There's been a lot of news about Neighborhood Greenways in Chicago lately! In early May at the Illinois Bike & Walk Summit, Ald. Daniel La Spata said that the Chicago Department of Transportation would soon begin improving the Wood Street (1800 W.) Neighborhood Greenway in West Town. Last week, Block Club Chicago provided some details on what's planned, including some new one-way segments for drivers with contraflow bike lanes.
And yesterday Block Club reported that Glenwood Avenue (1400 W.) in Rogers Park, part of a Neighborhood Greenway route, won't become one-way as previously planned, although other upgrades are in the works. That's disappointing, because in March 2022, it seemed that a consensus had been reached that the street should become northbound-only for drivers, with new contraflow bike lane segments, to improve safety.
Streetsblog Chicago may take a closer look at these those topics in the near future. But right now there's even more news about Neighborhood Greenways. Recently the 44th Ward office, led by generally sustainable transportation-friendly Ald. Bennett Lawson, announce in its newsletter that a NG is planned for Wellington Avenue (3000 N.) in the Lakeview community.
"A new 2.5-mile neighborhood greenway has been proposed for Wellington Avenue, connecting Clybourn [Avenue, 2200 W. at that location] to the Lakefront Trail via a bike route," the newsletter stated. "You can view a one-pager here with a project overview and map. If you have questions or feedback, submit them to [the Chicago Department of Transportation] using this form, and stay tuned for details on an upcoming community meeting hosted by our office in the coming weeks."
Now, I've long been aware that Wellington is a tasty, low-stress eastbound bike route from Clybourn and Leavitt Street (which recently became a north-south Neighborhood Greenway) to the LFT. That's why I included it on the Mellow Chicago Bike Map I created for the Reader. But, as you can see from the screenshot below, Wellington currently doesn't always work as a westbound route due to one-way eastbound stretches. That's why I put Barry Avenue (3100 N.) on my map as the westbound option,
But, as you can see from the map in the CDOT one-sheet, thanks to contraflow bike lanes, the freshly-baked Wellington proposal would allow two-way biking on all of segments of the street. Savory!
Existing two-way segments deemed too narrow for full-fledged bike lanes would get dashed "advisory" bike lanes. The corridor would also get sinusoidal, bike-friendly speed humps (CDOT, don't you dare lose the smooth) and a 20 mph speed limit.
CDOT notes that the greenway would provide "a low-stress alternative to Diversey Parkway (2800 N.) where families and children can feel
more comfortable biking." It points out that the route would serve the Wellington Brown Line station and the Clark Street retail strip.
Nowadays, Belmont Avenue (3200 N., two blocks north of Wellington), is pretty bike-friendly between Clybourn and Western avenues (2400 W.) and Ashland and Lincoln avenues (1600 W.), including short raised bike lane sections.
But east of Ashland, Belmont is sketchier, a busy retail street with paint-only bike lanes. So Wellington will become a nice alternative as a relatively chill side street bike route that goes both ways.
It's worth noting that a few years ago there was a ridiculous, years-long "Not In My Backyard" fight against CDOT's Neighborhood Greenway proposal for Dickens Avenue (2100 N.), about a mile south of Wellington in Lincoln Park. That showed that residents of affluent lakefront neighborhoods sometimes act flaky when the City wants to install bike lanes on what they see as their own private thoroughfare.
But, aside from the Dickens NIMBYs successfully pressuring the City to remove a traffic diverter and mini plaza from the Lincoln Park green space last October, the Dickens Greenway debut has been uneventful. It's made the corridor safer and more pleasant, without causing major inconveniences for driver.
So hopefully Lakeview residents will view CDOT's recipe for Wellington as an appealing dish. It's certainly not a half-baked idea.
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