The Chainlink

Yesterday's crash - read on.

More crashes are expected.

https://www.reddit.com/r/chicago/comments/bb1kaw/lake_front_trail_a...

I did see my good amount of headphones, ignored "on your left" because of people either blasting music too loud in their ears, or not understanding what it means. 

Also, if one is going north bast Belmont, that yellow line makes it all too confusing to those who are not experienced. Was painted without connecting properly. 

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The signage, lane usage markings and striping in general is a joke, but is especially bad around Belmont Harbor. Now that it is getting nice out my time on the Lakefront Trail will be limited to early AM, weeknights after 8, and maybe (strong maybe) with very slow friends at other times.

Once the temps hit 60, it's bye-bye LFT. But, I DID enjoy bombing it early yesterday afternoon. And the new design is a mess. As I suspected all along, it will NOT reduce the amount of pedestrian / runner / cyclist / baby stroller / dogs on long leashes conflict. And those motorized skateboards and electric unicycles -- I've got NO tolerance for them on the path.  

Or electric pogo-sticks... kidding.

Wait until the four wheeler bikes.

Yes, riding it south will be better.

Areas like where Belmont harbor that force the two trails to merge create some nasty weave zones that will get more dangerous when more people start to use the trail after work.

Looks like the Navy Pier Flyover won't make it over the river and end up dumping people on to the bridge just a little farther than the temporary entrance is now. I bet that's going to be such a nightmare this summer most commuters will still take the low road.

Agreed. Throw in the folks that are getting back out there since the "separation" has been implemented and there is a lot of chaos. I'm chalking up a lot of the peds/joggers on the bike path north of Belmont as them just taking the route they always did.

There is zero reason, aside from cost/logic, why the City can't stencil "BIKE ONLY" or "PED ONLY" in big bold letters on the paths every quarter mile. 

There are very small Yellow signs pointing at seperation points and the signage is on the very obvious seperated or shared paths like Ardmore to Foster or From Oak to Fullerton.

Also if your exit is between Montrose and Foster you need to go aaaalllllll the way around Cricket hill then head back West to cross under Lake Shore Drive.

Stupid!

Few commuters seem to be taking the long route so far, anyway.

The Park District website shows the Belmont section of the LFT as separate, but they painted it as merged, adding two more conflict points.  Also, I foresee more head-on bike/bike accidents as the narrower bike only sections of the trail leave only enough room for three to pass safely, meaning passing now needs to be coordinated when no one is passing from the opposite direction.

North of Montrose, I still take the original path, which was first presented to the public to be the "bike only" trail until someone high-up decided to switch it without further input from the public.

"meaning passing now needs to be coordinated when no one is passing from the opposite direction."

Yes, like a car traveling in a two lane road. We shouldn't need "pass with care" signs. Riders just need to be more careful and cognizant on the bike path. 

I'm not sure what you mean about no input. While it sucks for lots of reasons, this route was put forth awhile back.

https://chi.streetsblog.org/2018/02/15/montrose-fullerton-trail-pla...

https://chi.streetsblog.org/2018/07/07/eyes-on-the-street-lakefront...

Follow the path in a linear fashion and it puts you in oncoming several times. The Montrose underpass is one (plus it floods and fills with mud,leaves and ice.

Heading North past Barry you are in the Southbound lanes after the parking lot crossing.

It's like they designed the trail like the streets in River North!? Grand ave as you approach Wells or Wells South of Erie or Illinois...you're just riding along in your lane that just ends into oncoming traffic.

Oh well that's Chicago.

I rode the redone nothern LFP for the first time a couple of weekends ago, and the signage and lane markings are a hot mess. Traffic was relatively light, and separation seemed to be reasonably effective under those conditions, but figuring out where you were supposed to be was nearly impossible at many points. 

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