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Bicycling

A Map of All New the Bikeways Built in Chicago This Year

A new bike lane on Milwaukee north of Addison. Photo: John Greenfield

During Mayor Rahm Emanuel's first term in office, the Chicago Department of Transportation installed about 100 miles of buffered and protected bike lanes. In spring 2016 the mayor announced a more modest goal of installing 50 miles of bikeways by 2019.

Still, 2017 has been a fairly productive year for bikeway construction, with CDOT installing a total of 21.6 miles. These included:

    • 1.3 miles of protected lanes (green lines on the Streetsblog-created map below)
    • 1.4 miles of “neighborhood greenways” (brown)
    • 10.1 miles of buffered bike lanes (red)
    • 4.4 miles of non-buffered bike lanes (purple)
    • 1.5 miles of mixed dashed and non-buffered bike lanes (orange)
    • 2.9 miles of shared-lane markings, aka “sharrows” (blue)

As you can see from the chart at the bottom of this post, many more miles of existing bikeways were restriped this year, often as part of street resurfacing projects.

The new bikeways were distributed fairly evenly across the city from north-to-south. However, the West Side got little in the way of new facilities, other than a cluster of buffered and protected lanes near the University of Illinois at Chicago and the Illinois Medical District.

Note that the protected bike lanes that were installed this year – the green lines on Polk by the IMD and Loomis near the Chicago River – are actually curbside buffered lanes with flexible plastic posts. The posts represent an upgrade from standard buffered lanes, but don't offer physical protection from cars.

Unfortunately, the proect to install protected bike lanes on Loomis near the Chicago River didn't include non-slip bridge plates. Photo: Steven Vance
Unfortunately, the proect to install protected bike lanes on Loomis near the Chicago River didn't include non-slip bridge plates. Photo: Steven Vance
Unfortunately, the proect to install protected bike lanes on Loomis near the Chicago River didn't include non-slip bridge plates. Photo: Steven Vance

Also note that the Loomis project did not include installing non-slip plates on the metal bridge deck, which would have required recalibrating the counterweights of the bascule bridge. Despite many request for this safety upgrade from cyclists, it’s likely the bridge won’t get plates until the bridge undergoes a major overhaul.

Check out previous Streetsblog Chicago coverage of some of these projects:

Have you ridden any of these new bikeways? Let us know what you think in the comments.

Street

Start

End

Length

(mi)

Project Type

Month Complete

Lawrence

Austin

Central

0.5

MSL - Restriping

4

Lawrence

Chicago River

Western

0.6

BL - Restriping

4

Marshall

24th

19th

0.5

BBL - Restriping

4

Rockwell /  Melrose

Campbell

Addison

0.6

BL

4

26th

Halsted

King Dr

1.5

BL/BBL

5

83rd

Wentworth

Lafayette

0.2

BBL

5

Baltimore

Brainard

130th St

0.8

BBL

5

Elston

Western

Kedzie

1.5

BBL

5

Harrison

Ashland

Halsted

0.8

BBL

5

Root

Emerald

Wentworth

0.7

BBL

5

Root

Halsted

Emerald

0.1

BL

5

Damen

Potomac

North

0.4

BL - Restriping

5

Lincoln

Montrose

Leland

0.4

MSL - Restriping

5

Milwaukee

Canal

Clinton

0.1

BBL

5

Glenwood / Carmen

Broadway

Ridge

1.1

Neighborhood Greenway

5

Jackson

Halsted

Jefferson

0.3

BBL

5

Broadway

Grace

Clarendon

0.1

BBL

6

King

Marquette

51st

2.0

BL

6

55th

Cottage Grove

Lake Park

1.0

PBL/BBL - Restriping

6

Fullerton

Racine

Halsted

0.5

BBL - Restriping

6

Washington

Canal

Wacker

0.1

BL - Restriping

6

18th

Halsted

Indiana

0.8

BL/BBL - Restriping

6

55th

Lake Park

South Shore

0.3

MSL - Restriping

6

71st

State

Champlain

0.8

BL - Restriping

6

Wilson

Broadway

Clarenden

0.4

MSL - Restriping

6

Warren

Homan

Kedzie

0.3

BBL - Restriping

6

South Shore Dr

83rd

81st St

0.3

BL - Restriping

6

Milwaukee

Addison

Lawrence

2.0

SLM/BL

6

115th

State

Cottage Grove

0.6

SLM

7

Halsted

Ohio

Erie

0.0

BBL - Restriping

7

Halsted

Lake

Lake

0.0

BL - Restriping

7

Milwaukee

Willard

Augusta

0.1

PBL - Restriping

7

Southport

Clybourn

Belmont

1.3

BL- Restriping

7

Milwaukee

Hyacinth

Nagle

0.3

BBL - Restriping

7

Taylor

Aberdeen

Morgan

0.2

BL - Restriping

7

31st

Wentworth

LaSalle

0.1

PBL - Restriping

7

Hubbard

Peoria

Green

0.0

BBL - Restriping

7

Orleans

Wacker

Kinzie

0.2

BL - Restriping

7

Kedzie

Milwaukee

Avondale

0.7

BBL - Restriping

7

Southport

Belmont

Irving Park

1.0

BL - Restriping

8

Milwaukee

Lawrence

I-90

0.3

SLM

8

Ardmore

Broadway

Sheridan

0.3

Neighborhood Greenway

9

Milwaukee

Division

Armitage

1.5

BL

9

Fulton

Halsted

Jefferson

0.3

BBL - Restriping

9

Wabash

Roosevelt

9th

0.2

BBL - Restriping

9

Ardmore

Sheridan

Lakefront Trail

0.1

BL - Restriping

9

Argyle

Sheridan

Marine

0.2

BL

9

Cortland

Chicago River

Clybourn

0.3

BL - Restriping

9

Canal

Randolph

Lake

0.1

BL - Restriping

9

31st

Moe

Fort Dearborn

0.1

PBL - Restriping

9

Clybourn

Sheffield

Southport

0.7

BBL - Restriping

9

Division

Ashland

Milwaukee

0.1

BL - Restriping

9

Franklin

Lake

Wacker

0.1

BBL - Restriping

9

Illinois

Rush

McClurg

0.4

BL - Restriping

9

Illinois

State

Rush

0.1

BL - Restriping

9

Illinois

LaSalle

Dearborn

0.1

BL - Restriping

9

Kedzie

Wabansia

Moffat

0.1

BL - Restriping

9

Randolph

Columbus

Field

0.2

BL - Restriping

9

Roosevelt

Union

Ruble

0.0

BL - Restriping

9

State

25th

24th

0.0

PBL - Restriping

9

Southport

Irving Park

Clark

0.3

MSL - Restriping

9

Cottage Grove

115th

93rd

3.0

BBL

9

Loomis

Polk

Van Buren

0.3

BBL

9

Loomis

Eleanor

Cermak

0.5

PBL

9

Polk

Damen

Loomis

0.8

PBL

9

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