Nathan Roseberry

Biking downtown has improved substantially with the addition of protected bike lanes on Kinzie Street and Dearborn Street, but much work remains to be done to create a safe, cohesive bike network linking people to Chicago's biggest employment center.

Divvy bike-share continues to expand, Assistant Transportation Commissioner Sean Wiedel said at the Mayor's Bicycle Advisory Council on Wednesday, and should reach 300 stations by the end of September. As of today there are 222 stations. Wiedel reported that over 7,700 annual members and numerous 24-hour pass users have made almost 325,000 trips and pedaled almost 950,000 miles since June 28.

The Illinois Department of Transportation’s ban on protected bicycle lanes on state-jurisdiction roads is a mystery. As Steven Vance reported in February of this year, the department is prohibiting the Chicago Department of Transportation from installing PBLs on IDOT streets at least until CDOT provides three years of “safety data” on existing protected lanes. Since the city’s first protected lanes on Kinzie Street opened in July 2012, that means CDOT won’t be able to install PBLs on these streets for a year at the very least.