The reason I ask, is that when I get to Tony's foods (when I'm heading NW), that entrance on Elston is quite dangerous.

Drivers tend not to look to their left when they exit there (and there is a huge blind spot because of the building and parked cars), tend to take the bike lane to turn into that driveway and when exiting onto Elston, tend to stop with their vehicle blocking traffic if the Elston light is red (basically perpendicular to moving traffic).

Plus, the stop line is for Elston traffic isn painted after the driveway, so people on northbound Hamlin who are going to Tony's for some reason think they should use the Elston entrance rather than drive up Hamlin about 50ft to the entrance there. When Tony's gets busy, cars that enter the Elston entrance essentially block the box as they can't get into the lot as people search for spaces.

I'm thinking about emailing my alderman (Marge Laurino) to see if some changes can be made to that intersection.

I'm thinking about proposing two options:

1. Curbing off that entrance. First, there is an entrance/exit on Hamlin and on Ridgeway. Ridgeway is one way southbound and Hamlin is one way northbound. I think not allowing people to exit and enter there will make it safer for people on the sidewalk, people coming out of Tony's (as the entrance is right at the driveway), other drivers and cyclists.

2. Move the stop line south of the driveway entrance on Elston and clearly define the bike lane (I think the lines are in pretty good shape there, but you can't reinforce enough in this town). This will keep traffic back far enough that if cars want to exit onto Elston, they'll have room to do so and if people enter from Hamlin, they won't be trying to weave in front of cars. Plus, it will keep cyclists back at the light (well, it should).

I always ride with extreme care at that intersection because of the blind spot and people speedily exiting and entering that driveway.

Anyone who rides this way have any thoughts?