The Irreverent Guide to Chicago Urban Planning Highlights and Lowlights

This morning the morning the Chicago Department of Transportation officially released the excellent Complete Streets Chicago design guidelines, a major landmark in the city's movement to prioritize sustainable transportation.

Also in time for this week's American Planning Association conference in Chicago, Streetsblog would like to present a humbler document, our Irreverent Guide to Chicago Planning Highlights and Lowlights. The post showcases a number of new walking, biking and transit features we love, plus a few car-centric relics from the previous administration that we love to hate.

Did we miss anything important?

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Permalink Reply by Michelle S on April 14, 2013 at 12:44pm

Fullerton and Cannon:

Fullerton and sourthbound LSD off ramp:

Permalink Reply by John Greenfield on April 15, 2013 at 3:00am

Thanks Michelle. I hung out at Fullerton and Cannon for a few minutes yesterday and didn't notice any problems - the south sidewalk of Fullerton seemed to be effectively shepherding people to the circuitous ramps-and-underpass route. But I plan to stake out the intersection for an extended period on a nice day and see how things go.

Permalink Reply by Davo on April 15, 2013 at 6:14am

You mentioned 2 of the bad six ways (Damen/North/Milwaukee, and Ogden/Milwaukee/Chicago). I'd also mention the Damen/Elston/Fullerton as a really bad intersection for all kinds of traffic in general. I believe that there is something being done about it though to help out this area.

Permalink Reply by John Greenfield on April 15, 2013 at 7:04am

I don't think Damen/Elston/Fullerton is a big problem on a bike, and it seems like re-routing Elston to bypass the intersection is overkill. Is it really necessary to demolish Whirlyball? On the bright side, the new stretch of Elston is supposed to include protected bike lanes. Here's some info on the project: http://gridchicago.com/2012/should-we-reconsider-our-support-for-th...

Permalink Reply by Far'arned Retrogrumpalunkus #63 on April 15, 2013 at 7:08am

I agree.

Whenever I roll through this intersection almost all the cars are pretty much stopped as far as the eye can see.   A stopped car can't run over you.  I sort of like it this way.  Fixing this intersection will just bring more cars through it at faster speeds.    Let them sit in gridlock, why fix it?  At the cost of Whirlyball "improvements" to this intersection will be a travesty. 

John Greenfield said:

I don't think Damen/Elston/Fullerton is a big problem on a bike, and it seems like re-routing Elston to bypass the intersection is overkill. Is it really necessary to demolish Whirlyball? On the bright side, the new stretch of Elston is supposed to include protected bike lanes. Here's some info on the project: http://gridchicago.com/2012/should-we-reconsider-our-support-for-th...

Permalink Reply by Lisa Curcio on April 15, 2013 at 7:11am

I would rather ride through Ogden/Milwaukee/Chicago any day of the week than through Damen/Elston Fullerton.  The congestion is far worse at the latter, the lanes just disappear at the latter, and the lanes right at the intersection are narrow.  Perhaps relative crash statistics do not bear out my concern, but my personal perception is that Damen/Elston/Fullerton is a big problem on a bike.
 
John Greenfield said:

I don't think Damen/Elston/Fullerton is a big problem on a bike, and it seems like re-routing Elston to bypass the intersection is overkill. Is it really necessary to demolish Whirlyball? On the bright side, the new stretch of Elston is supposed to include protected bike lanes. Here's some info on the project: http://gridchicago.com/2012/should-we-reconsider-our-support-for-th...

Permalink Reply by Far'arned Retrogrumpalunkus #63 on April 15, 2013 at 7:20am

I feel that Elston/Armitage/Ashland is way worse than Elston/Damon/Fullerton, and that after any improvements that "increase traffic flow" through the latter it's going to end up much like the former.

More cars going faster through longer/deeper intersections without effective lane demarcations is high-stakes "shake & bake" for all the traffic bursting impatiently through it at each raceway dragstrip light change.   It's a long way through that Elston/Armitage/Ashland no-man's land from one side to the other and the cars are buzzing by a bicyclist pretty damn fast by the time they get to the middle of it.

I do not look forward to seeing such a big "shake & bake" intersection no-man's land created at Elston/Damon/Fullerton too. 

Permalink Reply by John Greenfield on April 15, 2013 at 7:22am

I agree that Elston/Ashland/Armitage is a nightmare for bikes, which is a shame because Elston has a nice protected lane a few block south. It would be great if CDOT striped a bike lane through the intersection here so bicyclists would know where to ride and motorists would be reminded to watch out for us.

Permalink Reply by Far'arned Retrogrumpalunkus #63 on April 15, 2013 at 7:31am

Striping would help a lot, but unless it was done with some really good thermoplastic inlay applications or colored asphalt all the way through it's going to just be faded away in a couple of years from traffic driving over it every which way in a high-volume intersection like this.

So far the city has really not been very proactive in utilizing this technology for this type of use for us.

Permalink Reply by Far'arned Retrogrumpalunkus #63 on April 15, 2013 at 7:46am

The Elston/Damon/Fullofit intersection is definitely in need of a road diet, removing the extra traffic lanes, as Cameron pointed out.  They make the situation much worse, not better.

Adding protected lanes through this intersection would be all that is really needed, or perhaps just a ped/bike scramble to allow safe passage for those of us not in ensconced in protective steel armor going through the "shake & bake."

"Fixing" and speeding-up traffic flow isn't going to decrease Auto versus ped/bike conflicts here.  It's just going to increase the speeds at which the autos are moving when they do occur. 

Permalink Reply by John Greenfield on April 15, 2013 at 8:35am

Howard, I'm stumped. When you mention Western/Addison, all that springs to mind is Lane Tech and Crabbby Kim's Bikini Bar.

Permalink Reply by Davo on April 15, 2013 at 8:57am

Im not sure if I am a big fan of the redesign either but something needs to get done about the Damen/Fullerton/Elston intersection. I don't want to see whurly ball get torn down either. Is that part of the plan? Probably 5 out of 10 times when I am going north on Damen Ill see a few jack wads in their cars going south try to make the left hand turn and completely block the north bound traffic. Timing the lights better would help this a little. Then when the north bound traffic can finally get through they go as fast as they can trying to "make up time". That combined with feeling like I have to be super aggressive to "make the hole shot" (Motocross, BMX term) even when I am well ahead of the cars at the light make me dread that intersection. Maybe it is a better intersection for cyclists on Fullerton or Elston but for Damen cyclist, it is terrible.

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