The Chainlink

From the Active Trans blog:

On a recent warm July evening, I rode my bike down to Douglas Park with a few other Active Trans staff members to participate in one of Slow Roll Chicago’s weekly Wednesday night rides.

As we approached our destination, overcoming some stressful stretches of roadway on our way there from River North, we suddenly found ourselves pedaling along Chicago’s first ever curb-separated bike lane. It was as if we were magically transported to one of those European bike meccas people talk about, but most of us never get to visit.

While this pilot project covers just a short segment of Sacramento Avenue in Douglas Park, the comfortable and low-stress experience it provided was immediately apparent to all of us. We spontaneously gave out a collective cheer, “WOOO!”

In many ways, this brief episode reflects the bigger transition happening on Chicago’s streets. Certain routes provide an excellent biking experience, suitable for just about anyone.

The trouble starts when you suddenly find yourself on a street with no bike accommodations or clear indication of where to go next.

Currently, our low stress network is sort of like an adolescent going through a rapid series of growth spurts: things may get a little awkward for a while, but we are on our way to a much more graceful adulthood. That is, as long as we avoid any setbacks and pitfalls.

Over the last four years, the city has been working faster than any other municipality to connect individual game changing projects like Douglas Park into a seamless network of low-stress bike routes, as envisioned in the Chicago Streets for Cycling 2020 Plan.

According to the Chicago Department of Transportation (CDOT), the city installed or re-striped more than 50 miles of bike routes ...

That includes new protected bike lanes on Broadway, Harrison, and Lake as well as more than 30 miles of buffered bike lanes, which provide extra space between people riding bikes, parked cars, and moving traffic. 

Last year also saw CDOT install the city’s second Neighborhood Greenway project, which are quiet side streets optimized for bikes, on Wood St. in Wicker Park and Ukrainian Village.

Projects like this help meet the needs of people riding to destinations in their own neighborhood, which account for 80 percent of bike trips in Chicago.

In 2015, Chicago is on track to meet Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s goal of building 100 miles of new bike lanes in four short years. All told, about 25 miles of new projects have been publicly announced for this year, some of which are already in the ground.

Here are some upcoming projects that should set the tone for future bike network improvements:


Clybourn Protected Bike Lane

Where: Near North Side — Clybourn between North and Division

Scheduled completion: August, 2015

Why this is important: First protected bike lane on state road, second concrete-curb protected bike lane in Chicago

As a key link in Chicago’s bike network, Clybourn Ave. between North and Division has long been considered a prime candidate for protected bike lanes and other improvements for people walking and biking. This stretch of roadway is also where Bobby Cann, a well-known member of Chicago’s biking community, was struck and killed by a drunk driver in 2013.

Until recently, Clybourn was subject to a ban on the construction of protected bike lanes on streets under Illinois Department of Transportation jurisdiction.

Thanks to the efforts of Active Trans members and supporters, as well as other community members, IDOT reversed its ban and will pilot concrete-curb separated bike lanes on Clybourn. We hope this project can become a model for other busy streets like Clybourn.

 

Loop Link Protected Bike Lanes

Where: Loop — Washington, Randolph, Clinton

Scheduled completion: Late 2015

Why this is important: New east/west protected bike lanes and second north/south protected bike lane will create connected network downtown

In addition to bringing the advantages of dedicated lanes and smart technology to bus riders in the loop, the Loop Link project will also create new protected bike lanes on three streets downtown.

When these new routes connect to existing protected bike lanes downtown on Dearborn, Kinzie and Harrison, Chicago’s Loop will have one of the most advanced bike networks of any big city in North America.

 

Vincennes Ave. Spoke Route

Where: Chatham/Greater Grand Crossing — Vincennes between 84th and 76th 

Scheduled completion: 2015

Why this is important: Progress on spoke routes is essential to building a complete network

The city’s current bike network plan, Chicago Streets for Cycling 2020 Plan, includes several “Spoke Routes” that provide the backbone for our bike network by connecting outlying neighborhoods with the city center.

Construction began on the Vincennes Ave. Spoke Route several years ago, including a barrier-protected segment between 84th and 103rd that was recently extended to 105th and the Major Taylor Trail.

This year CDOT plans to extend the spoke route from 84th all the way to 76th, laying the groundwork to eventually create a seamless bike route from Blue Island to the Loop.

