North Branch Trail

For a supposedly environmental-minded organization to do that can only be described as hypocritical and perverse.

Since the city hasn't created a signed route yet, here's a low-stress itinerary on side streets that should work pretty well for families with kids.

As we close out 2017 here at Streetsblog Chicago, we thought we’d celebrate the upside of a generally rotten year in the United States by highlighting some of the more positive things that happened in Chicago transportation in 2017.

The North Branch Trail is a popular multi-use trail operated by the Forest Preserve District of Cook County. It runs along the North Branch of the Chicago River and the Skokie Lagoons from the Northwest Side of Chicago to the Chicago Botanic Gardens in Glencoe. The trail was recently extended four miles south from its previous southeastern terminus at Devon and Caldwell in the city’s Edgebrook neighborhood to the Irene C. Hernandez Picnic Area at Foster and Kostner, near North Mayfair. This brings the total trail length to 22 miles.

The quarterly meetings of the Mayor’s Bicycle Advisory Council are a good place to get up to speed on Chicago’s latest bike developments. Wednesday’s meeting was no exception, with updates on bike lane construction, off-street trails, Divvy bike-share, and more. The sessions take place during business hours, but if your schedule allows you to attend, you can get on the mailing list by contacting Carlin Thomas, a consultant with the Chicago Department of Transportation’s bike program, at carlin.thomas[at]activetrans.org.

The Forest Preserve District of Cook County is proceeding with plans to extend its popular North Branch Trail three miles further into the city limits, via a sidepath along Central Avenue. The extension has been planned since 1995, and has been shown as a dotted line on the Chicago bike map for several years. Some neighbors, though, worry about how the sidepath will impact cars traveling on or turning off Central Avenue.

Local cyclists have long dreamed of a complete network of bicycle paths along the various branches of the Chicago River. This fall we’ll be moving three miles closer to that goal when the Cook County Forest Preserve District begins construction on a southern extension of the North Branch Trail. Meanwhile, the trail is also being expanded about a mile east from its northern terminus to connect with the Green Bay and Robert McClory trails.