Full Disclosure: I am a north-side resident. I live north of Northport on Sherman Ave.
I was disappointed to hear both alders responses to the non-inclusion of making N. Sherman a TWLT road. I was especially disappointed by Ald. Schumacher's (my alder) statement that he would be willing to kill the entire neighborhood development plan because of the desire to make N. Sherman less dangerous for bikers and pedestrians. I wouldn't mind seeing a more alternative-transportation friendly candidate run for his seat next election. Anyway, I am an experienced cyclist in traffic, and I don't take as many bike trips on N. Sherman and I certainly don't want to take my kids, who are just getting used to cycling, on this street either. When N. Sherman was being repaved, there was only one lane of travel in each direction and a middle "left-turn" lane was added near businesses. Drivers adapted and slowed down accordingly. I don't know if businesses suffered due to the construction. The prior TWLT "test" was poorly designed (perhaps by design) and just let the pavement folks (esp. former Ald. Dorothy Borchardt) to say "See? It won't work!" I would think that after the wild success of the "Bike the Drive" in August, more alders would see the possibility of having all modes of transportation co-exist and get away from the auto-centric policies of the past. Sometimes you just have to make the change and listen to people grouse for awhile before they adapt. Inaction by elected officials can have consequences at the ballot box. Perhaps they have forgotten? - d. nymann ________________________________ From: "STRAWSER, Charles" <[email protected]> To: Bikies <[email protected]> Sent: Tue, October 20, 2009 10:39:48 AM Subject: Re: [Bikies] still no bike lanes on Sherman Also disappointing is Alder Rhodes-Conway’s statement that “You can't force citizens to accept solutions," [to accommodate bicyclists, pedestrians, transit users]…because refusing to make changes to the road to accommodate road users not in private automobiles IS forcing citizens to accept a solution [to accommodate cars at the expense of all the other road users], just not a particularly equitable one. I, too, would love to go to Manna Café, or take my kid to Warner Park to see a Mallards game. But traveling by bike to anyplace on North Sherman Ave is so difficult and dangerous that we just don’t go to the Northside, even though it’s much closer to us than, say, Dudgeon Monroe. Manna Café is only 1.7 miles from my house (and that’s going two blocks out of my way to get across Eastwood Ave, another subject for another debate), but it may as well be 170 miles by bike. Part of what makes for successful economic development successful is not only making it easier to get somewhere, but also making it easy to get AROUND somewhere once you get there. But apparently accommodating fast motor-vehicle through-traffic is more important than economic development. See, e.g.., www.wiserearth.org/solution/view/a5ea5eea80eb5344d77e137db76d6bec For many economic statistics on how various street improvements *that benefit pedestrians* affect not just the amount of foot traffic, but increase retail sales (by “at least 10%), increase home prices on quieter streets by as much as 8%, etc. etc. Wonder how much making North Sherman a complete street would actually cost once you factor in the economic development foregone? chuck ________________________________ On Behalf Of [email protected] Sent: Tuesday, October 20, 2009 10:12 AM Subject: Re: [Bikies] still no bike lanes on Sherman The funny thing about this is that, although I live on Sherman Ave. , I patronize almost none of the businesses on it because it's so difficult to bike. For example, I regularly bike to the hardware store on Willy St , even though the True Value on Sherman is closer, because the route to Willy St. is safer. Manna Cafe is close by, too, but I rarely because it's just unpleasant getting there. I'm more likely to get coffee somewhere on Johnson , Washington or Willy. Kathryn
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