Western Avenue

The planning department recently released its findings from a community engagement process around making Western Avenue between Addison and Howard more vibrant and less car-centric.

It's not that city officials need to pick a more equitable street for bus rapid transit next time. They just need to show some backbone.

Adding painted Jersey walls to the new Logan lanes would offer real, physical protection for cyclists. That would be an even better tribute to the people who died while biking there.

The City of Chicago is looking to redesign Western Avenue and seeks to gather community input on what residents, business owners, and stakeholders would like to see.

"We also want to make sure we right-size parking because if our developers are paying for more parking spots it means less housing for folks in an ideal location," said housing chief Marisa Novara.

The city hopes to relieve route bottlenecks with short stretches of bus-only lanes and other upgrades. But bolder steps are needed if we really want to make the bus a more appealing travel option.

Why do the various #49 CTA and Pace Western Avenue buses (49 Western,X49 Western Express, 49B North Western, 349 South Western) terminate where they do? The overlap between Lawrence and Berwyn is especially mystifying. -P.C.

The five-way intersection of Belmont, Western, and Clybourn, as well as the stretch of Western between the Chicago River and Lane Tech High, is friendlier to pedestrians and a lot less gloomy thanks to the just-completed project to remove the nearly 60-year-old Riverview flyover. However, the street makeover missed some opportunities to make the corridor safer and more accessible to all road users, maintaining the overwhelmingly car-centric nature of the corridor.

This morning Mayor Rahm Emanuel and CTA President Dorval Carter announced the return of the #X9 Ashland Express and #X49 Western Express buses. These limited-stop, morning through evening routes formerly paralleled the #9 Ashland and #49 Western local bus lines. While the stops for the local routes are generally spaced a mere one-eighth of a mile apart, the express buses only stopped every half-mile or so, for a roughly 75-percent reduction in stops.