Car-free streets

The end of August was a fabulous day for people-friendly streets in Chicago. As I discussed earlier this week, that Sunday morning was another delightful iteration of the Active Transportation Alliance's annual Bike the Drive.

Block Club's Alex V. Hernandez did a well-researched and illuminating article on the subject. Inside Publications' Peter Von Buol, not so much.

But according to HOLS member Rony Islam, out of 1,400 survey respondents, "69 percent... strongly support a greater role of pedestrianization on the 4700 block."

As SBC recently discussed, many folks who use sustainable transportation in Lincoln Square are thrilled by the current pedestrianization of Lincoln Avenue between Leland and Lawrence avenues for construction on Leland. That project is creating a new plaza by the Western Brown Line station, as well as a two-way raised bike lane that will add the missing link to the Leland Greenway bike-ped-priority route.

Yesterday, Block Club Chicago's Alex V. Hernandez reported that the 4700 block Lincoln Avenue in the Lincoln Square community would be opened for car-free use starting Monday, for the next week. That's being done to accommodate construction work on Leland Avenue between Western Avenue and Lincoln, including a new plaza next to the Western Brown Line station and raised bike lanes. The latter will complete the long-awaited Leland Neighborhood Greenway, a lower-stress, mostly side-street bike route connecting the North Shore Channel Trail and the Lakefront Trail.

Regarding a factually incorrect tweet he posted this week, Reilly admitted, "I was pretty fired up. I did go too far... No, I don't think the Chicago Federation of Labor muscled this through."

Ald. Reilly says the car-free restaurant strip is not coming back this year, but here's why that would be a really bad idea.

To help Chicagoans to travel and recreate safely, without being exposed to the virus or dangerous drivers, let's create a citywide network of car-free major streets.

Creating more car-free streets for safe transportation and recreation during the current pandemic crisis would also address the longterm challenge of climate change.