(and getting discounts on maps, at bike shops, and events to boot).
So carefully now, slip off with this issue of Bike Traffic (another
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| International
Walk to School Day is October 8. Get
out and stretch your legs a bit with your kids. iwalktoschool.org
has listings of events around the world. Fourth Annual Break the Gridlock Conference is October 18. At Pulaski Park Fieldhouse, 1419 W. Blackhawk in Chicago, 11:30 AM. Lt. Governor Pat Quinn and bike film maker Ted White will work the corwd into a car-free lather, inspiring traffic-busting debate in the day's workshops. Pre-register for $10 at breakthegridlock.org. Bike to da Bears in October. The endorphins will help the pain. And Bank One's Bike Valet will park your bike just southeast of Soldier Field along Waldron Drive for FREE for all October home games and on November 2. Deadline for the December ‘03 Bike Traffic is November 8. Gonna find out who's naughty or nice. |
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This Man
Wants to Install YOUR Bike Rack! John Greenfield and the CDOT Bike
Rack Program have dozens of shiny new racks ready to install RIGHT NOW
at the site of your choosing. THEY COST YOU NOTHING, and beautify any
establishment. Request one! Request a dozen! Fill out the
on-line form at chicagobikes.org!
| Chicagoland
Bicycle Federation At 650 S. Clark: Randy
Neufeld Dan
Korman Steve
Buchtel Dave
Glowacz Cathy
Haibach Nick
Jackson Eve
Jennings Matt
Maloney Anne
Nepokroeff Randy
Warren Alex
Wilson At
Chicago Department John
Greenfield |
Enhancements
Saved!
Broad coalition wins battle, positions itself for war
By Steven Buchtel
In a full-House vote on September 4, U.S. Representative Mark Kirk (R-IL)
voted with all other Illinois delegates (save for one) to restore Enhancements
funding to the 2004 federal appropriations bill. Kirk had cast a partisan
vote in committee in early May against restoring the funding, a move that
would have zeroed out nearly $600 million worth of Enhancements projects
programmed for 2004, including many bike projects in Northeastern Illinois.
A relative rookie on the House Appropriations Committee, Rep. Kirk undoubtedly
felt pressure from Republican leadership during the committee vote.
But on the House floor, partisanship gave way to constituents' concern
and common sense. Reps. Thomas Petri (R-WI) and John Olver (D-MA) sponsored
an amendment to restore the funding stripped away by Appropriations, and
most delegates from both parties, pushed by public outcry in their districts,
piled on. The amendment restoring Enhancements won handedly, 327-90. From
Illinois, only Rep. Donald Manzullo (R-16th) voted against the measure.
When I asked a Kirk spokesman why the congressman voted for Enhancements
in the House vote, he replied "Because it was the right thing to do."
Oklahoma Republican Ernest Istook, chair of the Appropriations sub-committee
that originally stripped Enhancements from the 2004 federal spending bill,
might have been prodded to do so by the highway lobby to test the response
of the pro-Enhancements community: Highway lobbyists and automobile manufacturers
have fought viciously against Enhancements reauthorization in the past.
Or Istook might have been following through on a personal belief that
Enhancements was being spent frivolously across the board: His own state
had applied to use Enhancements funding to regild the dome of the state
capitol building, arguing that its connection to transportation was that
it could be seen from three highways (the Federal Highway Administration
rejected the application). We don't know his motives.
But the consequences of his attempt are plain enough. By targeting Enhancements
for elimination, Istook pitched a floater over the plate to Enhancements
supporters, who together not only smacked it out of the ball park. According
to Martha Rokowski of America Bikes,
they likely knocked it clear out of any future debate, including the big
one around the corner: reauthorization of the 6-year federal transportation
funding program.
