Tag Archives: bike lane

Unified Fare Payment and Chicago Bike Share

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There hasn’t been a lot of recent news about the bike share system coming to Chicago (hopefully) this spring. As Twitter user @JustinHaugens points out, Alta Bike Share (a consulting firm) only recently posted management positions for Chicago (here’s one).

At this point, we really have no idea what the stations will look like, but we can look to Capital Bikeshare in DC and Nice Ride in Minneapolis to get an idea, since Alta played a role in both systems’ development.

Capital Bikeshare station. Credit: Bike Arlington.

We also don’t know what the “key” will look like, but here’s another idea:

Capital Bikeshare key used to unlock bicycles. Credit: Mr. T in DC

Ideally, the “key” used to unlock a bike at a station should not be a unique, distinct key, but instead should be integrated with the rest of Chicago’s transportation payment methods.

It’s a bit of a stretch to believe this would have happened initially, especially since not every transportation option in Chicago currently has the same payment system. But this is exactly how it should be. Everyone in the Chicago region should be able to use one card to pay for all public transportation in the region: Metra, Pace, CTA, and, soon, bike share.

I’m not in the position to suggest who exactly should oversee such a payment system or ensure that payment makes its way to the correct transportation entity, but the point is that it should exist in the future. So many American cities have disconnected transportation payment mechanisms. New York in particular is pretty awful at this: On a recent trip visiting a friend in Jersey City, a trip to Manhattan requires taking the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail ($2.25 per ride), then a PATH train ($2.25), and, depending on the destination, a ride on the Subway ($2.25). All require different farecards. Indeed, New York and New Jersey are different states, but we should expect more cooperation among transportation networks in the country’s largest metropolitan region. This is not unique, either; many cities across the country require different fare payments on their different transportation systems.

We’ll go across the Atlantic to—you guessed it—Paris, where transportation in the region (Ile-de-France) is spread across different brands, service levels, and government entities but is unified by one payment mechanism, including the bike share system, Vélib. The Syndicat des transports d’Île-de-France (STIF), or “Transport Organization Authority”, oversees the transportation in the region (similar to RTA in Chicagoland). You can get a ride from the suburbs on a regional Transilien or RER train to central Paris, where you can transfer to the Metro, and finally grab a bike from a Vélib station, all using just one card: The Navigo pass.

Wireless Vélib card used to unlock bike at staion.

You can, of course, still buy paper tickets (which are still unified across modes) for the Metro, RER, or Transilien, or get a Vélib card if you don’t use public transportation often. Paying the fare doesn’t get one a ride on Vélib, though: a separate annual subscription is still required, it’s just loaded onto the same card. In the future, you’ll likely be able to use your phone to do the same thing.

It should be noted that Paris is perhaps unique in integrating all modes, for even London’s Cycle Hire has not integrated its payment system with the Oyster card. If you’re aware of other cities that do integrate their bike share systems with their public transportation payment systems, let me know in the comments.

If CDOT were to talk with CTA and find a way to integrate the future bike share system with the forthcoming Ventra card, it could reduce a significant barrier to using the bike share system. If we assume the Chicago system will be similar to Minneapolis and DC, it means having to register online to receive a key or pay-per-day at a kiosk. By offering an option to pay an extra few dollars per month or year on the unlimited Ventra card in order to use bike share, a new connection could be made between CTA and a user’s final destination, and increase use of the bike share system. When the day comes where Metra integrates Ventra, it could create even more options. Could we see the day where denser suburbs, like Evanston and Oak Park, have their own bike share systems that also integrate with Ventra?

Aside from the payment mechanism, how the bikes are released is also important – if it is to be like Nice Ride, where the key is inserted into a slot to release the bike, it means there is no immediate possibility to implement wireless cards at the stations to release a bike. If wireless cards were implemented instead, we could see people unlocking bikes using smartphones, RFID-enabled credit cards, Ventra, or the bike share’s own card. It could even go so far as to wireless hotel keys being linked to the system – 24-hour memberships paid by hotels to help their guests get around, or single-use cards being issued for certain events.

