Chicago Park District

For better or for worse, cyclists will have to detour east to the lakefront on this stretch, and trail users will have to go through an underpass to cross Montrose.

It just goes to show, when it comes to getting bike safety improvements, even small ones, the squeaky wheel gets the grease.

Stephanie Reid slipped on the green stuff and broke her arm while riding. Now she wants to keep others from suffering the same fate -- or worse.

This morning city and park district officials cut the ribbon on the first completed section of the Lakefront Trail separation project between 31st and 41st Street. This provides a preview of what trail separation will look like on the rest of the trail between 71st and Ardmore – where there’s sufficient space to create different paths for pedestrians and bicyclists. Separation along the entire lakefront is slated to be completed in 2018.

This morning’s dismal weather didn’t seem to dampen people’s spirits at the annual Bike to Work Rally, the traditional kickoff for Chicago's Bike Week.  The highlight of the event was a rain-soaked live rendition of youth education center Blackstone Bicycle Works’ awesome new Rhymefest-produced safety video “Stay in Your Lane,” featuring kids holding up colorful cardboard cutouts of bike wheels and cycles. Check out a video of the performance here, shot by the Active Transportation Alliance's Melody Geraci.

Renderings of Lakefront Trail separation between Oak and Fullerton were recently released. Here are some thoughts on how this will function.

The Chicago Park District continues to do a bang-up job of clearing the Lakefront Trail. When I rode it on the North Side Monday afternoon in the wake of last weekend’s snowstorm – the second snowfall in as many weekends -- the pavement was generally dry as a bone. Last I heard, the trail on the South Side was in pretty good shape as well.

The park district's diligence with clearing the lakefront trail makes a lot of sense. The same should be true with The 606, but it's not.

Last month I reported on the Chicago Park District’s plans to expand a parking lot at the southwest corner of 31st and Lake Shore Drive, a short walk from 31st Street Beach and Harbor. The proposal would enlarge the lot, currently 60,000 square feet of asphalt, by 85,000 feet -- that’s about 1.5 football fields worth of existing green space that would be replaced by blacktop.