In October 2023, a sedan driver struck and killed Josh Anleu, 16, as he biked through the intersection of Waveland (3700 N.) and Long (5400 W.) avenues in the Portage Park community. At a ceremony that November to install a "ghost bike" memorial at the site, his mother Karen Buendia tearfully told the crowd, "If we, as human beings, don’t care about other people’s lives, we're going to keep killing each other."
And in February 2024, only one-eighth mile north of Josh's crash location, at Grace Street (3800 N.) and Long, another motorist hit and critically injured bike rider Ernesto Vargas, 18. Luckily, he was able to return home a few days later.
Today, the Chicago Department of Transportation announced that it has finished a mile-long Neighborhood Greenway bike-and-pedestrian priority route that includes this stretch of Long. It connects the Portage Park green space at Irving Park Road (4000 N.) and Chopin Park at Roscoe Avenue (3400 N.) The corridor a common route for local "606 fixie kids" who ride single-speed fixed-gear bikes together around the city, including on The 606 elevated path, aka the Bloomingdale Trail.
I stopped by in December 2024, when the project was partly completed. Here's some footage of my ride on the future greenway.
Back then, there were already speed humps, paint-and-post curb extensions, and "sharrows" – bike-and-chevron symbols – from Irving Park to Grace. CDOT had recently finished repaving Long south of Grace and was planning to add sinusoidal, bike-friendly speed humps, more pavement markings, and new signage to help calm traffic.
"The Long Ave Greenway is complete!" the department tweeted this morning. "Fewer cars + safer speeds = a better street for the community."
CDOT spokesperson Erica Schroeder provided more information on what's been done. "This mile-long project addresses cut-through traffic and dangerous driving behaviors," she said via email. "A one-way conversion of Long Avenue at Addison [3600 N.], combined with the installation of speed humps, helped promote safer driving speeds and created marked space for biking along the corridor." Contraflow bike lanes allow cyclists to legally ride in both directions on the one-way stretch, while reminding motorists to watch out for them.
"Cut-through traffic" refers to drivers using side streets as crosstown routes, which makes the corridors more dangerous, congested, and polluted, and therefore less pleasant to live on. Schroeder noted that the changes will also make it safer and more enjoyable for residents to bike to retail destinations on Irving Park, Addison, and Belmont (2600 N.)
It's likely these changes will make Long an even more popular cycling route. And hopefully, due to less traffic, slower motor vehicle speeds, and the safety-in-numbers factor, in the future there won't be any more tragic bike collisions on the avenue.
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