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.
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.
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.
