A new home for the #chiLFT bot

The lakefront trail status bot is on the web and bluesky alongside twitter now.

The what?

#chiLFT is a community hashtag used to crowdsource trail condition reports for Chicago’s Lakefront Trail. Anyone can contribute by posting with #chiLFT on Bluesky or Twitter. When you post with the hashtag, the bot will:

The bot also shares curated posts from r/chibike, the national weather service, and official Park District updates about the trail in all those places.

Check it out at https://chilftbot.streicher.io.

What to post

Active Trans has some good guidelines on their #chiLFT page:

In order to keep this information as useful as possible for trail users, everyone is invited to use the Twitter #chiLFT hashtag to report specific, objective information about the trail. This could include a variety of trail-related news, including ice on the trail, crashes or other incidents, temporary access issues, traffic, and high waves.

A good number of people have new post notifications set up for the bot’s social accounts. Don’t spam the hashtag.

A little history

The hashtag, and a twitter account that would retweet updates, were created by Active Trans in 2011. Here’s the second ever #chiLFT post, from the days of manual retweets and third party image hosting:

RT @brianfmorrissey: Lakefront is unplowed btwn North/Grand. Fun ride this AM: twitpic.com/3pe54o #chiLFT

@activetrans

The web has changed a lot since then.

A screenshot of four tweets related to the Chicago Lakefront Trail conditions. 1. Tweet by Active Trans (@activetrans), dated Mar 8, 2011:
“Now you can get up-to-date lakefront trail conditions through our new crowdsourcing initiative: [bit.ly/dWtFN7](http://bit.ly/dWtFN7) #chiLFT” 2. Tweet by Jesse Mendoza (@JesseJstreet), dated Mar 8, 2011: “ATTN Chi runners @activetransLFT Chicago Lakefront Trail conditions from Active Trans (@activetrans). Share your own updates using #chiLFT.” 3. Tweet by Chicago Runnin (@chicagorunni), dated Mar 8, 2011:
“Great idea! @activetransLFT - Chicago Lakefront Trail conditions from Active Trans (@activetrans). Share your own updates using #chiLFT.” 4. Retweet by Active Trans (@activetrans), dated Jan 12, 2011: “RT @brianfmorrissey: Lakefront is unplowed btwn North/Grand. Fun ride this AM: http://twitpic.com/3pe54o #chiLFT.”

A screenshot of the Active Transportation Alliance webpage with information about Lakefront Trail Conditions, circa 2011. There are sharing links to defunct and out of vogue sites like stumbleupon, digg, yahoo, etc. 
 ACTIVE TRANSPORTATION ALLIANCE
Chicagoland’s voice for better biking, walking and transit. 
 Lakefront Trail Conditions 
 Active Trans shares regular updates on Chicago’s Lakefront Trail conditions as a service to thousands of daily trail users. Our updates cover trail conditions, events and activities that impact the trail, detours and trail-related news. We pull our information from our staff, partners and everyday trail users. 
 Follow trail updates: 
 In addition to watching this webpage, you can follow our updates through these avenues: 
 1. Via Twitter: @activetransLFT 
 2. On your cell phone: Text "follow activetransLFT" to 40404 (free service, but regular text message fees will apply) 
 Share your trail reports with us: 
 Report Lakefront Trail conditions via Twitter with the hashtag #chiLFT. We rebroadcast some of these reports through our @activetransLFT account. If you don't have Twitter, you can email lakefront@activetrans.org with reports. 
 Reporting etiquette 
 In order to keep this information highly useful for trail users, please use the #chiLFT hashtag to report specific, objective information, including ice on the trail, crashes or other incidents, temporary access issues, traffic and high waves. If you have a more significant issue or a complaint regarding the trail, please contact our Lakefront Trail advocate Randy Warren, who regularly works with the Chicago Park District

At some point, the Active Trans LFT account went offline. Toward the end of 2021 I went looking for it because I wanted to get trail status notifications on my phone. When I saw it was gone, I decided to rebuild it. That version of the bot reposted its first status on January 1, 2022.

Twitter is increasingly a difficult place to run a bot and an unpleasant place to spend time. It’s run by a space nazi. The bike community is beginning to move on. I’m not sure what the runners are doing, but as a pain-loving people you might expect them to stick around. My goal with this update is to make #chiLFT a web-first crowdsourcing initiative, accessible wherever the communities that use it are, to keep it alive for the people who rely on it.

Next steps

I’d love your feedback. In the meantime, I’ll be working on: