Rob Bratney

Apropro of nothing other than for your post-thanksgiving lull viewing pleasure and because I just posted it to reddit: a bigger, better, even more expanded KC streetcar map.

@ChicagosMayor Thanks Mayor! Much, muuuuch more of this please! Ignore the complainers - bikes lanes like this make traveling in the city more equitable and safe, and we need a lot more before the skeptics will see it as a viable alternative for themselves.

Investing in pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure not only increases safety, but also improves quality of life by connecting neighborhoods and promoting healthy living. The goal? Safe mobility in every Chicago community.

@sackupsnowflake @ChicagosMayor “We cannot walk and chew gum at the same time!!”

@AJManaseer @ChicagosMayor You’re welcome to hop on a bike and try the bike lane instead! I promise you won’t be stuck in traffic then.

I live near here. You know what else these bike lanes have done? Because the cars are now parked so far from the sidewalk to accommodate the bike lanes, if you are driving from a side street to turn onto Augusta, you have basically put your nose into oncoming traffic before you can see if the way is clear. Not to mention this is right outside a school, so the entire road is choked up with cars during pickup and dropoff. This is made worse because of the bike lane. Now many car accidents will happen and many people will be inconvenienced in order to accommodate the obnoxious Bike Karens who make up less than 1% of Chicago and who will use the bike lanes 4 months of the year. Nobody in this neighborhood wanted this. NOBODY.

@JGrantGlover @citybythelake I honestly can’t tell if a) these are the correct standards, or if b) these even apply to non-digital applications, but Jeremy if you’re interested in looking into this I found this resource: accessibility.digital.gov/visual-design/….

@citybythelake I’m not a designer, just an amateur having a little fun. And it’s a flag, not a road sign. But thanks for the constructive (?) criticism. Others have also been interested to see more vibrant colors.

Illinois flag update. I chose a color scheme and tightened things up, but I'm still stuck between two designs: "constellation" and "tri-star." Each has two variants on the sunburst. A detailed description, plus larger images, is below. Which do you like? Other thoughts? (1/4)

@The_unwounded_ @FullLaneFemme @James_Kowalsky I’m sure you want to believe that, but it simply isn’t true. It’s more than possible - it’s easy if we actually try things.

This could be Michigan Ave or State St in downtown Chicago

@The_unwounded_ @FullLaneFemme @James_Kowalsky This is a known phenomenon - check out the reduced demand section: en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Induced_d…

@The_unwounded_ @FullLaneFemme @James_Kowalsky You think this, but you know you don’t know this. Check out what was happened elsewhere, like in South Korea, or in San Francisco, when highways were removed. The cars don’t spring up somewhere else - they simply don’t come. cnu.org/highways-boule… cnu.org/what-we-do/bui…

@Wisc9999 @FullLaneFemme State Street in the 70s was all bus exhaust and stores and offices that closed at 5. Not a big mystery why that didn’t work.

@FullLaneFemme It *was* State St in downtown Chicago. And it was a failure.

@FullLaneFemme Wasn’t the joke in the 70s that the only person who lived in the Loop was the priest in the rectory at United Methodist or something?

@FullLaneFemme Everyone badmouthing this idea on account of the failed State Street conversion in the 70s are a) unhelpfully unimaginative, and, b) not taking into account how much denser the loop and surrounding neighborhoods’ populations are today vs then.

@JGrantGlover Agree AND wouldn't putting a city-wide bike path down the middle of these boulevard green spaces be pretty low-hanging fruit? Is anyone talking about that?

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. The extra-wide parkway on Humboldt Boulevard between Armitage and Palmer is the neighborhood’s best-kept secret green space.

Work continues on the SRO at the corner of Armitage and California. Had to express a mothers day card (don’t ask) at UPS so I took a walk. 🧵

@EngineerDustin Look at the turn radius, yeesh. No wonder a driver sped on through

Just watched two school kids get run over by a driver that rolled a right turn on red. Notice where the shoe is compared to their bodies. Shocker the “high visibility” crosswalk didn’t protect them. 😳 75 ft crosswalks and NTORs have no place in school zones.

@STBikesKC I chalk this up mostly to overly restrictive zoning, but also Jane Jacobs was talking about the need for aged buildings back in Death and Life of Great American Cities for exactly this reason

@JGrantGlover Oh hell yeah

One of my favorite pastimes is dreaming up superblock ideas for Chicago. Our street grid lends itself to the concept really well. This is the area where I live. It'd work a bit better if Kimball was treated like a local street, but that's not very realistic.

@JGrantGlover Thankfully some are still operational commercial spaces

@JGrantGlover 2/2

In the span of six residential blocks, I passed four former corner stores. Cities aren’t supposed to be single-use.