Category: Bicycle

Connecting to the North Branch Trail

On September 20, 2016

North Branch Trail. Source: Forest Preserve District of Cook County

The North Branch Trail, which has been planned for over 10 years, will finally be opening this week (well, Phase I anyway. Phase II is under construction until next year). Extending the existing eastern trailhead from Caldwell Avenue and Devon Avenue in Edgebrook is essential to making the trail easier to access by bike, as Caldwell and Devon are very difficult terrain for on-street bike riders. So while I am ecstatic about the trail’s southeastward extension, I am still a bit troubled with the connectivity to the trail by bike, at least for those riders who are using Central Avenue to connect to the trail. Let’s go to the maps.

Right now, the Phase I trail head will be in the Forest Glen Woods, adjacent to Forest Glen Avenue, which is a small side-street that can take a rider to Elston Avenue, which has buffer protected bike lanes all the way to downtown. But if you live west of the trail head, you’ll likely want to use Central Avenue to access the trail, as it crosses Central at a stop light in Edgebrook Woods. But getting there is dicey. While Central Avenue is a “signed bike route” according to the City of Chicago’s official map, I can find no evidence of a sign, not to mention any sort of road markings indicating Central as a bike route. The image below shows Central Avenue between Bryn Mawr and Elston Avenues, a typical cross-section of Central Avenue on the far northwest side.

Now, Central is actually a decent road to bike on, as it is generally only one lane in each direction and traffic volumes are fairly low. However, Central widens after the curve just north of Elston Avenue on the approach to Edgebrook Woods (background and on left) and the road is very forgiving for drivers that want to exceed the speed limit.

It is precisely this section of Central that is simultaneously closest to the crossing of the North Branch Trail and also the most dangerous approach to the trail itself. The City should prioritize the improvement of access to the trail, as specifically called for in the City’s bike plan.

As such improvements come to the fore, I would recommend we carefully study a road diet for Central Avenue. I envision a road diet to do the following:

Reduce the number of through lanes from two lanes in each direction to one.
Install a barrier protected bike lane in the southbound direction between Edgebrook Woods and Leonard Avenue.
Install a buffer protected bike lane in the northbound direction between Central Avenue and Edgebrook Woods.

Ideally, I could see a road diet on Central through Edgebrook Woods entirely up to Lehigh Avenue or Caldwell, but congestion issues around the railroad tracks may negate this. A barrier protected bike lane would provide the safest path between the trail crossing and Elston Avenue. However, on the northbound side, there are driveways that access Central Avenue which would necessitate a more porous bike lane.

This is my back of the envelope thinking for accessing the new extension of the North Branch Trail. How would you make the trail easier to access?

Urban Street Transformation – Loop Link

By Ryan Richter

On December 21, 2015

In Bicycle, Bus Rapid Transit

Washington Street. Loop Link station. Source: Metropolitan Planning Council

Washington Street at LaSalle Street. Loop Link station. Source: Metropolitan Planning Council

Loop Link, the new bus service with some bus rapid transit amenities, is already having a large impact on the urban streetscape in downtown Chicago in advance of its opening this past Sunday. Even if you don’t ultimately use the transit system part of Loop Link, as a cyclist and/or pedestrian, Loop Link already has a lot to offer.

For instance, the narrowing of the road has already been having an effect, making street crossing on foot easier with the narrower crossing and slowing down drivers on traditional one-way streets.

Another major transformation of downtown is the protected bike lane on Washington Street (picture at left) and the two-way bike lanes on Clinton Street (below). This is a simple reallocation of existing road space from cars to buses and bikes, which carry more than 30,000 passengers per day. The two-way bicycle lanes on Clinton do double duty. They provide a crucial north-south connection to two major commuter rail stations, Union Station and Ogilvie Transportation Center and connect with the CTA Blue Line at Clinton Street. Along the way are Divvy bike share stations at each of the stations, enabling commuters from the train to travel safely north and south and connecting to the east artery on Washington Street to get into the heart of the Loop. As the protected bike lane on Randolph is completed, it will be very safe and easy to get through the Loop from the train stations all the way to the lakefront.

Washington Street. Looking west from LaSalle Street. Source: Metropolitan Planning Council.

Loop Link has resulted in a major urban street transformation because it’s costs ($41 million) represent a relatively cheap infrastructure investment that can pay dividends for its users – the bus riders and pedestrians and bicyclists that make up the majority of traffic movement downtown.

