The Chainlink

Milwaukee ave. rocks!

Or at least the people riding on it, I've been in groups riding to and from work in the double digits,not temps. but # of people, lol!  It's like a mini CCM.
I may like Wicker Park after all.

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Permalink Reply by David on September 16, 2010 at 9:33pm
LuAnn Hamilton of CDOT gave a presentation a few months ago where she said that studies had shown that 20% of the traffic on Milwaukee Ave. during rush hour is bike traffic.

What's really remarkable about that figure to me is that Milwaukee has some of the most half-assed bike infrastructure support imaginable. Most of it doesn't even have a bike lane, just stupid "shared lane" markings, the terminus at Kinzie-DesPlaines is a scary mess during rush hour, the intersection at Wood is confusing, and while I love riding the section just south of North where you go cruising past all the bottlenecked cars in the very narrow space allotted to bikes, it's actually really dangerous right there; I'd guess that that stretch gets tons of bike accidents.

Don't get me wrong, I love riding on Milwaukee also, it's one of my favorite streets in the city. But I bet bike commuter traffic would double there if it were made safer and easier.
Permalink Reply by millenial removing Bernie tattoo on September 17, 2010 at 7:43am
Yesterday I took a ride up Milwaukee which is not my usual route home and the stretch from after you cross over I-94 to California was pretty terrible riding and having to pass a ton of hipsters on fixies didn't make up for it.
Permalink Reply by Far'arned Retrogrumpalunkus #63 on September 17, 2010 at 8:00am
It's too bad about all the construction on it right now -it's pretty brutal on the bikes and the way they throw up the barriers doesn't give anyone (cars or bikes) much warning about what is going on.

The 100' of temporary steel ditch covers at one point can be a real bag of fun in the rain and confused/annoyed cagers trying to negotiate it.

But on the whole, it's still better than many other streets in the city.
Permalink Reply by Lorena Cupcake on September 17, 2010 at 8:21am
I live on the Northside but do most of my Serious Drinking in Logan Square or Wicker Park (oh, Cole's and Big Star and Boiler Room and The Whistler, how I love thee) so riding on Milwaukee Avenue has nice associations with me because I'm either going to go get my party on, or I'm doing the sticky-eyed unshowered Ride of Shame to work the next morning from Logan Square after getting my party on a little too hard the night before.

My favorite part about riding on Milwaukee is undoubtably hot keebler boys on their bikes. You know, skinny jeans cut ragged above the knee, Velocity/etc courier bag, cycling cap perched on a jaunty angle on their skull, tattoos and serious calf muscles. I'm always pleased as punch when they pass me because I ride like a prim Victorian lady on a velocipede and also because then I have an excellent view of their ass as they do incredibly dangerous things in intersections to avoid using the brakes that their bike doesn't have.
Permalink Reply by Digital Dario on September 17, 2010 at 8:48am
I'm in Logan Square and work downtown so the usual "best route" is Milwaukee but on most days I prefer Elston to Milwaukee because it has dedicated bike lanes. Depending on where I am coming from,taking Elston can add few minutes to my commute but never more than 10 minutes at the very most. My only complaint on how dangerous Elston can be has more to do with my way over to Elston. I have to go through the intersection at Western and Logan which at times can be truly nerve-wracking.
Permalink Reply by Far'arned Retrogrumpalunkus #63 on September 17, 2010 at 10:13am
If I'm making my way over to Elston (for points further south) from Milwaukee-ish I've found that the Armitage route is the best/safest to cross the Expressway and the River.

When heading East just turn south at Damen and go south one block before turning East again and it is more direct with less traffic and it hits Armitage straight on again right before it crosses the expressway. Not only is the underpass for the expressway at Armitage much safer than that clusterfrak at Logan/Western but the bridge over the river is much better too -with even flat-plate so the babies who don't like going over steel grate have it easy. The only issue I have with the Armitage route s that the pavement of the bike lane going East just past the bridge is like a road in Kandahar after an air strike for a few dozen feet. Not too bad -but not great. Blue Valkyrie pavement needs patching badly!

For some background I live right behind the Logan Blue-Line stop and end up crossing through that crappy intersection of Logan/Western almost daily on the way to all the businesses on Elston there, and even on the other side of the river on Clyborn (God, how I love Menards! too bad they have such crappy bike racks way off by the metra tracks in the smoker's "lounge" cloud of cancer). But there really isn't a good way to cross the river in that area because I am not a fan of sitting in that intersection of Logan/Diversey waiting to get run over and Diversey sucks IMHO even though it has a bike shared lane. Cars are very buzzy on Diversey and that 6-way at Diversey/Damon/Clyborn is horrible -especially if you are trying to turn left.

