Streetsblog map: Where exactly has CDOT installed bikeways this year?

View a full-size interactive version of Streetsblog's map, which only shows Chicago bikeways installed or underway in 2023, here.

View CDOT's map of all bikeways installed in Chicago in the modern era (including 2023) here.

The Chicago Department of Transportation's CDOT Bike Network webpage has been a great resource to find out what's been going on during our city's busy 2023 bikeway installation schedule. I often use it to check out the department's interactive Chicago Bike Network map, which was last updated in late September of this year. Also useful is the list of 2023 Bikeway Installations at the bottom of the page, with relevant streets listed alphabetically under "Installed," "Underway," and "Upcoming," categories. (At this point in the construction season, the latter label probably means those projects will start work in spring 2024.)

But I thought it would be useful to create a version of the bikeway map that only shows which projects have been completed in 2023, or are currently under construction. I also think the CDOT map's color code is confusing, which I told the department two months ago.

On the CDOT map, it's pretty hard to tell the difference between a "BIKE LANE" (blue), a "BUFFERED BIKE LANE (navy blue), a "PROTECTED BIKE LANE" (black), and a "OFF-STREET PATH" or "ACCESS PATH" (dark brown.)

So I simplified the color scheme for Streetsblog's map. Green = curb-upgraded or new protected lanes. Blue = Neighborhood Greenways, side-street bike routes, often with contraflow ("wrong-way") bike lanes and traffic calming. Black = shared lane markings, aka "sharrows" – bike-and-chevron symbols. And Red = non-protected bike lanes, including buffered, non-buffered, and dashed lanes. Hopefully that will make it a little easier to understand what's been / being built.

Note that I purposely chose red to show non-protected, paint-only bike lanes on main streets. My goal is to highlight the fact that's not a great design for the modern era. If the city expects people to use bike lanes on arterial streets where higher driving speeds are legal and/or common, it must provide bike riders with physical protection from motorists. Or to use a popular slogan nowadays, "Paint is not protection." Fortunately, CDOT's 2023 Chicago Cycling Strategy plan states that "85 percent of planned projects are low-stress [Neighborhood Greenway or protected] bikeways," rather than paint-only lanes on main streets.

Another obvious thing you'll see on Streetsblog's map is that, while lots of bikeways were / are being installed on the North and West sides this year, the South Side is getting a lot fewer miles. That discrepancy may explain why CDOT chose not to release a map like Streetsblog's, only showing 2023 projects. In addition there were virtually no bikeway projects on the Far Northwest and Far Southwest sides, where most Donald Trump voters live, this year.

The good news, as CDOT's Complete Streets manager David Smith indicated in a recent interview, is many more miles of bikeways will be built on the South Side next year, thanks to the department's Neighborhood Bike Network project. It focuses on underserved neighborhoods, with increased opportunity for community input on street design.

"Over the last two years we've implemented about 50 miles of projects, just on the West Side, through the Neighborhood Bike Networks, and those are neighborhoods that historically did not have much in terms of cycling infrastructure," Smith said. Look for new installations on the South and Southwest sides' Brighton Park, McKinley Park, and Gage Park communities in the near future.

As for the Southeast Side, CDOT has an effort in partnership with Cook County in the Lake Calumet region to improve biking in that part of town. Similar to the Neighborhood Bike Networks project, they're working with community members "to identify a network of streets that connect people to meaningful destinations like the Burnham Greenway, Big Marsh Park, things like that," Smith said.

To get a preview of which new bikeways are (most likely) slated for 2024, check out the list of "Upcoming" projects at the bottom of the bottom of the CDOT Bike Network webpage, or the screenshot of that list below. Streetsblog might do another map in the near future to make the locations of these planned routes more obvious.

In the meantime, if you'll be in Chicago for the long Thanksgiving break, instead of spending money on Black Friday purchases, why not "opt outside" and explore some of the new bikeways highlighted on our map, by bicycle? Whether you've already checked out these routes, or only learned about them from Streetsblog's map, feel free to let us know what you think of these bikeways in our comment section.

View a full-size interactive version of Streetsblog's map, which only shows Chicago bikeways installed or underway in 2023, here.

View CDOT's map of all bikeways installed in Chicago in the modern era (including 2023) here.

Here's the list of "Upcoming" bikeways (likely 2024) from the bottom of the CDOT Bike Network webpage:

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