"Just the Republican vote was 130-90 in favor of restoring Enhancements,"
says Rokowski, "and all Democrats voted for it." This is shocking. When
Istook's bill passed out of Appropriations Committee in August, political
consultants told America Bikes that restoring Enhancements to the bill
was a lost cause; amendments to appropriations bills proposed on the House
floor nearly always fail. That the Enhancements amendment rolled through
congress like thunder is a measure of the depth and breadth of the coalition
that formed in support of the program.
The coalition included the "usual suspects," says Rokowski--bicycle advocates,
trail advocates, environmentalists--who found themselves bolstered by
health organizations, landscape architects, municipal planning organizations,
historic preservation advocates, and myriad other groups representing
a wide swath of America who have come to value the projects Enhancements
makes possible. Rokowski claims that constituents from every congressional
district in America sent letters to their congressman supporting the restoration
of Enhancements.
Rokowski believes that no congressman will want to stand in the way of
this freight train again. "We settled once and for all the question of
whether America wants all of its transportation spending to be on cars,
or whether America wants a balanced transportation system. America wants
balance." When congressional reps take up the larger federal transportation
legislation early next year, there will be a fortress around Enhancements
that is unassailable.
"When the highway lobby says, 'Let's take money out of Enhancements,'"
says Martha, "the congressman's going to think 'I'm not standing in front
of that buzz saw again." Not having to defend Enhancements in next year's
reauthorization fight frees bicycle advocates to put other issues on the
table. And the newly won clout from the Enhancements victory will make
sure that members of congress sit down and listen. For more information
on the reauthorization of the federal transportation funding, go to americabikes.org.
Unfinished Business
Major Taylor Trail's (mostly) ridable, but not open
By Steven Buchtel
When considering the Major Taylor Trail in light of the man it honors, it helps to appreciate irony.
At the close of the 19th century, Marshall "Major" Taylor battled deeply held racial prejudices to become the world's first African-American sports star, racing his bike to a world championship in the early 1900s. Success failed to extend beyond his skill as a cyclist, however, and by the 1930s he had drifted into obscurity and died impoverished in a Chicago YMCA.
A century after his cycling career ended, his namesake trail has been an eagerly anticipated project. Trail proponents have battled neighborhood prejudices to bring about America's first urban rails-to-trails conversion. But financial and community issues have left it incomplete and short of its promise as a contiguous trail.
The trail hasn't faded from people's consciousness, however, the way Taylor did. After all, the pavement's down, and the city's Streets and Sanitation Department keeps the grass and brush along it mowed. Dozens of cyclists enjoy it every day. To them, the off-street sections from the Little Calumet to 105th and from 94th to 83rd Street look finished. Which only makes riders wonder why hasn't it officially opened? And what's with the fence at 94th Street?
The trail's not open, says Chicago Department of Transportation (CDOT) planner Luann Hamilton, because the firm building the bikeway, R. & W. Clark, Inc., defaulted on the contract last December, leaving the remaining work in the hands of the bonding company that insured the contract.
"The bridge," according to Hamilton, "is the largest item left unfinished." This span over the Little Calumet River will connect the trail to Blue Island's Whistler Woods at 13100 South. A structure is there, but no decking. Since work stopped, the bridge and the rest of the remaining work--primarily landscaping and seeding native prairie plants--are in limbo while CDOT discusses the completion of the contract with the bonding company. Issues include who's responsible for maintenance and repair costs arising from neglect since construction stopped, explains Hamilton.
But the bridge is too near one end to be a real obstacle, and the path's pavement is smooth and clean even if the land along it is scrubby. For many riders, the real obstacle to using the trail is the five-foot high steel fence across the entire right-of-way at 94th Street near Ashland.
Riding south on the Major Taylor Trail from Dan Ryan Woods, the fence stops you where the paved trail gives way to the on-street portion of the route. But riding north from the Little Calumet, the off-street path ends at 105th Street, and you navigate the street route that's sporadically marked to find where the path picks up again. After the confusion of the street route, finding the trail again at 94th is an "A-ha!" moment. Followed by a quiet, puzzled moment.