If it is busy, instead of crossing the river on Diversey I might just run down Elston to Damon and take that bridge even though it is a huge detour to head Southeast and then back North and then back Southeast again to get to Menards or Dominiks. It's still better than dealing with that crappy 6-way intersection at Diversey/Damon/Clyborn. I also like to cut through the Cosco parking lot to avoid that 6-way and jump back on Clyborn where it isn't so crazy.

But if I'm heading far enough south on Clyborn, using Armitage is much preferable IMHO.





Ruben Dario said:
I'm in Logan Square and work downtown so the usual "best route" is Milwaukee but on most days I prefer Elston to Milwaukee because it has dedicated bike lanes. Depending on where I am coming from,taking Elston can add few minutes to my commute but never more than 10 minutes at the very most. My only complaint on how dangerous Elston can be has more to do with my way over to Elston. I have to go through the intersection at Western and Logan which at times can be truly nerve-wracking.
Permalink Reply by Primitive Don on September 17, 2010 at 10:24am
This paragraph is borderline poetry, in a rambly, stream-of-consciousness sort of way. Thanks for sharing.

Lorena Cupcake said:
My favorite part about riding on Milwaukee is undoubtably hot keebler boys on their bikes. You know, skinny jeans cut ragged above the knee, Velocity/etc courier bag, cycling cap perched on a jaunty angle on their skull, tattoos and serious calf muscles. I'm always pleased as punch when they pass me because I ride like a prim Victorian lady on a velocipede and also because then I have an excellent view of their ass as they do incredibly dangerous things in intersections to avoid using the brakes that their bike doesn't have.

Oh, and being a Logan Square type, I do agree that Milwaukee Ave. pretty much rocks.
Permalink Reply by David on September 17, 2010 at 11:47am
Could you elaborate on that with some specifics? I'm very interested in it.

What exactly did the CDOT and ATA people say in response to your request? Are you referring to things that were said at the council meeting or things that were said in unrelated (possibly private) meetings? Also, I'm not sure exactly what you mean by "inner city bike scene"; there's an awful lot of unrelated biking communities in Chicago. Do you mean they seemed removed from biking in the city in general, or that they didn't seem to understand some specific bike community? Why, exactly, did the folks from Active Trans seem that way?

Eddie Cortes said:
Milwaukee Ave does rock! I totally agree, that is if you ride from Grand/Halsted,north to about Kedzie than the city limits end here! or they do for those of us that continue to the "un- gentrified" NW side of Chicago.Here the fixies are not as common as further south on Milwaukee, but the numbers are growing at a fast rate.With all this said, I was at the Mayors so called"bicycle advisory council meeting", last week and brought to the table the issue of having Milwaukee Ave marked while it is being resurfaced, I was at the same meeting in March and brought up the same issue,After talking to Project Managers, from CDOT, and so called bike /traffic engineers from Active Trans/CDOT, ALL SUMMER LONG WITH NO RESULTS I HAVE COME TO THE CONCLUSION THAT- - CDOT,AND ACTIVE TRANS ARE SO FAR REMOVED FROM THE INNER CITY BIKE SCENE THAT IT MAKES ME SICK! MAYBE THAT IS WHY THE FORMER EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR FROM ACTIVE TRANS PACKED UP HIS BIKE AND MOVED TO PORTLAND.
Permalink Reply by Juan 2-3 or more mi. on September 17, 2010 at 2:10pm
We need to have a daily critical mass on that street in order to get the city to do something serious!
Permalink Reply by millenial removing Bernie tattoo on September 17, 2010 at 2:59pm
Milwaukee is 40' wide, a standard car lane is 12' and a standard parking lane is 8'. Do the math. You're not getting a real bike lane unless you get rid of some street parking. Good luck.
Permalink Reply by Kevin Mulcky on September 17, 2010 at 3:32pm
I guess I don't agree here. I'd rather ride alone and at my own pace instead of being surrounded by riders.

And there are so many hazards between Western and Ogdon: the jaywalkers, opening car doors, rampant shoaling, cabs, Valet parking signs in the bike lanes. Outside of that region, MKE is awesome. But, i prefer Elston.
Permalink Reply by Craig S. on September 17, 2010 at 3:50pm
As we're expressing opinions here, I personally can't stand riding on Milwaukee. I hated it in 1993 when I lived in Wicker Park. I was just on it for the first time in years about a month ago from North to Grand; couldn't wait to get off the street.

Good luck.

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