Skip to content
Sponsored

Today's stories are presented by

Eyes on the Street: Dearborn Street Striping Upgrades Begin

Frequent Dearborn Street bike lane user Justin Haugens sends us these photos from his way to work in the South Loop. At the Mayor's Bicycle Advisory Council meeting two weeks ago, a CDOT staffer said that Dearborn Street would be receiving a slew of upgrades to better identify areas of conflict between people driving and bicycling, and to reduce the incidence of people parking and blocking the bike lane.
Parking and Standing symbols recently painted on the @Dearbornbikeln.

Frequent Dearborn Street bike lane user Justin Haugens sends us these photos from his way to work in the South Loop. At the Mayor’s Bicycle Advisory Council meeting two weeks ago, a CDOT staffer said that Dearborn Street would be receiving a slew of upgrades to better identify areas of conflict between people driving and bicycling, and to reduce the incidence of people parking and blocking the bike lane.

Large “P” and “S” stencils have been applied to parking and standing sections, respectively. Some sections, depending on their length, got more than one stencil.

The photos also show that the paint has been replaced with longer-lasting thermoplastic. Thermoplastic wasn’t originally used when the road diet and bike lane was installed in November and December because it was too cold to apply.

CDOT will also be installing 25 additional plastic posts, green paint at alleys and driveways, and refreshed and new “LOOK” markings and decals at crosswalks to remind pedestrians about crossing bicycle traffic.

With these changes, the Dearborn Street two-way, parking protected bike lane remains the best new bike lane in Chicago, thanks to the enormous reduction in stress people feel while cycling downtown.

Photo of Steven Vance
Transportation planner and advocate. Steven also created Chicago Cityscape, a site that tracks neighborhood developments across the city.

Streetsblog has migrated to a new comment system. New commenters can register directly in the comments section of any article. Returning commenters: your previous comments and display name have been preserved, but you'll need to reclaim your account by clicking "Forgot your password?" on the sign-in form, entering your email, and following the verification link to set a new password — this is required because passwords could not be carried over during the migration. For questions, contact tips@streetsblog.org.

More from Streetsblog Chicago

Ald. Ramirez approved reasonable edits to the Archer traffic safety plan, which won’t affect the protected bike lanes

April 24, 2026

Speak Up This Friday: How to Help Stop the DLSD Highway Plan Before It Moves Forward

April 23, 2026
See all posts