You feel misled. The fence is impassable: can't get around it, can't get over it. With the paved path so clearly ridable on the other side, the fence is incongruous, almost surreal.
And the fence is enigmatic. Rumors abound regarding why it was built, but in conversations with CBF members from the area and the 19th Ward alderman's office, two stories, not necessarily competing, were most persistent: the Beverly community's anxiety toward its less-wealthy neighbors to the east; and miscommunication between CDOT and the 19th Ward.
When conducting public meetings regarding the then-proposed trail in the late 1990s, CDOT's Hamilton showed her mettle not only as a planner but also as negotiator and peacemaker between neighborhoods the Major Taylor Trail would connect. But her efforts also underscored the tension between wealthier and less-wealthy south side communities. The experience made her wise enough not to indentify community tensions as a reason why the fence at 94th Street was built. Hamilton gave me the official answer: "The fence was erected at the request of the Alderman who was acting on complaints from residents in her community."
Alderman Rugai says the fence was there first. A spokesperson for the alderman says CDOT, without consulting the ward, took down an existing fence blocking the right-of-way when construction began. Residents, miffed by CDOTs action, demanded the fence be restored. Interestingly, when I described the fence as "blocking the trail," Rugai's office advised me that the Alderman did not block the trail. Its official access can be found at 91st Street, in the back of a cul-de-sac.
Whatever the story, the fence will stay. What's likely to change is the trail. Just north of 95th Street., Vanderpoel will soon host a massive new firehouse, limiting its appeal as an on-street bicycle route. Initiated by Alderman Rugai, negotiations between CDOT and the Jewel-Osco at 95th and Ashland will hopefully lead to a new extension of the path that runs along what is now the western edge of the store's parking lot, skirting the fence and leading southbound riders to the signal at Charles and 95th. South of 95th, bike riders would continue on Charles instead of Vanderpoel, cutting over to Prospect at 97th Street. Hamilton says negotiations with Jewel-Osco will start soon.
Major Taylor the man waited nearly 60 years to receive the recognition he deserved as a trail blazer for blacks in professional athletics. The Major Taylor Trail will open much sooner: the bonding company says construction should continue this October. And the 19th Ward and CDOT have a working compromise for re-routing the trail. If that plan goes forward, the issue of the fence as an obstacle to bike riders and even as a barrier between communities will be largely moot, a fitting outcome that reflects the man. Sweet irony.
So You Say You Want a Revolution
Break the Gridlock directs Mass momentum
By Michael Burton
As Chicago Critical Mass rides swelled to more than 1,000 participants this summer, a common question emerged from Chicago's downtown bike clogged streets: Is it possible to harness the energy of Critical Mass to actually accomplish anything beyond the monthly rides?
Whenever someone tries to rope the ride into supporting a specific agenda, they are typically reminded of the anarchist, mission-less nature of the mass. Recently, Critical Mass scholar Dan Korn eloquently described the philosophical underpinnings of the ride on the Chicago Critical Mass list serve: "Critical Mass is not a group or organization of any kind. You can't join or be a member, you can only participate in it. It doesn't have any goals or agenda or mission or leaders. It's just a ride (or more precisely, a set of rides around the world)."
While the ride has its roots in simple anarchy, Critical Mass has inspired numerous grass roots initiatives to take back our city from the tyranny of the private automobile. Perhaps the best example of this is Break the Gridlock, a loose coalition of Chicago grass roots initiatives to promote transit, walking, and cycling as viable alternatives to driving.
Since Break the Gridlock was founded four years ago, its numerous campaigns have had a profound effect on our city. Chicago Bike Winter has inspired hundreds of cyclists to commute year-round. The Zoning for Transportation Equity Coalition recently defeated a City proposal that would have required new housing developments to pave over backyards for additional parking spaces. The Gray Line Campaign has advanced a proposal for a new CTA El line. Cycling Sisters has encouraged countless women to ride. The campaign to depave Lake Shore Drive has changed the way we think about superhighways and parkland. The list goes on and on.
