The inevitable has happened: snow finally arrived in Chicago! Yesterday evening I was biking home without a jacket and today the streets look like this:
Instead of my bike, I took public transit:
I’m escaping to Nashville for a long weekend tomorrow, so I can deny the arrival of winter a little bit longer. :)
Anyone enjoy a snow ride today?
Yesterday I was in the Pilsen neighborhood on Chicago’s southside for the Women-Who-Bike brunch. I decided to take the Lakefront Path for the 10 mile ride home, which I could reach by taking the new protected bike lane on S. 18th Street from Canal to Clark Streets, connecting the Pilsen and Chinatown areas. This protected bike lane is one of three in Chicago and exists in part thanks to Alderman Solis (read more about his Ward’s projects and his recent trip to the Netherlands here).
Here is a quick video I made of the entire half mile long lane, sped 250%.
Grid Chicago reported on the construction of this bike lane in November. Progress has been made since then, but I assume (hope) that the lane is not finished because there is no protection on the grated bridge and not much treatment for the intersections. The riding experience for new bicyclists could be stressful at those points. Overall, the protected bike lane was a pleasure to ride and certainly an improvement, although not as thoroughly executed as the Kinzie protected bike lane.
I ended the year on Saturday with a ride downtown along the Lakefront Trail with my friend Elizabeth. Here’s a little video of cycling the Lakefront Trail heading south. I’m riding my Betty Foy and Elizabeth occasionally pops up with a santa hat on her helmet. The video is sped up by 150% and the song is by The Moonlighters from Free Music Archive.
You can see that the car-free trail is a very nice route, especially when it’s not crowded. I would take this route to work every day if it were a little more conveniently located for me.
Happy New Year!
Bright red seems like the best color for city cycling, getting drivers’ attention while still looking stylish off the bike. Chic, classic, and bold.
For this reason, I’ve been searching for the perfect red coat for two years, especially since seeing this post on Copenhagen Cycle Chic. Yesterday, the miraculous happened: I finally found “my” red coat. I was walking through Anthropologie during my lunch break, which I often do to torture myself because I usually can’t afford their beautiful clothes, when I spotted this unique red trench for half off.
Everything about the coat is perfect for me. The bright red “hi-vis” color. The classic trench styling. The length. The cinched waist with a bow.
And the laced back! Just the kind of quirky, personal touch I love.
Best of all, the coat will get me through three Chicago seasons: fall and spring over whatever I happen to be wearing, winter with a cashmere or wool sweater and my lightweight windbreaker underneath. There’s a nice lining that makes it a bit more substantial than the usual trench.
Plus, the red matches my other Oma accessories.
I also purchased something else on sale that I’ve been searching for: a digital camera. I wanted an affordable compact camera with manual controls and sharp photos, which I found in the Panasonic Lumix LX-5. I love shooting film, but for blogging purposes digital is faster and cheaper. I (and my huge gloved hands) will be able to post more daily photos of my commute, more quickly. Yay!
Moving beyond consumerism to talk about actual biking, I had a lovely commute this morning. I took the Lakefront Trail for the first time in a while. I’m going to make a video of this route (with HD video on my new camera!) because it’s so beautiful.
Pure bliss = rolling on Oma down the quiet trail, listening to Jill Scott, enjoying the sun in my face and the wind at my back. Makes me wonder why I ever bother riding to work among car traffic.
Now is the best time of year to bike the trail – the crowds have left, but ice is not yet encroaching from the lake.
The weather today is suddenly colder, in the low-20′s. Winter is pushing its way through, slowly but surely. At least I have my red coat. 
Here is a little video I made of my morning bike commute through relatively quiet side streets. Not the most interesting video ever, but I wanted to show how it’s possible to commute into downtown Chicago while avoiding busy streets and scary traffic. This is part of the quiet route that I often take, which I blogged about a few months ago here.
[UPDATE: May not work for international readers. Sorry!]
It’s hard to hear what I’m saying in the beginning and my memory card became full about 1/4 of my way to work, but you get the idea. The speed is 2.5x faster than reality.
I’m no Leslie Knope with iMovie, so please excuse the poor quality. (If you don’t get that reference, you didn’t watch Parks & Rec tonight – shame on you.)
