This post was written by John Greenfield, and features research by Sharon Hoyer.
On Thursday, December 5, I checked out the new protected bike lanes on a 0.6 mile stretch of Chicago's diagonal Milwaukee Avenue between California and Kedzie avenues in the Logan Square neighborhood. To make room for the inbound lane, the Chicago Department of Transportation converted the car parking spaces on the southwest side of Milwaukee.
CDOT had previously used this method on the 1.4-mile total stretch of Milwaukee between California and Damen avenues, closer to downtown. The strategy can be controversial – some merchants and motorists oppose replacing storage for large metal boxes with potentially lifesaving infrastructure for bike and e-scooter riders. But this approach has proved successful. In the first full year after PBLs we installed between California and Western avenues in Logan, the number of traffic collisions was halved, and there were no cases of drivers striking pedestrians.
When I visited the new Milwaukee PBL segment earlier this month, conditions were challenging, at only 25F degrees with a "real feel" of 16F due to windchill. Now, as a longtime Chicago bike rider, I know that, as the old saying goes, "There's no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothing." If you dress in warm, rain-and-snow-resistant layers, and your bike has lights and fenders (or you just use an affordable Divvy membership), cycling short distances year 'round here is at least as comfortable and convenient as other modes.
But my sense is that, at this point, most Chicagoans don't know that. So I thought it was fairly impressive that, despite the frigid temps, on December 5, between 3:59 and 4:46 p.m., I saw at least 18 people total riding bikes on Milwaukee between Kedzie and California, in both directions.
But some Facebook commenters who saw the above image, along with the handlebar video of my southeast-bound trip on that stretch of Milwaukee, below, weren't impressed.
"So empty bike lanes and businesses struggling because of no parking," said one. "Yeah, pretty smart idea."
Let's consider the claim that protected bike lanes, which make it safer and easier for people to bike or scoot to retail establishments, result in "businesses struggling." Studies from New York City and Seattle corridors indicate that opposite is true: sales increased after parking was swapped for PBLs.
"I drive these streets everyday," said another Facebook commenter Those lanes are largely empty up and down the city seven months out of the year."
OK, I'll grant that, in a vacuum, 18 people on bikes in both directions in 47 minutes, averaging to one bicycle rider roughly every two-and-a-half minutes, doesn't sound like something to brag about. Certainly, there were more people traveling in cars on that stretch during that period.
But, again, it was really cold that day, and most Chicagoans aren't aware that it's possible to ride a bike or scooter comfortably in such weather.
It's also important to note that I didn't document the bikeway users during prime rush hour. California/Milwaukee is 4.6 miles from Daley Plaza, the center of the Loop, or just under a half hour at an average 10 mph biking speed. So someone cycling home from a typical downtown job that evening wouldn't have gotten to that intersection by 4:46 p.m., when I stopped counting.
So I was curious what Mailwaukee Avenue bike and e-scooter ridership would be like in somewhat less challenging weather, during prime rush hour. I asked Streetsblog contributor Sharon Hoyer, who lives in Logan Square, to hang out at the California/Milwaukee intersection early last week, when warmer weather was predicted, somewhat later in the afternoon.
Sharon told me she stood at that junction on Tuesday, December 10 from 5:10 to 6:10 p.m., in 32F weather, with a "real feel" of 24. She said she counted 47 northwest-bound bikeway users, photographing 30 of them. See the 23 pics she shot below, several of which contain two or three bike riders, for a total of 30.
"I didn't get a photo of every single one [of the 47 outbound cyclists]," she explained. "My hands were getting cold, so I kept putting them in my gloves on and off."
Meanwhile, Sharon also casually kept an eye on inbound PBL use. "I officially counted 13 [southeast-bound riders], but probably missed several," she reported."
"Now typical for Chicago, a steady and growing presence of well-bundled bicyclists pedaled down a protected bike lane, presumably from work," Sharon said. "I made hash marks in my notebook as I counted and snapped photos of bike and scooter riders as they passed."
"The riders who passed looked comfortably dressed, equipped with mittens and ear warmers, and almost every one had lights on their bicycles," Sharon added. "They came in ones and twos every few minutes, a steady stream that lasted the entire time I was staked out. A total of 47 riders passed me in the northwest-bound bike lane during the hour, without much fluctuation in frequency."
To recap, the number of Milwaukee PBL users Sharon observed in Logan Square during in 60 minutes at prime rush hour, in 32F (25 mph "real feel"), was 47 outbound plus at least 13 inbound, or no less than 60 total.
Compare that to the quantity of Milwaukee PBLs users I saw in Logan in 47 minutes the previous week, roughly an hour earlier, in frigid 25F (16F "real feel"): 18 bicycle and e-scooter riders.
So let's do the math, adjusting for the number of minutes we counted. During the period Sharon stood California/Milwaukee, sustainable transportation device riders were using the PBLs at a rate 2.6 times higher than when I counted. So time of day and weather do seem to make a huge difference.
I'd argue that 60 people using a bikeway in an hour when it's still freezing out is an impressive number that justifies the existence of the PBLs. But I can hear the critics now. "So what?" they're going to say. "That comes to one rider per minute. There had to be way more people in motor vehicles on that stretch of Milwaukee during that period."
Yep, driving is still a much more commonly used mode in Chicago when the temperature is low enough that you shouldn't leave tender plants out on your porch.
But, as you might guess, the percentage of vehicle operators using bicycles and e-scooters spikes dramatically during the warmer months. For example, last September during the evening rush, I shot video on Augusta Boulevard in West Town on a Tuesday from 4:45 to 5:45 p.m. 104 people passed me on bikes or scooters in the protected lanes. That accounted for 14.23 percent of all vehicles operators.
Unlike Augusta, Milwaukee goes directly downtown, which helps make it Chicago's busiest cycling street. Last year, CDOT told Chicago Magazine's Edward McClelland that "on a typical day, 2,736 cyclists pedal past [Milwaukee's] intersection with Elston Avenue."
And, tragically, Milwaukee Avenue is also Chicago's deadliest cycling route, with drivers killing at least six people on bikes there since 2003. That number illustrates the urgent need to build PBLs on the street's entire 10.6-mile corridor, from Devon Avenue at the city limits, to Kinzie Street, just outside the Loop. At the very least, the City needs to fill in the Wicker Park gap on the route from Logan Square to downtown ASAP.
The good news is that the demand for PBLs, and the use of them, is growing. A report, issued last May by CDOT and the data analytics firm Replica, stated that bicycling in our city grew an impressive 119 percent over the previous four years. That was the largest increase among the ten biggest American cities.
So, despite what the skeptics say, at least 60 users in an hour of 32F weather is solid evidence that building the new segment of Milwaukee Avenue protected bike lanes was a smart idea.
That's going to become more obvious in the future, as Chicago gets closer to having a citywide network of connected, protected lanes, and our city's bike and e-scooter mode share continues to grow. As that happens, more residents will learn that using those vehicles during the winter is easier than one might think. Streetsblog Chicago will discuss that topic at length in the near future.
I'll let Facebook user Meaghan Genis have the last word here, with her response to our December 5 Milwaukee Avenue post. "Unless it's a blizzard out, I am regularly out on my bike, so thanks [to the City] for the consideration, so that I don't have to fear for my life."
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