Just as Critical Mass rides provide monthly inspiration for urban cyclists, the annual Break the Gridlock conference helps transportation activists re-charge their solar batteries. This year's conference on Saturday, October 18, should be especially electrifying with longtime consumer activist/Lieutenant Governor Pat Quinn keynoting and film maker Ted White closing the proceedings. We'll also hear about many local grass roots initiatives and learn how to get involved or even start your own campaign. Register today (see www.breakthegridlock.org for more information) and get ready to rewrite Chicago's future!
While the anarchist nature of Critical Mass may keep Critical Mass rides from supporting specific agendas, Break the Gridlock is a vivid example of how Chicago Critical Mass inspires action well beyond the last Friday of each month.
Police
Beat
Trucker pays $100 for killing 13-year old girl in crosswalk
near school
By David Callahan
Eight weeks after running over and killing a 13-year-old LaGrange girl
as she walked her bike through a crosswalk, a dump-truck driver was fined
$100 and given court supervision on September 8 at Cook County Fifth District
Courthouse in Bridgeview.
David Moro, 31, pleaded innocent to one charge of failure to yield to
a pedestrian in a crosswalk, but was found guilty after a bench trial.
The court appearance followed a petition effort in the western suburb
that sought to upgrade charges to criminal reckless homicide.
Emily Kandemir was walking her bike to tennis camp at Lyons Township High
School on South Willow Springs Road in neighboring Western Springs when
she attempted to cross 47th Street at an intersection about one block
north of the campus. She proceeded with a green light and a walk signal,
while Moro made a right turn on red with his three-axle gravel hauler.
LaGrange Village Prosecutor John Kenney, Jr. said the possibility of felony
charges was rejected due to the difficulty of proving beyond a reasonable
doubt that the driver acted with either recklessness or negligence. When
asked why higher charges were not pursued, Police Chief Michael Holub
answered, "His actions were neither reckless nor negligent."
Kenney said that civil proceedings are available to the girl's family,
if they want to pursue punitive damages.
Before the hearing, a Cook County assistant state's attorney met with
a representative of the petitioners, Margaret Nighswander of LaGrange,
to explain the State's Attorney's position.
Nighswander said she views the outcome of the petition as positive, if
it causes the village's police department to intensify traffic enforcement
and to re-examine intersections for pedestrian and bike hazards. Shortly
after the incident, "no turn on red" signs were installed at the intersection
of 47th and Willow Springs Road. And, while meeting with Holub the morning
of the hearing, she said she was asked if there were any specific hazards
in LaGrange she wanted police to address.
Traffic Calming
Teaching manners on the lakefront
By Andrea Murphy, Bicycling Ambassador
The
lakefront trail is a beautiful--and sometimes dangerous--place. It is used
by a variety of people for a variety of reasons--families out for a stroll,
the commuter on her way home from work, roller skaters, runners, and tourists,
who often wander onto the path as if it were a suburban sidewalk. Your chances
of being involved in a crash here are higher than on any given street in
Chicago. Still, cyclists pass by with their helmets on their handlebars
or no helmet at all, as if the absence of cars deems it safe. Many more
zip down the trail without any warning to those they leave in their dust.
The problem with the trail is that there are no rules. And, unfortunately, trusting your enjoyment and safety of the trail to the courtesy of others is risky, if not plain stupid.
With the goal of making the trail a safer place for everyone, Mayor Daley's Bicycling Ambassadors have spent a lot of time on the trail throughout the summer.
One Wednesday in August, equipped with our display, literature, and signs that read, "Before passing, say 'ON YOUR LEFT,'" "When stopping, GET OFF THE PATH," and "When it's crowded, SLOW DOWN," fellow Bicycle Ambassadors Anna Glenn and I staked ourselves on the trail at Fullerton, aiming to talk to passersby about etiquette and safety.