 

Glenwood Neighborhood Route

Where: Edgewater — Glenwood between Ridge and Broadway

Schedule completion: 2015

Why this is important: Small changes can have a big impact on neighborhood biking

Currently, people riding bikes must use stressful high-traffic streets to reach many destinations in this neighborhood.

To overcome this obstacle, this project will feature a “contra-flow” bike lane, which allows bicycles to travel two-ways on a street where motorists only travel one way. 

 

The rapid growth of Chicago’s bike network is a remarkable achievem... but as advocates, we cannot take this progress for granted. In order to realize the dream of a truly seamless low-stress bike network, we must to push our elected officials to deliver more robust infrastructure like concrete-curb protected bike lanes, and advocate for projects that fill in gaps within and between Chicago’s many diverse neighborhoods. Now more than ever, our voices are needed.

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In River North, Orleans is a 0.3 miles west of Clark.   At North Ave,  Clark starts going northwest.   At Webster, Clark is west of where Orleans would be, assuming Orleans kept going.    If you live north of Webster, you wouldn't have to backtrack.  If you live south of Webster, it means you live in Streeterville or the Gold Coast, and a Loop-Streeterville/Gold Coast commute is a trivial distance to begin with.  I can think of far worse corner-cases.

I still have to go three blocks west which I don't want to do.  La Salle or Clark should have nb bike lanes.

Southsiders have the pretty wonderful route of Dearborn to Harrison to Wabash to go south from the Loop, but I get your point. There still aren't good routes for southwestsiders or westsiders, for sure. My bigger point is just that although every bike infrastructure improvement that is being made should be celebrated, I bristle a little when there's talk of a network taking shape, when we're seriously still so far away for that.

To the west side of the Loop, try Larrabee/Kingsbury (with a detour to Cambridge on southbound trips). From the east side, try Stockton or Cannon to Lake Shore's local lane. That goes to Michigan & Oak. Then it's a few blocks to Wabash or Rush. There's also Lincoln Park West to Clark to North to Dearborn (southbound Dearborn-Oak-State-Delaware-Wabash). Also, there's no law that says you have to take the bike lane on Dearborn. North of Wacker, go to the right side of the street and avoid all of the cars turning into the hotel and turning west on Ontario, etc.

As I wrote southbound is fine and I've taken many of the routes you mention.  Northbound from the loop is quite limited until you pick up Wells.  Franklin has too many stop signs and is not designed for biking with the steel El supports.  La Salle would be the natural place for it and they could make a combo bike bus lane. That would leave two lanes for cars.

"we suddenly found ourselves pedaling along Chicago’s first ever curb-separated bike lane. It was as if we were magically transported to one of those European bike meccas people talk about" 

No. Curb separated lanes are not what make cities like Copenhagen so friendly to cyclists. It's people's attitudes about getting around and overall stress level. The infrastructure helps but it's not the end all be all solution. 

You want low stress network? How about some infrastructure to get over the river. There isn't a single safe crossing between Montrose and Webster. Spare me the fancy bridges and expensive flyovers/unders. Just take a lane out of traffic on Fullerton, Diversey, Belmont, Addison, and Irving Park. 

I just got back from Spain, and driver attitudes are completely different than in the U.S.  I didn't see one driver talking on a phone.  I didn't see one car driven through a red light.  I only saw one car partially obstructing a crosswalk.  Drivers yielded to pedestrians, even when the car had the right of way.

On rural roads, drivers would slowly follow me until they had a clear chance to pass, and then they would swing wide to the left.  No buzzing, no honking.

What would make my city rides "low stress?"

1. Better river crossings: 

The grated bridges that you have to share with cars can be dangerous (not to mention, the bumps and cracks are painful if you don't have shock absorbers). It would be great to have a special bike lane, preferably solid, so that cyclists can cross safely. 

Now that Cortland is closed to cars (and I wish it would stay that way!), I go out of my way to cross there, even if another bridge is closer. Can we make that our biking bridge?!

2. More traffic light signals, specifically for bikes (to connect bike lanes):

In particular, I notice that when I am trying to turn left, motorists do not keep a safe distance or maybe they don't see me (even if I am signaling with my arm). A separate signal would help with that, for example:

-turning left from Kingsbury onto Chicago Avenue (heading east)

-turning left from Halsted onto Division (heading east)

turning left from Larrabee or Halsted onto the new Clybourn protected lane (heading NW)

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