Check out Part 1: Uptown, Lincoln Square, West Ridge, Rogers Park, Edgewater here
Check out Part 2: Lincoln Square, Irving Park, and Albany Park here.
Check out Part 4: West Side here.
I've been everywhere, man...
Of travel I've had my share, man
I've been everywhere
With all due respect to Johnny Cash, this year, I once again saw a heck of a lot our diverse city while doing field work for SBC's Bike Lane Fest 2024. I traveled from Rogers Park, to Austin, to South Chicago, this time working my way counter-clockwise around the map. I wrapped up my journey with a New Year's Day work-cation (I probably would have been riding my bike somewhere that day anyway), covering all of the city's new bikeways south of the Stevenson Expressway.
If you've been following my exploits for the past month, you know that my mission was to check out every bike lane the Chicago Department of Transportation installed in 2024, or is currently "underway." My guide was the agency's current Planned Bike Projects spreadsheet. While I didn't ride the whole length of every route, I at least dropped by for a few blocks to get a sense of what the facility is like.
The first day of 2025 in Chicago was brisk and windy, at 31F with a 16F "Real Feel." While I was properly bundled up, I had a lot of ground to cover, and was happy to get a break from the cold on transit now and then. So I rode the Red Line from its Wilson station, near my home in Uptown, to the 35th-Sox Park stop to start my journey.
After checking out bikeways on the Mid South Side, I caught the Red Line again at 69th Street and took it to the 95th/Dan Ryan station. After riding on Far South and Far Southeast Side facilities, I caught the Metra Electric Line from its 93rd Street (South Chicago) stop to the 59th Street station in Hyde Park, right next door to an old friend's January 1 gathering.
There I loaded up on collard greens and black-eyed peas, traditionally eaten on New Year's Day for good luck as a symbol of folding money and coins. (Hopefully, my doing so will help with Streetsblog Chicago's current fundraising efforts.) From there I headed north to inspect a couple more protected lane sites on the Mid South Side, and then caught the Red Line home again from Sox Park to Uptown.
Here are some few of thoughts about what I saw this year's travels:
• Once again, it's obvious that the CDOT bike and pedestrian program, particularly Complete Streets program manager David Smith, and the contractors who did the physical labor, put in a lot of work. In 2023, they installed over 50 miles of bikeways, including 27 miles of new and upgraded protected bike lanes, plus 18 miles of Neighborhood Greenways, with 90 percent of the facilities fitting in those two "low-stress bikeway" categories. I'm guessing this year's numbers are at least as large.
• But, like last year, there's a quality-over-quantity issue at play. Now, there were a few 2024 projects that caught my attention, like the nearly complete Berwyn Avenue Neighborhood Greenway from the North Shore Channel Trail to Lake Michigan. The protected bike lanes on Grand Avenue in West Town are also pretty nice. And, while I didn't ride the entire route, if the new protected lanes on Halsted Street from 59th Street to Pershing Road in the Englewood and New City Community areas, 2.5 miles, are in decent shape, that's an impressive achievement. However, there also seemed to be a lot of short snippets of PBLs, at most four blocks at time. In the short run, that doesn't do that much to make biking safer and more pleasant for anyone, and probably annoys some neighbors, who may wonder what's the point of reconfiguring the car parking for such a short bikeway. I'd suggest CDOT instead focus on installing longer stretches of PBLs at one time. Dearborn Street downtown, Augusta Boulevard in West Town, Belmont Avenue in Avondale, and 55th Street in Hyde Park are good examples of that strategy.
• Similarly, it would be great to have miles-long raised bike lanes, like the ones that are common in cycling Meccas like Amsterdam and Copenhagen. But the short segments of these installed on Chicago and Laramie avenues in Austin, and Commercial Avenue in South Chicago (see the latter at the end of this article), kind of seem like interesting demonstration projects, rather than particularly useful bikeways. So longer-distance raised bike lanes would be good. I'd also recommend placing the bikeway midway between sidewalk and street level, like the one shown below from Copenhagen, which helps prevent conflicts between pedestrians, bike riders, and drivers.
All right, enough of my yappin'. Below is my mostly South Side bikeway gallery, with all photos and videos by yours truly. The official community areas covered include – deep breath – Lower West Side (Pilsen), McKinley Park, Brighton Park, Back of the Yards, Chicago Lawn, West Englewood, Englewood, Roseland, Calumet Heights, South Chicago, Washington Park, and Douglas.
From here on, I'll let the images do most of the talking. Thanks for coming along on Streetsblog Chicago's Bike Lane Fest 2024 ride!
Bike lanes on Western Avenue over Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal bridge in McKinley Park and the Lower West Side
Video of riding north on Western from 33rd Street over the bridge. CDOT plans to install curbs next to the bike lanes to protect cyclists from drivers. And obviously the bridge pavement needs some attention! Read more about the project here.
Neighborhood Greenway on Rockwell Avenue in Brighton Park
NG on Montgomery Avenue towards Kelly High School in Brighton Park
Non-protected bike lanes on Kedzie Avenue in Brighton Park
Non-protected lanes on Damen Avenue in New City
Protected lanes on Damen (south of 51st Street) in New City
Non-protected bike lanes on 63rd Street in Chicago Lawn and West Englewood
Protected bike lanes on Halsted Street in Englewood and Canaryville
Shared lane marking on Michigan Avenue in Roseland
Non-protected bike lanes on 93rd Street in Calumet Heights
Commercial Avenue raised bike lanes in South Chicago
Non-protected bike lane on 91st Street in South Chicago
Protected lanes on Ellsworth Drive in Washington Park ("underway")
Protected bike lanes on 31st Street in Douglas
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