Clinton Street 2-way bike lanes. Near Union Station. Source: Streetsblog Chicago.

Bikes vs. Cars

By Ryan Richter

On May 22, 2014

In Bicycle, Complete Streets

We know who wins the battle – physically and generally as a matter of policy throughout the U.S.

I hesitate wading into this as it is not normally my area of expertise. Caveat: my professional focus is public transportation. And yet, I feel the need to weigh in because there has been some very good writing done recently on bike laws and infrastructure and I have my own recent personal and professional experience to bear.

I’ll start off by saying that I am an occasional bike rider who commutes mostly to work, to pick up the kids from school and other local trips. I also live in Chicago – a city known for its traffic as well as its aggressive expansion of bike infrastructure recently.

My neighborhood, Jefferson Park, has been in the middle of a fairly dramatic fight over a complete streets proposal for Milwaukee Avenue, one of the major road arteries through Chicago’s northwest side. Ostensibly, the proposal follows the City of Chicago’s Complete Streets guidelines which state clearly that:

The safety and convenience of all users of the transportation system including pedestrians, bicyclists, transit users, freight, and motor vehicle drivers shall be accommodated and balanced in all types of transportation and development projects and through all phases of a project so that even the most vulnerable – children, elderly, and persons with disabilities – can travel safely within the public right-of-way.

To adhere to this policy a pedestrian-first modal hierarchy of road users has been developed in which “all transportation projects and programs, from scoping to maintenance, will favor pedestrians first, then transit riders, cyclists, and automobiles.”

So why am I focused on the bottom two modes in the hierarchy? Because this is where much of the fighting over street use takes place.

In Jefferson Park, the complete streets proposal is to reallocate space on a 5-lane arterial road which sees annual average daily traffic counts between 15,000 and 19,000 vehicles. One potential idea is to reallocate space from this:

to this:

Of course, the road diet cross-section does not show blocks where parallel parking will still be allowed nor does it show the potential for street bump-outs, pedestrian refuge islands, transit lanes, and other features of complete streets, all of which are being examined.

So you might imagine the public anger that has erupted from seeing such a proposal. Because traffic actually moves well (really!) in this corridor, people don’t want to change its existing conditions – which also include gross violations (due to engineering design) of the speed limit, typically in excess of 1.5 times the posted 30 MPH limit or the fact that there have been 1,000 vehicle crashes in this mile long corridor over the past 5 (five!) years alone. Clearly the road is working well. So the road diet brings the accusation that the City will “take” space for cars and “give” it to bicycles (which have an existing painted 5-foot lane). This is what is truly unacceptable to many people (drivers) because roads are for cars, right?

Which brings me back to the fight over street space and bicycle use of that space. Vox.com recently wrote about why cyclists should legally be allowed to roll through stop signs and red lights (which is illegal in Illinois as in many other states but also which is commonly ignored by both police and bicyclists). I won’t get into the physics about why bicyclists do this only to note that it pisses car drivers off to no end who want to see enforcement of the law (like speed enforcement, right). But, as Charles Marohn of Strong Towns, who has provided me with significant insights on urban planning, has stated:

Stop signs weren’t designed for cyclists. In fact, very little of our built environment was designed with cyclists in mind. What we have done – as I pointed out way back with the video on the diverging diamond – is developed a tolerance for cyclists, and that only with some heroic effort. Engineers now generally accept cyclists and have even created checklists to help us accommodate them – at least the skilled ones – at a minimal level in our current transportation system. Tolerating cyclists, and sometimes even attempting to accommodate them, is a far cry from designing systems based on their needs.

…

We need to rethink our urban areas. They need to be redesigned around a new set of values, one that doesn’t seek to accommodate bikers and pedestrians within an auto-dominated environment but instead does the opposite: accommodates automobiles in an environment dominated by people. It is people that create value. It is people that build wealth. It is in prioritizing their needs – whether on foot, on a bike or in a wheelchair – that we will begin to change the financial health of our cities and truly make them strong towns.

So my response to my neighbors in Jefferson Park is that as long as we continue to design Milwaukee Avenue for the benefit of drivers, our community will always lose. We will not get the economic development we seek, for who wants to walk down a 5-lane arterial road with cars blasting through at 45 MPH? And our bicyclists, along with our pedestrians and transit riders will lose.