Grand Avenue

Reporting for this piece is by Igor Studenkov, and commentary is by editor John Greenfield.

Streetsblog recently caught up with Smith for a recap of what bike infrastructure, much of it protected lanes, was built in our city this year.

Dozens of people showed up to voice their support for planned protected bike lanes on Grand Avenue in West Avenue at an open house Wednesday night.

This evening, Wednesday, June 28, 5:30 p.m. at Smith Park, 2526 W. Grand Ave., CDOT and Ald. Villegas will host a follow-up meeting on the Grand Avenue Complete Streets project.

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.  

The widening of Grand Avenue will encourage faster driving, but at least bicyclists are getting thrown a bone in the form of shared-lane markings.

Yet another developer is becoming prolific at creating mixed-used, transit-oriented developments. Mark Sutherland has proposed a new TOD building called 710 Grand, first revealed by Curbed in August, at 710 W. Grand Ave., one block east of the Grand Blue Line station in the River West neighborhood. This will be the third TOD building in Sutherland's Wicker Park Apartments portfolio. The project requires a zoning change and it's one of several proposed developments that will be considered at this Thursday's Chicago Plan Commission meeting.

Alderman Brendan Reilly submitted an order to city council on Wednesday that would compel Chicago Department of Transportation Commissioner Rebekah Scheinfeld to remove the Kinzie Street protected bike lane between Dearborn and the Chicago River because he says it conflicts with Wolf Point construction truck traffic.

When left turn signals are installed, they typically turn green at the start of a street's green phase. However, simply reversing that order and putting left turns at the end of the green phase could reduce conflicts between turning cars and people walking in the same direction. As left turn signals have been installed at more Chicago intersections, motorists often are caught completing their left turns just as through traffic – and pedestrians – get a green light. The resulting conflict isn't safe for anyone.