Evanston city staff will propose modifications to the Dodge Avenue bike lane project tonight that will increase the number of bus pull-offs and improve sight-lines for cars pulling onto Dodge from some side streets.
In a memo to aldermen describing the proposed changes, Public Works Director Dave Stoneback says they are only being proposed for blocks where a study indicated there is sufficient unused parking available to make the changes without creating a parking shortage.
Some residents have complained about buses blocking traffic and about cars emerging from sidestreets having difficulty seeing oncoming traffic since protected bike lanes were added to Dodge Avenue this summer.
The plan would add bus pull-offs between:
- Dobson and Brummel.
- Brummel and Mulford.
- Mulford and Kirk.
- South/Warren and Keeney.
- Madison and Washington.
It also calls for taking out parking spaces to increase visibility between:
- Dobson and Brummel.
- Brummel and Mulford.
- South/Warren and Keeney.
- Kenney and Seward.
- Madison and Washington.
- Main and Lee.
- Dempster and Greenwood.
Stoneback says that areas that had more than 70 percent of available parking spaces filled or fewer than five remaining vacant spaces available were dropped from consideration for the changes.
Have paid city employees learned anything?
Have paid city employees learned anything from this debacle? Surely the top guy should get a good scolding. And can he be sent for training (on his own time)?
Big Mess
This has been a big mess and it will never be made right. The peoplethat live on Dodge will suffer the most.
Last week I saw a fire truck and ambulance, lights flashing, stuck in traffic 2 blocks south of Main. There was no space to go around traffic. I have seen bikes going to wrong way on the Dodge paths.
The only reason protected bike lanes work in downtown Evanston, and not on Dodge, is there are traffic lights on every corner downtown. You can't do that on Dodge.
Don't do this in Evanston without geting an expert to tell you the pluses and minuses. When Wilson says that this was done to protect children, it has made it more dangerous for all people.
The sky is not falling!
I drive Dodge every day and I have absolutely no problem crossing the bike lane and turning into traffic. Get your tape measure out. I did and I measured an additional six inched from the stop sign at the corner of Cleveland and Dodge to the northbound lane…Six inches! If drivers can't deal with an additional six inches, maybe they should consider an alternate mode of transportation.
It’s feet, not inches
It is not 6 inches to get line of sight. It is about 6.5 FEET in line of sight.
Correction
Correction: Six ADDITIONAL inches from when the bike lane was on the outside of parked cars.
Cars are parked in Old Bike Lane
Before the reconfiguratuion of Dodge the cars were parked by the curb and the bike lane was on the drivers side thus making it easier to se traffic in the vehicle lanes. Today you need to get further out into vehicle lanes to see uncoming traffic.