By Austin Busch
Editor's note by John Greenfield: As I started editing this piece I did a search for photos of Grace Street previously published on Streetsblog Chicago. That's when I came across an article I wrote in October 2020 titled "Creating the Grace [Street Neighborhood] Greenway from the 312 River Run to the Lakefront Trail would be easy." That is, I proposed basically the exact same project that the Chicago Department of Transportation is now planning! I'm not sure exactly why I didn't instantly make that connection five years later. Just kidding.
That 2020 article was sparked by the Chicago Department of Transportation striping a contraflow bike lane on the one block, eastbound stretch of Grace (3800 N.) between Lincoln (1900 W.) and Damen (2000 W.) avenues in the 47th Ward.
Back then, Grace was already a great eastbound route from Campbell Avenue (2500 W.) in North Center, near what's now the 312 RiverRun. "From there you can take Grace, a very chill side street, as far east as Broadway and Halsted Street (800 W.), with stoplights or four-way stop signs facilitating safe crossing of all the major street crossing," I noted at the time.
And the new block-long contraflow stretch made it safer and legal to pedal west between Broadway/Halsted and Campbell. "And if the city really wanted to go for the gold, they could add a couple more short stretches of contraflow lane on the one-way eastbound segment of Grace between Ashland (1600 W.) and Southport Avenue (1400 W.), and the one-way westbound segment between Broadway/Halsted and Inner Lake Shore Drive. That would essentially create a new roughly three-mile, two-way family-friendly bike route all the way from the 312 RiverRun to the Lakefront Trail."
Fast forward about five years, and CDOT is actually planning to do that! Is this a case of "great minds think alike" or "imitation is the sincerest form of flattery"?
Obviously, the important thing is that Chicago will be getting its next great greenway. But 47th Ward Chief of Staff Josh Mark told me today, "I can't speak for CDOT, but I certainly first thought of it through your article, and related constituent emails."
So if you appreciate the fact that Streetsblog Chicago had something do with this project happening, please feel free to throw something in our tip jar to help us keep publishing next year. Thanks!
But enough of my yappin'. Please read on for details about the recently announced project, from contributing writer Austin Busch.
Last week, CDOT and the 44th, 46th, and 47th Wards held a virtual meeting on the second Neighborhood Greenway of the planned "Mid-Northeast Side Bike Network," an east-west connection along Grace Street from near the river to the lakefront trail. After last month’s contentious in-person meeting over the Wellington Avenue Neighborhood Greenway (3000 N.) , this week’s virtual presentation was refreshingly free of interruptions.
Local alderpersons Bennett Lawson, Angela Clay, and Matt Martin didn't attend the hearing. However, the 44th Ward's Director of Infrastructure Jacob Shelly, and 46th Ward's Chief of Staff Bethel Kifle, Director of Infrastructure and Development Jesse Orr, and Business Liason Maria Barnes (former owner of Uptown Bikes, now called Broadway Bikes) were on-hand to address feedback to the project. 47th Ward staffers were unable to attend.
Brad Huff, CDOT's new Interim Director of Complete Streets for CDOT, began the presentation with an overview of Chicago’s post-pandemic bike boom and how the department is working to fill gaps in neighborhood bike networks. (Huff's predecessor Dave Smith has been promoted to Assistant Commissioner for CDOT's Division of Project Development.) Huff particularly noted the dearth of low-stress east-west routes across the North Side, and highlighted how the planned network would address this issue.
Some greenway features already exist along Grace. Existing speed bumps on the corridor will remain and be repaired as needed. There's the small section of contraflow bike lanes between Damen and Lincoln. An additional, unrelated CIC Program project between Lincoln and Ravenswood adding curb bumpouts.
The Southport Shuffle
Unlike the Wellington project, the Grace initiative does feature a small amount of concrete protection. At its Southport intersection, where Grace jogs and the two different segments of Grace are 100 feet apart, that short stretch of Southport will get curb-protected bike lanes in the existing "No Parking" zones.
