Good news: The Chicago Department of Transportation says it's planning to install 25-30 miles of new bikeways this year, compared to only 13 miles in 2019. What's more, about 15 miles are slated for the South Side, which has a much lower density of bike lanes than the North Side. But there are also a couple of projects that should be crowd-pleasers in the bike-centric West Town and Logan Square community areas: Long-requested bike lanes on North Avenue (although they unfortunately won't extend east of Damen Avenue), and a new stretch of protected bike lanes on Milwaukee Avenue. Here are the projects that CDOT revealed to Streetsblog Chicago today.
- Loomis (98th-Marquette): bike lanes -- 4 miles
- Lower-stress route that connects to Ogden Park, Foster Park, Brainard Metra station, and Brainard Public Library.
- Project will connect Loomis to the Vincennes Protected Bike Lane.
- Posted speed limit will be lowered to 20 mph.
- Michigan (100th-94th) and Indiana (94th-83rd): bike lanes -- 2 miles
- Connects to State Street bike route via 100th St. and connects into the 83rd Street bike lanes
- Posted speed limit will be lowered to 20 mph
- 81st and 82nd Street: bike lanes from Halsted to Damen, near Dawes Park, improving connectivity to the northern terminus of the Major Taylor Trail. This is a couplet on low-traffic side streets.
- Harrison Bike Lane: CDOT will be filling in a quarter-mile gap on the Harrison bike lane from Loomis to Ashland, in coordination with a construction project at Rush Medical Center
- North Avenue: In coordination with a re-paving of North Avenue from Central Park to Damen, CDOT will be installing non-protected bike lanes and adding pedestrian islands.
- Milwaukee Avenue (Western-California): protected bike lanes. There will also be pedestrian safety upgrades. CDOT and 1st Ward alderman Daniel LaSpata will host a virtual public meeting on the project at noon on Wednesday, June 24. Slated for July installation.
- Loomis (98th-Marquette): bike lanes -- 4 miles
More welcome news: CDOT planes to restripe 40 miles of faded existing bikeways across the city this year, compared to only 10 miles in 2019.
Hey @ChicagoDOT, how about installing a lot more downtown bike parking racks *now* so there isn't a bike parking crunch this summer when offices reopen, but lots of people are still avoiding the CTA?@activetrans @chicagosmayor
— Streetsblog Chicago (@streetsblogchi) May 18, 2020
In addition, the department will install 300 new bike racks in the Central Business District to meet rising parking demand as more Chicagoans choose bike-commuting as a socially-distanced travel option, something Streetsblog Chicago suggested back in May -- see above tweet.