Before we'd finished setting up, two kids on bikes stopped by. Alex and Sergio had borrowed the bikes from their aunt and big brother and were as excited to have them as we were to have such a rapt audience. We checked out the dusty bikes as they watched in awe. "Sergio look! It jumps!" said Alex of the chain as I showed him what happens when gears shift. They also learned how to recognize and oil a neglected chain. I knew that they were fellow bike ambassadors in spirit when they offered oil to the creaky chains of kids and adults alike. "Hey sir your chain is bad!" they yelled.
We caused a scene, we were busy, and the rest of the afternoon was positively balmy as Anna, Alex, Sergio and I worked on bicycles and talked to dozens of people about trail etiquette, other trails, derailleur repairs, how best to lock a bike, bike lanes, riding in traffic, and group rides like Critical Mass. One woman wanted to know what the city is doing to improve the path, and why there aren't more signs like ours on the trail permanently
As our signs illustrate, it is good to remember how effective communication and courtesy can be. On the lakefront trail, many pedestrians have the same qualms with cyclists that cyclists riding on the road have with motorists: "They think they own the place!" Like the roads, the trails are shared space. Cyclists need to remember to say "On your left" when they pass and to never ride so fast as to endanger themselves and others. For cyclists that want to ride fast, using the streets, especially early in the morning, is a better option.
Rat
at War
By L. Gordon Shumway
Haven't you heard? There's a war on, citizen. And be warned, if you've
not aligned yourself appropriately yet, you've little time to lose.
Chances are, you've seen the signs. Perhaps you've glimpsed a few bicycle
choppers ambling by lately--forks crudely extended with heavy-gauge plumber's
pipe--or maybe a roving pack of tall bikes careening in and out of rush
hour traffic.
While these sightings may be a source of levity for onlookers, their rapidly
increasing numbers imply anything but.
I spoke recently with a man whom many consider to be the vanguard for
the freakbike movement (and certainly one of its most flamboyant members).
In a handful of cryptic murmurings, he detailed to me plans for new bikes,
burgeoning recruitment and, eventually, world domination.
His name is Johnny Payphone, he is one of the foremost demented geniuses
behind Chicago's Rat Patrol
bike gang, and these days he's riding a bright yellow, eight-foot-tall
behemoth named Janeane Gar-tall-falo. Janeane is a Mixte stack; she is
three Raleigh Mixtes high and the latest in a series paying tribute to
admirable people.
Predating Janeane are Noam Chopsky, which currently hangs from the ceiling
in the Handlebar Bar & Grill at 2311 W. North Avenue; Count Chopula, a
bike which "chops other bikes in the night as they sleep;" and a smattering
of more esoteric, outlandish concoctions.
"There are a number of bikes still pupating," he said, pointing to a clot
of congealing metal masses in the rafters of the Rat's Nest West, an overstocked,
underventilated garage on Chicago's northwest side.
Among the chrysalids are a Revamped Count Chopula, the Phantom of the
Chopera, and Keith Faring. Just inside the garage door is a pile of the
recently hatched. All the bikes are former-trash, many retrieved mere
moments before an untimely demise at the Kingsbury scrap yard.
Payphone's fixation with freak bikes has been a lifelong obsession.
"When I was a kid I wrapped every rubber band I found around the handlebars
of my bike," he said. "Kids find lots of rubber bands--especially if they're
really looking. Eventually, the bike looked like a sort of emaciated yak."
For Payphone, bikes have always been merely a source for creative output.
They are the ideal medium for the marriage of function and form (and,
for Payphone, the latter has always worn the pants in the relationship).
Historically, his has been a hobby that began with trash, and found its
end ultimately with preposterous transportation.
That is until recently.
Six months ago, a new bike club poured itself onto Chicago's streets and
into its bountiful alleyways. Spawned as a chapter of the Minneapolis
bike club by the same name, Chicago's Scallywags are the Christian arch-rivals
of the Rat Patrol.
