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Paris' highly successful Véllib program is almost definitely coming to Chicago. Apparently the city gov't is working out offers from JCDecaux and Clearchannel. While I would rarely, if ever have to use it, the benefits to cycling in Chicago would be enormous if the program were successful (more bike lanes, more drivers accustomed to and aware of cyclists, less traffic and pollution, and so on).
Quoted: Launched in July, Paris' "Velib" bikes were part of the mayor's idea of making the city more ecologically friendly and reducing traffic. Just two months on, the bikes seem to be changing the way people get around the city.
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Quoted: Vande Velde, 31, who spent last winter training near Chicago, is enjoying the best season of his career. He spent a day last month as the leader of the prestigious Giro d’Italia... He and his coaches have developed innovative training techniques, nutritional plans and strategies. Here are a few cues from Mr. Vande Velde’s training regimen that road cyclists can use to ride faster, longer and smarter.
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"Today there are 10,000 bikes available at 750 locations across the city. Both those numbers will double by the end of this year."
HOLY FUCK!
that number has more than quadrupled since i was there last summer.
that's incredible!
and would chicago only do it for like 5 months of the year? then what would happen to the bikes/stations?
don't get me wrong, i think the benefits would be great. and i like the idea. it's just a complicated situation i imagine, since the weather is such shit here.
that is, unless they have weatherproof covered bike-pods....with spider monkey powered revolving donut carrousels inside....
yeah, i think they're goin' with spider-monkeys last i heard. Crab-eating Macaques were a little too spendy. but last i heard, the actual number of velib bikes in paris is somewhere around 25,000. I see at least a hundred every day i'm out and about. i wondered about the weather. the stations would have to be covered for sure, but the bikes are made to be pretty weatherproof on their own, so it's just up to people to decide that they want to commute in the winter. but really, i think that the lack of bike lanes is a bigger problem than the weather in chicago. and i'm not talking about little bike icons that say to drivers "you can share this space if you want" but full on bike lanes, separated from the rest of the road by a curb with openings every now and then so bikers can get into the auto lane if they want. that way, poor weather conditions won't scare potential commuters away from using bikes in the winter. cuz really, people still do a lot of walking during the winters in chicago. and while biking makes the cold seem a bit more intense, it's not such a difference that, when faced with the choice between walking and riding in the winter weather, a person will choose to stay out in the cold much longer and walk just so the wind doesn't feel so harsh. and when you factor in that the bus lines in chicago are getting pared down every year and the el lines are--well, they just fucking suck right now--i think this is the perfect time to introduce a velib program.
there's two major problems with the idea of separate bike lanes:
1. getting side swiped by people making a right turn when you enter an intersection (since they literally never even saw you or thought about you)
but more importantly:
2. they'd never be plowed enough when it snowed. you'd be back out in the street for 5 months of the year.
otherwise, i'm all about continuing the french mayor's plan to 'eradicate cars from the city' or whatever that article said he was accused of.
1: if the city wanted to, they could have a traffic light that flashes yellow or red for right hand turns when the bike lane has the green. but they have these in Copenhagen and this hasn't been an issue. the curb that divides the bike lane from the rest of the street is like a speed bump with squared edges, so cars don't use the bike lane.
2: depaul has snowploughs for their sidewalks. they use one of those bobcat tractors with a plough shovel on the front. those things can get up to 35 mph and i'm sure the city already owns a bunch of them for the parks service.