During the Q&A, attendee Hector asked how obvious the jog would be to bike riders who aren't familiar with the street configuration. CDOT Program Manager Amanda Woodall said she made a note to look into adding more signage clarifying the routing.
Making ends meet
At the west end of the greenway, Campbell is slated to receive bike-and-chevron "shared lane markings," aka "sharrows." Woodall said Campbell is an integral part of the area's bike network’s design, because it connects Grace with the river via Revere Park. There is no stoplight light at Campbell and five-lane Irving Park Road (4000 N.), but there is one at Rockwell Avenue (2600 W.), at the west side of the park. CDOT will encourage people on bikes to ride through the green space on the existing paved fcpark path. Huff said the Chicago Park District would be in charge of signage in the park itself.
Cyclists heading to Horner Park, north of Irving Park Road, on the west side of the river, will still have to take bike-hostile, Illinois Department of Transportation-controlled Irving Park to get there. If you're doing that, you'd be safer walking your bike, or cautiously riding, on the north sidewalk of Irving. (Note that it's technically illegal for people over 12 to bike on Chicago sidewalks.)
If you want to ride between Grace/Campbell and the 312 RiverRun south of Addison Street (3600 N.), from Grace you can take a sidewalk to Bradley Place (3730 N.) to Talman Avenue (2630 W.) to Addison to Rockwell to Clark Park. This route appears in John Greenfield's Mellow Chicago Bike Map.
During the Q&A, an attendee named Andrew asked if the sidewalk connecting Grace to Bradley Place could be widened and officially designated as a bikeway. Woodall explained that that stretch is private right-of-way, so that idea is a non-starter.
The project’s east end also poses a challenge in terms of access to the Lakefront Trail. Here, the Grace route will take a one-block jog south on Pine Grove (a block west of Inner Lake Shore Drive) to Waveland Avenue (3700 N.) Waveland is one-way eastbound, so it will have a westbound contraflow lane.
At Waveland/Inner LSD, angled sharrows are proposed to direct cyclists to a sidewalk curb cut on the east side of ILSD. This would allow bike riders to take the sidewalk, to get to a ramp, to access the bike-pedestrian underpass for eight-lane DuSable Lake Shore Drive, located halfway between Waveland and Addison. Presumably, CDOT would install signs clarifying that riding on the little-used sidewalk is legal. But obviously, bike riders would need to yield to any pedestrians they encounter.
An attendee named Brandon noted the potential for confusion over whether eastbound cyclists are supposed to get on the east sidewalk of ILSD (they are), or use the southbound ILSD mixed-traffic lane. CDOT and 46th Ward reps said they would consider ways to make that more obvious.
Another Brandon asked if a better route across DLSD, such as a new pedestrian bridge, might be an option in the near future. Huff said the Redefine the Drive project to reconstruct North DLSD in the coming years would take precedent over the bikeways team’s work.
Paint Projects
Some attendees voiced support for the project, but said they felt the plan still did not go far enough. Neil Marklund said he is concerned about drivers using Grace to get around street closures at Wrigley Field, as they do on the Roscoe Avenue Neighborhood Greenway (3400 N.) He asked officials to consider installing "modal filter," aka "traffic diverter," infrastructure along the corridor to discourage motorists from using Grace as a cut-through route. "I know that you say they should be prioritized for cyclists, but there’s not really anything stopping cars from going through that as a shortcut."
Tim Shambrook closed out the Q&A with a similar expression of hesitant support for projects that are mostly just street markings. "I’m a mediocre fan of greenways, because paint is not protection," he said. "I would like to see some more exciting designs put forward, rather than just paint, for keeping families in the city, and creating conversations where we’re building roads so that kids are safely able to ride on them, so that parents [have less need] to drive their kids places. Right now, it just seems to be a lot of paint."
"But thanks, keep doing it!" he added. "It’s going to keep changing the way that the conversation goes on."
Video of the meeting via Chicago, Bike Grid Now!, an orgaization pushing for a citywide network of low-stress bikeways.
View CDOT's materials on the Grace Street Greenway on the Complete Streets project website.
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