Recent Streetsblog CHICAGO posts about Milwaukee Avenue

Mega Mall Developer Adds Housing, Reduces Number of Car Parking Spots

By Steven Vance | May 5, 2015 | 16 Comments

The company that’s redeveloping the Discount Mega Mall site in Logan Square has released a reworked proposal that adds much needed housing and dials back the number of car parking spaces, which makes the project a better fit for the walkable, transit accessible neighborhood. Terraco Real Estate and 32nd Ward Alderman Scott Waguespack are hosting a public […]

Actually, Logan Square’s Neither Traffic-Choked Nor Overcrowded

By Steven Vance | Nov 11, 2014 | 47 Comments

Late last month, over 100 people crowded into a public presentation to hear about a proposed development of 254 housing units, plus 72 car parking spaces and retail, on what’s now a vacant lot around the corner from the California Blue Line ‘L’ station in Logan Square. The number of parking spaces proposed is 182 fewer than […]

Lagging Left Turns Would Improve Crosswalk Safety at Complex Intersections

By Steven Vance | Sep 16, 2014 | 19 Comments

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 […]

Eyes on the Street: CDOT Will Fix Milwaukee/Division Sidewalk, Crosswalks

By Steven Vance | Sep 4, 2014 | No Comments

The Chicago Department of Transportation’s Walk To Transit project will bring “quick fixes” to ten Chicago Transit Authority rail stations next year, including several long-needed improvements to the sidewalks and crosswalks around the Division Blue Line station. Currently, people walking to and from the transit line, or to the numerous shops and residences around the Polish […]

PBLs Off the Table in Jeff Park, But Milwaukee Still Needs a Road Diet

By John Greenfield | Aug 22, 2014 | 10 Comments

The Chicago Department of Transportation has proposed three possible street reconfigurations for Milwaukee from Lawrence to Elston. Unfortunately, the one that CDOT originally said would have had the greatest safety benefit for pedestrians, bicyclists, and drivers is now off the table. The scenario where the current five-lane speedway would have been converted to two travel […]

Milwaukee Bottleneck Addressed but Illegal Parkers Endanger Cyclists

By John Greenfield | Jul 9, 2014 | 42 Comments

On Thursday, Steven Vance and I got the news that the city was forcing a developer to fix a dangerous bottleneck on Milwaukee Avenue, Chicago’s busiest bike street, in Wicker Park. However, when I dropped by around 4:30 p.m. yesterday to check out the new street configuration, I found that the situation was as dysfunctional […]

Milwaukee Bottleneck Is Being Fixed, After Streetsblog Alerted CDOT

By John Greenfield | Jul 3, 2014 | 33 Comments

Construction to transform Wicker Park’s Northwest Tower into a boutique hotel has created a dangerous bottleneck for cyclists next to the construction site. Partly thanks to advocacy by a Streetsblog reader and reporter Steven Vance, the developer is fixing the problem. On Wednesday, June 25, Kevin Monahan wrote Streetsblog to tell us that Convexity Properties […]

Eyes on the Street: Cut Off Green St. To Cut Milwaukee Ave. Bike Conflicts

By Steven Vance | Jun 9, 2014 | 10 Comments

Chicago has long blocked cut-through car traffic on lightly traveled residential streets with hundreds of cul-de-sacs sprinkled throughout the city. The same traffic diversion tactics could also improve safety for bicyclists at dangerous intersections by simplifying movements and removing potential conflict points. One example is Green Street, where it intersects Milwaukee Avenue’s buffered bike lane. A traffic […]

Eyes on the Street: Augusta Buffered Lanes and Repaved Milwaukee PBLs

By John Greenfield | May 29, 2014 | 27 Comments

Due to the cold spring, the Chicago Department of Transportation’s bikeways construction season got off to a late start. Thermoplastic pavement markings don’t adhere properly to asphalt at temperatures below 50 Fahrenheit, as evidenced by bike lanes and crosswalks in various parts of town that were striped too late in the season in 2013 and […]

Bollard Blues: This Winter Was Rough on Chicago’s Protected Bike Lanes

By John Greenfield | Apr 11, 2014 | 26 Comments

[This piece also runs on the Green Lane Project’s blog.] In the wake of this brutal winter, Chicago’s third snowiest on record, some sections of the Dearborn protected bike lanes resemble a gap-toothed grin. Several of the white, plastic posts that delineate the bi-directional bikeway are missing in action. Roughly half of the posts that […]

Blue Line Construction Strands Shuttle Bus Riders Amid Detoured Traffic

By Steven Vance | Mar 28, 2014 | 21 Comments

Last weekend’s Blue Line track work, just one week of the months-long Your New Blue project, pushed rail riders onto shuttle buses that ran along Milwaukee Avenue — and right through a traffic jam created by the very same track work. Instead of following the designated detour, drivers diverted from Fullerton and Sacramento Avenues under the […]

CDOT Forgets to Accommodate Cyclists During Bloomingdale Construction

By Steven Vance | Mar 14, 2014 | 22 Comments

Bloomingdale Trail construction charges ahead, with bridge work that involves closing Milwaukee at the viaduct, tonight at 8 p.m. through early Monday morning. Cars, trucks and buses will detour around the construction via North and Western, and pedestrians are advised to take a shorter detour via Oakley, Wilmot, and Leavitt Street to reach Wilmot. Winnebago, which […]

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