Bikes, Bikers and Infrastructure: Solving Congestion Problems by Getting People Rolling (on Two Wheels) By Zachary Carlstrom and Alex Vasquez2 Table of Contents Page # Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Needs Assessment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 System Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Data Acquisition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Data Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Summary, Conclusions, Recommendations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173 1. Introduction This project was conducted and undertaken for a GIS II course at DePaul University in conjunction with the Enlace Community Group in Little Village, Chicago. Enlace has been attempting to deal with traffic and congestion problems on W 26th Street for some time, so we decided to direct our efforts toward the congestion problems by doing research into bicycle traffic on the thoroughfare. It was our hope to provide Enlace with enough data to lobby for the improvement of the biking infrastructure on 26th St. - thus eliminating some of the congestion on the road and providing the citizens with a better option for getting around the neighborhood than automobiles - with the ultimate goal of improving the quality of life of the citizens of Little Village. The data we collected concerned three things: First, the estimated travel times on W 26th St. to go from Kedzie Ave. to Kostner Ave. by car, by bus, on a bike, or on foot. Second, to find the locations of bike racks on 26th St. and find the locations where bikes are often parked. Third, to record the amounts of bike traffic at the intersections of 26th and Central Park and 26th and Pulaski during rush hour. We then took the collected data and created a series of maps and charts to represent what we had found. In the sections that follow we will detail certain aspects of the project in length. The Needs Assessment includes information behind the project and an explanation of how the projects goals were generated. The Systems Requirements section includes the information about the types of data we needed to collect to accomplish our goals. The Data Acquisition section details the methods we used to collect our data throughout the course of the project. The Data Analysis section includes the maps and charts we created, and an analysis and explanation of the maps and charts. The Results section explains the impact and implications of our data. The Summary, Conclusions, and Recommendations section expands and sums up the main ideas developed in the project and provides insight into the directions that future groups should go when aiding Enlace in the future.4 2. Needs Assessment Background: The first order of business during the project was to conduct some groundwork to put the most amount of purpose into our actions that we could. From our initial meeting with Jaime, to a literature review on similar subjects, we developed the goals for our project and the potential methods we could use to accomplish those goals. We then met with Jaime again to discuss the formulation of our problem and to see if he had any other directions in mind. Information from Jaime de Leon About Enlace and Its Needs: - There has been a push for many years to make Little Village a safer and more family friendly community. - Enlace is an integral part of the push to improve the community. - Currently, alternative forms of transportation are being strongly supported by Enlace in order to improve the health of the community. - There has been a grievous amount of oversight on the part of the Chicago Government and Mayor Daly. - The oversights are mostly due to the fact that Daly continually wins Little Village and Little Village has many citizens who cannot or do not vote, so Daly does not feel that he needs to divert any funds to improve Little Village. - The alderman of Little Village also has opposed some of Mayor Daly’s decisions and operates somewhat independently from the larger body of Chicago’s governing system, and, therefore, has less of a chance of having his voice heard. - Enlace, as a result of these bureaucratic problems, has had problems having their initiatives approved or even noticed, and they lack the funding to produce studies. - 26th Street is incredibly dangerous for bikers due to the lack of width, lack of adequate bike lane length, and very few bike racks (to the point that bikes were locked to anything from store signs to street carts). - 26th St. also is incredibly congested. This problem causes damage to the environment in the area with an increase of smog, lowers travel times down the thoroughfare, and creates disgruntled drivers who are a danger to other drivers and especially bikers. - An analysis of the amount of bikers moving down the road could show that there is already a significant enough amount of bikers to warrant the promotion of more biking infrastructure along the street. Stakeholders: Direct stakeholder: …