Without a doubt, Alta has looked around the world at the best practices for bike share and has created some amazing systems. The fragmented organization of our city governments has also ensured that many of our transportation systems are inefficient. Smart transportation networks bridge the gap between these inefficiencies and create systems that are easy to navigate. A major part of this is ensuring that people can use the different systems with a common payment system. Hopefully, we will see more of this in the future.

EDIT: An earlier version of this post incorrectly stated that Alta manages Nice Ride in Minneapolis. Alta merely provided assistance in station location and site design guidelines.

How Push-to-Walk reduces the quality of walkable neighborhoods

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The downtown of my hometown could be classified as “walkable,” if only for a few blocks. This is one of Lake Geneva, WI’s main qualities and one of the reasons many tourists from the Chicago metro region and its environs go there for a visit. Downtown has small-town charm and history dating back to the US railroad era. I wrote about my last visit, and some information on the former train running to Lake Geneva (the old right-of-way is now a multi-use recreational trail).

The principal road, Main Street, is also State Route 50, meaning it is under WisDOT jurisdiction. This is generally not a good thing, since the state-level DOT never seems to really grasp the notion of anything except traffic movement. Luckily, nothing else can really be done to make traffic move faster through Lake Geneva’s downtown except remove angle parking on both sides, which would single-handedly destroy downtown business. There are two traffic signals within downtown, one at Main and Center, and one at Main and Broad (one block from each other). Formerly, they were not coordinated and operated on a timer. I had the timing down to a science when I was in high school and worked downtown. In the summer tourist season, traffic was awful: it could take as long as 20 minutes just to move along a 5-block stretch. The signals weren’t timed for traffic movement.


Main St and Broad, Lake Geneva, WI. View Larger Map

This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but the City Council thought so. Just recently, new “high-tech” signals were introduced. I don’t see them as an upgrade for two reasons:

  1. There are new “push to cross” buttons at all crosswalks.”
  2. They are synchronized for maximum traffic flow.
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Let’s build better residential streets

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Too many of Chicago’s residential streets are wide, one-way thoroughfares that are unsuitable for our neighborhoods. 14-foot streets are only designed to handle one car in one direction at a time give way for fast-moving traffic on quiet streets.

Hermitage Avenue looking south from Wilson Avenue, Chicago. Credit: Shaun Jacobsen.

Hermitage Avenue looking south from Wilson Avenue, Chicago. Credit: Shaun Jacobsen.

Hermitage Ave, pictured above, is really wide – and also a one-way street. There are no speed bumps along this two-block stretch from Wilson Ave to Montrose Ave, meaning many (but not all) drivers take the nearly-18 foot lane at a high speed, barely stopping at stop signs.

Something that bothers me is “sharrows” or even painted bike lanes on major streets. I do not always feel safe riding a bike on busy streets like Clark, Montrose, or even Damen. I definitely do not feel safe on streets like Irving Park (no bike lane), Lawrence, or Lincoln (with some bike lanes). Often, though, this is where the powers that be decides bike lanes (or worse – “shared lanes“) are best placed. Residential streets just a block or two away from major streets are often quieter and safer, but dead-end or are plagued with stop signs. Vehicles have major streets for fast travel through the City, but they’re often only fast and safe for vehicles. There are few thoroughfares that cross so many neighborhoods that are safe for people on bicycles.

I wrote a while ago about “complete residential streets,” which I think are a good way to get more people using a bicycle as a form of transportation. It’s hard to get busier streets narrowed or to move the parking away from the curb in order to create protected lanes. Even when it’s done, drivers still block the lane, water collects (and could freeze in winter), or there’s just too many conflict points at large intersections. It still makes people nervous.

So why not take some of the residential streets adjacent to these major streets and make them into priority biking streets? It won’t work everywhere – many of these streets don’t run for more than a few blocks – but it would work in many places and could create an excellent network of streets that are very safe for biking and are still close to everywhere people need to go. Traffic calming measures would be implemented to slow down traffic and make it easier for bike traffic to flow through, much in the same way that streets like Broadway speed up automobile traffic and make traveling easy. What’s more, according to research at UC-San Diego, people riding bikes on busy streets may be inhaling a lot of unhealthy pollutants — and biking just a block away from a major street could reduce the health risk of busy streets. This is where retrofitting our residential streets would create several benefits.

