MBAC terms of reference and list of official council members

The following text is from a handout delivered to attendees at the June 2012 MBAC meeting. 

I. Objectives

The Mayor’s Bicycle Advisory Council shall assist the city in all maters related to bicyclists. Objectives of the Council include but are not limited to:

  1. Promoting policies and practices that will advance bicycling as a desirable and viable form of transortation and recreation.
  2. Working for improved bicycling safety and access to public transit, schools, workplaces, shops, libraries, parks, including roads, and other public spaces.
  3. Providing guidance in the formulations of Chicago’s Bike 2015 Plan and asisting the city departments in implementation.
  4. Ensuring that a review process is in place so that bicycling accommodation is inlucided in all projects and at all stages of design. Providing comments and recommendations on major city-side projects or projects with policy significance.
  5. Providing a forum for input and participation on bicycling issues in Chicago.
  6. Promoting safe and responsible practices to bicyclists and other road users.
  7. Serving as an advisory, resource, and information support body on all bicycling-related matters.

Continue reading MBAC terms of reference and list of official council members

Bike sharing delays, bike lane designs, and other highlights from Wednesday’s MBAC meeting

[flickr]photo:7372851466[/flickr]

CDOT staffer Mike Amsden describes the city’s commitment to bicycling in a presentation about the progress of the Streets for Cycling Plan 2020. 

Yesterday’s Mayor’s Bicycle Advisory Council (MBAC) meeting was the first in a new format we reported on back in December. There was a meeting in March, but its schedule wasn’t announced. The new format resembles the original format in 1992, when Mayor Daley started MBAC, with formally defined membership. It’s now modeled on the Mayor’s Pedestrian Advisory Council, according to Luann Hamilton, deputy commissioner of project development at the Chicago Department of Transportation (CDOT). She expounded:

We’ve added so many issues. When we started, biking in Chicago wasn’t a health issue, it was a recreation issue. Once it was linked to health, it brought in a whole new group of people that needed to be connected. Bring more voices, more diversity. Modeled after our MPAC which was formed in 2006 (also has technical and stakeholders committees). Some represent agencies, others are advocates, community members, all who want to make streets safer and usable by all travelers.

The council can be active again, vote, carry motion, write a letter. I think we were instrumental in creating changes, like at CTA and Metra [getting them to allow bicycles on buses and trains]. I think this Council can have a powerful voice. All the folks who have come over the years can still come and make presentations.

The first hour is for members to speak and present. The remaining half hour is for public comments and discussion. Hamilton answered affirmatively to Active Transportation Alliance executive director Ron Burke’s question about whether or not she anticipates the council being able to make recommendations. Continue reading Bike sharing delays, bike lane designs, and other highlights from Wednesday’s MBAC meeting

Tales from #bikeCHI: Park District repaves parts of busy Lakefront Trail during busy commuting week

Following #bikeCHI on Twitter is a great way to stay on top of what’s going on in bicycling communities or with  infrastructure issues that affect bicycling. A case in point: two people posted photos Tuesday and Wednesday of construction on the Lakefront Trail along with their brief complaints.

[flickr]photo:7371764890[/flickr]

Tweet: City says screw ‪#B2WW‬. Let’s dig up Lake Front Trail and place barricades every few miles. ‪#bikechi‬ pic.twitter.com/BIm6lAxm

[flickr]photo:7186535471[/flickr]

Tweet: Bike to work week is the perfect time to cut deep trenches in chicago’s bike highway. ‪#BikeChi‬ ‪#ChiLFT‬ ‪#B2WW‬ ‪#fail‬ http://twitpic.com/9vzdn8

Grid Chicago asked the Chicago Park District (not the City) why it was repaving during Bike to Work Week. A construction contract was recently undertaken and crews are “working feverishly” to repair parts of the Lakefront Trail before the glut of summer usage. The spokesperson didn’t have details on this specific detour but she said they were always provided in construction projects on the path.

Continue reading Tales from #bikeCHI: Park District repaves parts of busy Lakefront Trail during busy commuting week

Marie Ullrich wants to deliver a feature-length movie about bike messengers

[flickr]photo:7367851438[/flickr]

Marie Ullrich on Milwaukee Avenue.

It’s annoying to see your job or your city portrayed inaccurately in the media, but as someone who spent years as a Chicago courier I was pleasantly surprised by Faster!, a short by filmmaker Marie (“MAH-ree”) Ullrich, which has played several international festivals. Although it’s a work of fiction, the writer/director/producer did a solid job of realistically depicting the nuts and bolts of Chicago’s bike delivery business. You can view the trailer for Faster! here (embedded below). Other locally filmed, bike-related projects she’s completed include an award-winning ad for Chrome messenger bags and an experimental short about ghost bike memorials.

[vimeo]16416972[/vimeo]

Now Ullrich is trying to raise $35,000 via a Kickstarter campaign to shoot The Alley Cat, a full-length movie starring Jasper, the female messenger who is the main character from Faster!, played by Jenny Strubin. While the short follows Jasper on a rough day of courier work, the action in the feature film would revolve around a late-night alleycat (underground courier race) gone awry. Ullrich hopes to shoot the movie this summer before she leaves town for a full-time gig teaching in Michigan. I recently sat down with her at Café Mustache in Logan Square to get some background on her work and the deets about her future plans.

Continue reading Marie Ullrich wants to deliver a feature-length movie about bike messengers

A Groupon for CTA

[flickr]photo:7222793938[/flickr]

One of the CTA’s nicer stations.

Soon you’ll be able to buy a 3-day pass on Chicago Transit Authority via Groupon. Groupon is purchasing 250,000 passes at $7.53 each and will resell them to Groupon buyers for $9, down from the $14 retail price. The pass allows unlimited rides on CTA buses and trains for 72 hours from the first use. From the press release:

Groupon has 36.9 million active customers and close to 900,000 daily page views, allowing CTA an opportunity to advertise to a national and international audience. Emails will appear in a member’s daily deal for Chicago and when visitors search for travel deals on the internet retailer.

The discounted rate will encourage more people to use CTA’s 3-Day pass, which offers a better value than the pay-as-you-go option. The CTA Groupon will also cultivate new riders and eventually capture permanent local customers, expanding the current ridership base.

In addition to gaining additional ridership, CTA will receive customer information that will help CTA reach out to customers to help encourage further use of the system.

Per the terms of the agreement, Groupon and CTA can agree to offer an additional 250,000 passes for the same price within the next 12 months. This agreement does not affect the availability or price of 3-Day passes at existing sales locations.

Continue reading A Groupon for CTA

WGN TV’s bike lane map transforms Chicago into Copenhagen overnight

[flickr]photo:7179023187[/flickr]

Don’t be fooled by the bike lane map that WGN TV displayed yesterday morning on television. There’s a stark difference between the lines on that map, which denotes the location of all bikeway types (a part of transportation infrastructure, with pavement markings) and recommended bike routes (not a part of transportation infrastructure, without pavement markings), and the lines you see on the ground (a large portion of which are faded). A superimposed “bike lane” sign and the single color representing the aggregated bike lanes, marked shared lanes, and recommended routes, make it seem as if there are more bike lanes than actually exist.

Chicago doesn’t provide an up-to-date online map, but occasionally updates the bikeways geodata on its open data portal (which I used to create the right side map of the above image). The City is short 20 miles of protected bike lanes for the first year of four (25 miles per year, 100 miles total), which ended May 16, 2012.

Watch the TV segment filmed at a spinning class at the Bean – as part of Bike to Work Week – or read the partial transcript below. Continue reading WGN TV’s bike lane map transforms Chicago into Copenhagen overnight