Recent Streetsblog CHICAGO posts about Lake Shore Drive

More Mental Kass-turbation About the Lake Shore Drive Divvy Rider

By John Greenfield | Nov 18, 2013 | 26 Comments

Some Streetsblog Chicago readers have argued that we shouldn’t take the bait when Tribune writer John Kass writes one of his trademark “little bike people” rants, calculated to stir up controversy and rack up pageviews. That’s a valid viewpoint, but since Kass has such a bully pulpit as a columnist for the region’s highest-circulation newspaper, […]

Troubling Lack of Compassion for Endangered Divvy Rider on Lake Shore Drive

By John Greenfield | Nov 14, 2013 | 88 Comments

What would you do if you were driving northbound on Lake Shore Drive near Ohio Street and pulled up on a young woman riding a Divvy bike by the median of the high-speed highway, obviously lost and terrified? I’d like to think most of us would slow down, roll down the window, ask the woman […]

Lake Shore Drive Has Always Been About People, Not Traffic

By Steven Vance | Aug 13, 2013 | 51 Comments

There is no highway for the sake of traffic. There is a highway for the sake of moving large quantities of people because people generate traffic. Depending on the highway’s alignment, and the land use, how much traffic people will choose to generate is highly influenceable. If it’s tolled, more people than usual will carpool […]

North Lake Shore Drive Will Get Rebuilt, But Will It Be a Great Street?

By Steven Vance | Jul 25, 2013 | 114 Comments

The north portion of Lake Shore Drive, from Grand Avenue to its northern terminus at Hollywood Avenue, will be rebuilt in the next five years. It’s a major transportation project and a huge opportunity for Chicago, but will we make the most of it? A coalition of 15 national and regional organizations presented their vision […]

Thinking Big: The Lake Shore Drive Bike-and-Bus Highway

By Steven Vance | Mar 1, 2013 | 37 Comments

Back in August, longtime bicycling activist Randy Neufeld – currently the director of the SRAM Cycling Fund and formerly the Active Transportation Alliance’s first paid staffer – outlined an intriguing proposal in Chicago Magazine: building a bike-and-bus highway into the north Lake Shore Drive reconstruction project. …the city could create two specialized lanes at minimal cost. […]

The Fullerton Rehab May Slow LSD Buses, Not Just Peds and Bikes

By John Greenfield | Feb 5, 2013 | 5 Comments

When I attended the ribbon cutting for the reconfiguration of Fullerton Avenue at Lake Shore Drive last December, there was a lot of talk from city officials about how the rehab would improve safety for pedestrians and bicyclists. In reality this redesign, planned before forward-thinking Chicago Department of Transportation chief Gabe Klein took office, seems […]