Kristen Maddox

Traffic jams cost Chicagoland residents more than $7.3 billion every year in wasted time and fuel, according to the Metropolitan Planning Council’s 2008 report “Moving at the Speed of Congestion.” And we're not headed in the right direction: The share of drive-alone commuters in the region increased from 46 percent to 51 percent from 1990 to 2008.

Yesterday morning, Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Governor Par Quinn announced that the O’Hare Branch of the Blue Line will receive $492 million in station and line upgrades. At the press conference at the Logan Square stop, CTA President Forrest Claypool called the project “the largest single comprehensive investment in the Blue Line since the Jefferson Park line extended to O’Hare 30 years ago.”

Illinois students celebrate National Walk and Bike to School Day. Photo: Champaign-Urbana MTD

Three months ago, on the morning of July 24, I observed the intersection of Dearborn Street and Washington Street to collect data on bicycle traffic on Dearborn’s two-way protected bicycle lane, keeping track of factors like bicyclists' gender and helmet use rates. Last Thursday during the morning rush I returned to the bi-directional bikeway to observe it from another vantage point, in order to gather more information about Chicago’s bike culture.

If support from aldermen Patricia Dowell (3rd) and Will Burns (4th) expressed at a public meeting on Tuesday is any indication, it should be relatively easy for the Chicago Department of Transportation to install buffered and protected bike lanes along State Street from 18th to 26th streets. This eight-block stretch is .8 miles long, since blocks are shorter than usual on the Near South Side.

At a community meeting Tuesday at Columbia College, Chicago Department of Transportation Project Director Janet Attarian outlined plans for the new Roosevelt Road streetscape from State Street to Columbus Drive. The project will include a groundbreaking new segment of sidewalk-level, two-way bicycle lane, part of a bike-friendly route to and from the lakefront. The info session, hosted by aldermen Pat Dowell (3rd) and Will Burns (4th), also covered CDOT’s proposal for a new protected bike lane on State Street from 18th Street to 26th Street in Bronzeville – we’ll have a report on that project soon.

The Mayor’s Pedestrian Advisory Council met last Wednesday, the day after an SUV driver struck and killed an 83-year-old man in Rogers Park, then fled the scene. At the meeting, Chicago Department of Transportation Commissioner Gabe Klein, co-chair of MPAC, along with Peter Skosey, vice president of the Metropolitan Planning Council, described the crash as “gruesome.” However, citywide the situation may be improving: There have been 16 pedestrian fatalities in Chicago through July of this year, down from 20 during the same time last year, Klein said.

When participants at Tuesday night’s Streetside Workshop on how to improve Clark Street from North to Dickens avenues were asked to identify which transportation mode currently dominates Clark, the answer was obvious: cars. The seminar, organized by the grassroots group Bike Walk Lincoln Park, the Active Transportation Alliance, and 43rd Ward Alderman Michele Smith, took place at the intersection of Clark and Menomonee. The goal was to brainstorm ideas for transforming Clark from a wide, intimidating roadway to a complete street that safely accommodates pedestrians, cyclists and transit users, not just drivers.

Guest contributor Kristen Maddox recently spent a year in Copenhagen as a Fulbright fellow and worked with Copenhagenize Design Company. Now back in the US, she is actively looking for work in bicycle planning and advocacy.

[This is the second post of a two-part series by guest contributor Kristen Maddox. Part I compared the modal hierarchy, bike infrastructure and bike culture in Chicago and Copenhagen. Kristen recently spent a year in Denmark as a Fulbright fellow and worked with Copenhagenize Design Company. Now back in the US, she is actively looking for work in bicycle planning and advocacy.]