The Chainlink

Swap car lanes for bike lanes along Chicago Avenue in West Town?

A proposal to put a stretch of Chicago Avenue in West Town on a “road diet” to accommodate bike lanes on both sides of the street will be on the Chicago Department of Transportation’s exploratory docket in 2018.

The idea to reduce the number of traffic lanes from four to two and install a center turn lane was a recommendation in a taxpayer-funded “We Are West Town” Master Plan completed last spring.

For the full article go here: https://chicago.suntimes.com/news/west-town-chicago-avenue-bike-lanes/

Views: 595

Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Taking away a right-turn option should cause traffic to back up less.

When a turn is available, drivers will block traffic behind them as they wait for pedestrian traffic to clear so they can make the turn.

People still turn they just go wide instead of using the blocked turn lane like before or they sit and look confused not knowing what to do resulting in everyone honking. Others are using the Jewel/Lowes parking lot as a cut through 

The Jewel/Lowes' parking lot is not at Damen and Milwaukee. I guess I am confused about what your point is.

A stretch? You mean like the Division ave bike lane by Clybourn or the Broadway Uptown lane.

4,6,8 blocks of bike lane only make it worse before or after they're gone. Augusta is 1/4 mile North or Fulton to the South for East/West travel.

Why make the sidewalks bigger?

They re-did Uptown around the Wilson stop to past Lawrence with even bigger sidewalks but the same suggested bike lane after they must be 20 feet wide and with no new trees or planters.

Sounds like they want Chicago ave to be more like Division past Ashland which has a bike lane that is full of Valet parking and Uber drivers along with the Summer party buses and outdoor eating spots.

The 66 is one of those full bus routes most of the time as it crosses Red,Brown and Blue lines.

Slowing it down even more would be terrible for anyone relying on it to get anywhere in a reasonable amount of time.

 

I agree with you, that this would be a concern to me if this were to be adopted, and it ended up slowing down bus performance. The #66 already doesn't run very fast, and at least there is a parallel bike route with Augusta Blvd.

Really need to bike on Clark south of Diversey sometime, to see how well that shared bike/bus lane someone else mentioned works. I'm with John Greenfield, in that something really should be done to improve the performance of the #66 bus.

I also want to check out this supposedly respected-by-drivers bus lane on Clark St. Let's do a Chainlink meetup! :)

This morning the bus/bike lane was totally clear while cars were backed up in the left lane pretty much the whole way between Diversey and Fullerton.  No cars in the bus/bike lane.

This is old news, maybe, but Steven Vance wrote a post about this very thing back in June:

https://chi.streetsblog.org/2017/06/21/chicago-ave-lanes-should-be-...

Also, in a more recent article one of the restaurant owners along Chicago mentioned Division's sidewalk seating specifically as a goal.

This was proposed for Milwaukee Avenue, a Spoke Route, and was supported by Alderman Arena in the 45th ward, but then died a quick death after neighborhood opposition.

It's a good idea - if it could get a high amount of support from advocates.

I've been taking the Chicago Ave bus recently, with the snow. It is really great how reliably quickly the bus comes.

RSS

© 2008-2016   The Chainlink Community, L.L.C.   Powered by

Disclaimer  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service