And while their charge for control of Chicago's alleys has been short
in coming, they have given Johnny and the Rats a run for their money--or
for their garbage, as it were.
The ongoing war between these bike gangs (which, to the untrained eye,
might more closely resemble a series of back yard barbecues and chopping
sessions) is indeed insidious. It is a cold war, invoked by a ceaseless
innovation and production from both sides.
Most recently, under cover of night, the Scallywags built their first
triple-high tall bike, the announcement of which served effectively as
the first declaration of war. The creation of Janeane came in response.
In a recent letter soliciting the aid of his fellow Rats, Payphone wrote,
"[We must] wrench trash from the gaping maws of the Kingsbury scrap chipper
and bring it back to life with the holy trinity: The crescent wrench,
the sawz-all, and the torch! Do not be swayed by the seeming friendliness
of the Scallywags. From the north they came, reproducing like loaves and
fishes, and now they threaten our once-vicelike stranglehold on the alleys
of this fair city."
There is no end in sight for this war, but neither is it a war of simple
attrition. While Payphone is aware of the sacrifices he has made to continue
this relentless affront, his bloodlust is far from being sated.
"Choppers are my real love," Payphone acknowledged. "The tall bikes are
just a fling." However, he continued by saying that such predilections
must not come in the way of the task at hand.
In the end, when the spoils of war outvalue the toils, there can be no
loser. Both sides would agree: it is the idle mind--and idle hands--that
accomplish the devil's work.
When you drive, you're still a bicycle advocate. Or you could be. Click the sign above to take the pledge. Or read about the Driver's Pledge in the December 2002/January 2003 Bike Traffic.
Buses Beat Metra Coming & Going
"Share the road" ads aimed at motorists and cyclists appeared on the backs of 75 CTA buses in August and September, thanks to a cooperative marketing agreement between Mayor Daley's Bicycling Ambassadors (via Chicagoland Bicycle Federation and the Chicago Department of Transportation) and the CTA.
And in the burbs, Barb Ladner of Pace Suburban Bus Service reports that May, 2003 monthly bike rack usage was up to 2,585 customers from 514 a year earlier. The program is rapidly maturing; each month through May saw use about five times higher than year-earlier levels. The program began in July, 2000, when 51 bike-and-ride customers used the system.
Meanwhile, Metra in 2003 again ran a token Bikes on Trains program that fulfilled none of the promise of the successful pilot program of two years ago. Look for a report on Metra's bike program in the November Bike Traffic.
You mean the money was REAL? The suburban newspaper Daily Herald reports that Villa Park's city council, after voting in late August 4-2 to reject a federal grant that would have built sidewalks along Roosevelt Road, declared themselves as "not really paying attention at the time." Okay, that's not true. But facing community pressure, they did recant, and in mid-September voted 6-0 to accept the funding. The new sidewalks will be laid on both sides of Roosevelt from Ardmore Avenue west to Michigan Avenue, the village's western limit.
Take me to your bike valet. Ride to the Bears' home games in October and on November 2, and the Bank One Bike Valet will park and watch your bike for free while you verify the old adage "It's what's inside that counts." Look for the valet parking on Waldron Drive, southeast of the stadium.
Bike Traffic is published by the Chicagoland Bicycle Federation, a nonprofit, volunteer advocacy organization that is improving the quality of life in Northeastern Illinois by making cycling safer, more convenient, and more fun. All material that isn't copyrighted may be reprinted. Advertising rates available on request.
Managing Editor
Steve Buchtel
Editors
Randy Neufeld
Dan Korman
David Callahan
Layout
Steve Buchtel
Copyright
2003, Chicagoland Bicycle Federation
650 S. Clark, Ste. 300, Chicago, Ill. 60605
Ph: 312/427-3325 Fax: 312/427-4907 E-mail:
cbf@biketraffic.org