Major shout-out to super sweet reader Ambrose, who gifted me her old bike camera mount after I posted my last ridiculously shaky handheld video. It made a huge difference. Thank you!!
It’s too bad that so many New Yorkers still complain about the bike lanes’ contribution to the inconvenience of urban driving instead of promoting them for their obvious role in helping solve the city’s transportation miseries, and for their aesthetic possibilities. I don’t mean they’re great to look at. I mean that for users they offer a different way of taking in the city, its streets and architecture, the fine-grained fabric of its neighborhoods…On a bike time bends. Space expands and contracts.
Check out this beautiful article about New York’s bike lanes, Pleasures of Life in the Slow Lane, by Michael Kimmelman in the New York Times. (Hat tip to reader David B. for forwarding it to us!) As Chicargobike said in her post about the article, the prose will make you swoon.
Reading a glowingly positive article about bike infrastructure in the mainstream media was refreshing and a lot of the author’s optimism can be applied to Chicago or any other city that’s beginning to take bikes seriously. I was especially interested to read that “London has lately turned into a bike capital too.” I’d love to hear what any Londoners out there think about that statement.
Speaking of New York, I found a little bit of NYC in downtown Chicago yesterday. There is a new Magnolia Bakery on State Street.
I have mixed feelings about this. On one hand, Chicago already has lots of delicious cupcake bakeries and doesn’t need New York’s second-hand ideas. On the other hand, CUPCAKES! :)
The past two days have been rainy and super windy, so I’ve taken public transportation. The L train is no fun compared to my bikes, but I’m grateful for its convenience when needed. The combination of bicycling and access to great public transportation is what allows me to live without a car
Happily, today is sunny and dry, although 39 degrees – brrr.
I’ll not complain about fall weather too much, because I know what’s coming.
Gotta remember to appreciate the present. Happy Friday!
A couple of weeks ago, I shared photos of my bike ride through Chicago’s first protected lane on Kinzie Avenue. I love this lane, so now I’m sharing the experience with all of you. Sorry for the jumpy video – the ride is more peaceful than it looks, but Chicago’s streets are bumpy and I was holding the camera in my hand.
Enjoy!
Trisha and I have started a cycling-themed podcast series! We’ll talk to creators of sites and bicycles we like, other bloggers, each other and more.
I encourage you to subscribe to the LGRAB Podcasts for free via iTunes to stay up-to-date on all future podcasts. Simply click on the link, then “view in iTunes” and “Subscribe.”
Our first podcast is an interview with John Greenfield and Steven Vance, co-creators and writers of Chicago-based sustainable transportation blog Grid Chicago. Both have past insider experience working for the Chicago Department of Transportation and the Active Transportation Alliance, and their mission with Grid is to be a platform for critical analysis and thought on issues related to progressive and sustainable transportation.
{L: Steven Vance, R: John Greenfield. Photos courtesy of Grid Chicago}
In the podcast I chat with Steve and John about writing Grid, how to make your voice heard by those in power, and the future of bicycling infrastructure in Chicago. We had such a great conversation, I had to edit almost an hour and a half down to a more manageable 27 minutes.
You can listen to the interview below or visit our iTunes page to download the podcast.
Visit Grid Chicago
Visit our iTunes page
I recently biked along the city’s first protected bike lane. It happened to be the most direct route to get from work to the bar where I was meeting Ash for drinks. And it was amazing – all I hoped for and more.
These pictures really don’t do the lane justice. Most of the lane is next to the curb and separated from moving car traffic by flexible bollards and parked cars. It is wide and comfortable and felt totally safe. Not having to worry about how close drivers were passing on my left or watch out for opening car doors on my right was… I’m at a loss for words, I don’t know, it was pretty much the best thing ever. I biked this street a couple of times before the lane and the experience was extremely stressful and unpleasant. The difference the protected lane made is like night and day.
Here are two ladies who want more protected bike lanes:
Ash and Me
This particular stretch is only .5 miles, but the city plans to install 25 miles of protected bike lanes by May 2012 and 100 miles by the end of the mayor’s first term. Cheers to Chicago’s new and growing bike infrastructure!
I plan to record a video next time I ride the lane, if I can tape my little digicam to my basket. You all gotta see this awesomeness in action.
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