Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Bike riding in the bike lanes

Late last year, bike lanes were installed on Madison Avenue from McNeil to Cooper after several months of debate on whether they would be used, on whether reducing the number of traffic lanes would be detrimental to the businesses along the street, etc.  Once the project was approved, I chronicled the progress on this blog (through Phases I, II, III, IV and V).  Since that time, I have heard numerous comments that the bike lanes were rarely utilized by cyclists.  Let this post serve as a rebuttal to those comments.  The following photos were taken randomly over the course of just one month, from early March 2012 - early April 2012.

The combination of a wide bike lane and a wide parking lane affords plenty of room for the cyclist to navigate around opening car doors on the one side and moving traffic on the other.

...which allows bikers to be casual (note the hand in the pocket)...

...to ride in pairs, side-by-side...



...to "color outside the lines"...

...to avoid vicious dogs on the sidewalk...

...to text-while-riding...

...to get off of the bike and run....


...to go the wrong way...

...or carry sundries...

...or to ride on both sides of the line...


Some will wear helmets....


...and some will just wear a headband....



...but there will always be a few who just prefer the sidewalk.

And let's end with this perfect shot - - - a cyclist in each direction!

3 comments:

  1. Nice pics. It appears as though little on Madison escapes the notice of Josh!

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  2. This is exactly how some of the major streets through Chicago are designed for cyclists and motorists to share. I love riding in Chicago...ironically I feel MUCH safer than I ever felt cycling in Memphis...but I left during the bike lane debates...not after.

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