Neighborhoods

Lucas says it's somewhat understandable that CDOT is not immediately bringing Divvy to the area, since it currently lacks safe places to ride, but that could improve soon.

The city says the program addresses traffic safety as a public health and equity issue. Mobility justice advocate Oboi Reed says he still wants assurance that it won't lead to increased police enforcement.

"We're using cycling as the plan of action to address the mental health and wellness of the Englewood community," says co-organizer Lyana Funches.

Unlike other recently constructed highway-like five-lane roads in Chicago, the street will have only three lanes, and it will include speed tables and sidewalk bike lanes.

The project will increase capacity and reliability, and reduce crowding, but it will also include three-year closures of the Lawrence and Berwyn stops.

For starters, 2,000 bikes and 30 stations are coming to the Far South Side.

Other new bike lanes and upgrades were recently completed or are planned on the Southeast Side, in the Illinois Medical District, in East Garfield Park, and in Andersonville.

While the Dickens Greenway proposal in Lincoln Park has been highly controversial, meeting with Lincoln Square neighborhood groups early in the planning process is promoting buy-in.

As someone who went to high school in Belmont Cragin and spent a lot of time in the neighborhood, issues of transportation there are important to me. There wasn’t a week that went by that I wasn’t taking the Fullerton bus to get to school or walking around the neighborhood with friends. My senior year in high school, I co-facilitated an after-school writing program at another high school in the neighborhood, and I would walk two miles to get there.