Lincoln Square

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

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.

Based on nameless op-eds in neighborhood news outlets, you might assume Uptown residents are dead-set against the Chicago Department of Transportation's proposal to extend the Clark Street protected bike lanes north into Uptown. I've nicknamed the project the "Uptown Extension."

On Sunday, as part of Streetsblog Chicago's Bike Lane Week 2024, I checked out a little project to create a more seamless transition between two segments of the Leavitt Street (2200 W.) Neighborhood Greenway side street bike route. North of the North Branch of the Chicago River, the route runs about three miles between Diversey Parkway (2800 N.) and Berwyn Avenue (5300 N.)

Check out Part 1: Uptown, Lincoln Square, West Ridge, Rogers Park, Edgewater here

The department proposes adding traffic calming infrastructure, one-way segments, and contraflow bike lanes on the nearly three-mile, two-way side street, where speeding and crashes are common.

While this itinerary detours several blocks onto Balmoral Avenue, next year that shouldn't be necessary.

It's not a legitimate subject for investigation, any more-so than the news item, "Merchants say Bigfoot exists."