CDOT announces plans for protected lanes on King, 31st and 55th‏

Taking advantage of a sweet tailwind, on Monday I pedaled south on the lakefront
to Kenwood Academy for a 4th Ward community meeting where CDOT's Mike Amsden
outlined the city's proposal for new protected bike lanes on several miles of King Drive,
31st Street and 55th Street:
http://gridchicago.com/2012/cdot-proposes-road-diets-protected-bike...

Keep moving forward,

John Greenfield

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Permalink Reply by Anne Alt on March 2, 2012 at 11:30am

In warmer months, I often use 31st or 55th/Garfield (in combination with CTA or Metra) to access the lakefront or Hyde Park. Under current conditions, riding from the red line station at Garfield to Hyde Park can be a life threatening experience due to fast, aggressive driving. I welcome the addition of lanes there and hope it will help make Garfield safer near the Ryan.

Howard - I like your idea about a bike/ped bridge over the south branch at 33rd. I never heard about any previous plan, so I can't add any insights on this.

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Permalink Reply by blair_ on March 2, 2012 at 11:48am

I feel the same way. This is my first winter biking and while I really lucked out with how mild it was, the most dangerous part of my commute after each significant snow was the Kinzie bike lane. When you're commuting during rush hour, it's not always possible to merge into traffic and take the lane.

A protected lane makes you feel safer, but only in clear conditions. Really wish they would have thought out how they planned to clear the lane of snow/ice before it was built.

Mike Zumwalt said:

3 measurable snows this season. Either uncleared, lightly salted or so salt covered skidding and tire slippage. The area by the park was uncleared the part by the apts. was clean, assuming by the bldg. maint. company. Throwing salt on the path from a bucket?

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Permalink Reply by anthony nicholson on March 2, 2012 at 12:01pm

Agreed about Kinzie; for much of the last couple months it's been like riding on loose gravel with the amount of salt they dumped in the lane (and then never cleared).

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Permalink Reply by Tony Adams 6.6 mi on March 3, 2012 at 7:24am

I have not been on Kinzie lately, but the lanes on the 18th st bridge suffered from a similar sodium overdose. Too much is better than none, and I'm grateful that efforts are being made to keep the lanes from icing up, but hopefully the City will adjust appropriately next winter (assuming we have one).

And yes - a bike/ped bridge over the river at 33rd would be totally awesome. I'm guessing that was discussed before the new housing got built on the east side of river? Might be a tough fit now...

anthony nicholson said:

Agreed about Kinzie; for much of the last couple months it's been like riding on loose gravel with the amount of salt they dumped in the lane (and then never cleared).