Better Residential StreetsThe only major modification is moving the curb (in this case, on the right side) in by two feet to accommodate the bike lane. On streets that are wide enough, this may not even be necessary to maintain a 10′ driving lane. This was to ensure that parking could be maintained on both sides of the street and the roadway would still be wide enough for emergency vehicles. In the event that the curb could not be cut (because of utilities or trees, for example), the bike lane could be elevated to the same height as the sidewalk instead.

When possible, traffic circles at intersections of two residential streets would ensure that traffic moves cautiously through the intersection. Raised sidewalks and curb bump-outs would elevate pedestrians. At intersections of a residential street and a secondary street (like Wilson Ave), four-way stops with a raised intersection would ensure that cars slow down before continuing. And at intersections of a residential street and major street (like Irving Park), a traffic signal would feature a bike signal – giving people on bikes their own chance to go. During periods of rain or snow, pedestrians and people on bikes could get slightly higher priority at these lights (extending a green using pavement sensors, for example).

Building a world-class bicycle network should include features that make users feel comfortable. Creating more equitable streets is the most important goal. In order to get more people using bicycles as transportation, the environment has to be comfortable and safe. It’s politically difficult to make our major streets more equitable (make no mistake, opposition about lost parking spaces would surface on residential streets, too), so why not start with residential streets that are already low-traffic and shouldn’t have automobile traffic moving more than a few blocks in the first place?

The Onion: “Congested Values”

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I was digging around the Internet when I found this gem, courtesy of The Onion:

Image of man on bike in a bike lane wearing t-shirt reading

Credit: The Onion.

Reminds me of the initial (but trivial) backlash of the new Dearborn protected bike lane in Chicago’s loop. In time, more people on bikes will ride in the lane, and everything will even out.

Redesigning North Avenue

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Yesterday I was walking down North Avenue (near Clybourn Avenue and Halsted Street) in Chicago. Something I’ve noticed before, not only when walking but also on the rare occasion where I’ve driven, is that North Avenue is a very narrow, fast street with narrow sidewalks:

Narrow sidewalk near storefronts on North Avenue. Credit: Shaun Jacobsen.

Narrow sidewalk near storefronts on North Avenue. Credit: Shaun Jacobsen.

There are at least 50 stores/restaurants along/just off of North Avenue. Many of the storefronts are recessed back from the sidewalk (either to create a small plaza or because there is a parking lot). Kudos to the few stores that decided to recess their stores to create a plaza/wider walkway, as the sidewalks are very narrow and the existing street furniture (where it actually exists) doesn’t do much to make pedestrians feel safe from fast-moving traffic on North Avenue.

Two-stage crossing at North Avenue and Clybourn Avenue. Credit: Shaun Jacobsen.

Two-stage crossing at North Avenue and Clybourn Avenue. Credit: Shaun Jacobsen.

The traffic situation is a mess. Not even because there’s too much of it or a high average daily traffic count, but because there are too many opportunities for cars to exit/enter parking lots/garages along the street. The intersection of diagonal Clybourn Avenue at North Avenue (pictured above) makes crossing Clybourn on the southern end of North difficult.

Riding a bike on North would be difficult and I would probably not attempt it. But North is a perfect street to get from neighborhoods west of the Kennedy Expressway (Wicker Park, Humboldt Park, etc.) to this neighborhood and the Lakefront [trail]. The only other direct way to get there is the #72 CTA bus, which often gets stuck in the traffic, or Division Street (1/2 mile south), which is also full of fast-moving traffic.

How could we make North Avenue more friendly to pedestrians, people on bikes, and those arriving by public transportation?

North Avenue is not proposed to be any sort of bicycle-friendly street in the recently-released Chicago Streets for Cycling 2020 plan. It is an arterial, high-speed street that cuts through at least three neighborhoods with lots of people. What I’m proposing is not part of any existing plan, it would certainly be difficult and costly to implement, but ideas start somewhere, and aren’t always perfect, nor cost-effective, nor publicly appealing the first time around. Take a look anyway:

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