Halsted Street Gets Bike Lanes Between Bridgeport and Loop

From DNAinfo Chicago:

By Casey Cora on September 5, 2013 12:33pm | Updated 3 hrs ago

BRIDGEPORT — Biking to and from the Loop is about to get a lot easier for Bridgeport cyclists with the addition of new protected bike lanes on Halsted Street just north of Archer Avenue.

Crews on Wednesday painted the stretch of road near the intersection, part of a larger Chicago Department of Transportation "complete streets" project that redesigns Halsted between 26th and Van Buren streets.

That stretch, CDOT says, saw 985 reported crashes between 2007-2011, including two fatal wrecks. Nearly 50 percent of the crashes involved pedestrians and bikes.

The "complete streets" concept is designed to ensure motorists, pedestrians and cyclists have equal safety when getting around town.

Included in the Halsted project are the creation of "continental" crosswalks and shortened pedestrian crossing distances at all intersections from 26th to Van Buren, as well as the installation of barrier, buffer and traditional bike lanes throughout the corridor.

As noted on the Chicago Streets blog, there's been a bit of confusion on what constitutes a protected bike lane, but CDOT summarizes it like this: barrier lanes are located next to the curb and use physical barriers, such as parked cars and short posts called bollards, to separate bikes and cars, while buffered bike lanes are similar to a traditional bike lanes, but with extra space.

The downloadable Chicago Bike Map shows the route already contains traditional bike lanes, but a CDOT spokesman said crews will upgrade the bike lanes "where we have enough room," so it's unclear what type of lanes the project's Bridgeport portion — located near the CTA Orange Line stop and a docking station for the Divvy bike-sharing program — will become.

Work is expected to wrap up sometime next week.

The work is taking place in conjunction with a similar project a little further south with the installation of buffered bike lanes on Halsted Street from Garfield Blvd. to Pershing Road.

http://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/20130905/bridgeport/halsted-street-g...

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Anne Alt on September 5, 2013 at 10:42am

Great news!

Permalink Reply by Maurice on September 5, 2013 at 11:50am

I don't see how this will help as a practical matter, except possibly where Halsted crosses the canal.  It's already teeming with traditional lanes (as the story notes) and excellent for biking IME.

 

"CDOT spokesman said crews will upgrade the bike lanes"

 

It remains to be seen whether their plans actually constitute an upgrade from a safety standpoint.  Color me skeptical.

Permalink Reply by yai danche on September 5, 2013 at 12:23pm

it's pretty nice to have the lane painted over the bridge at canal.  most cyclists mount the sidewalk instead of dealing with right turning cars that squeeze them out.  traffic was pretty backed up today!  waiting for some backlash.  i think a regular bike lane would've sufficed, not necessary to get rid of one lane.  

Permalink Reply by KayCee on September 5, 2013 at 4:51pm

Why did I not think of biking to Bridgeport before?  Bridgeport Pasty, here I come!

Permalink Reply by Alex Z on September 6, 2013 at 1:32am

Halsted is one lane in each direction north of the canal and south of the canal, so it shouldn't be too burdensome for what was once a brief four-lane anomaly to reduce to a more consistent two-lane road.

yai danche said:

it's pretty nice to have the lane painted over the bridge at canal.  most cyclists mount the sidewalk instead of dealing with right turning cars that squeeze them out.  traffic was pretty backed up today!  waiting for some backlash.  i think a regular bike lane would've sufficed, not necessary to get rid of one lane.  

Permalink Reply by Maurice on September 6, 2013 at 3:10am

Now if they could only assign some Dept. of Revenue stiffs to kick the ever-present parked cars out of the bike lanes in front of UIC.

Permalink Reply by We all have an inner Beast... on September 10, 2013 at 2:34am

My take on this is that I am finally glad that they are marking the lanes on this stretch of Halsted.

Many a time have I been in the "shared" lane and some jerk-off comes speeding up that lane trying to pass up traffic to get ahead. I have had many encounters with vehicles' side view mirrors at their accelerated/ing speeds, and it's not that much fun to try to keep control of my bike when I have a mirror hitting me in the shoulder (for pick-up trucks) or smacking into my handle bars.

This new lane marking has me smiling all the way in to work and back home again. I feel a bit safer, and for the most part, most driveres are paying attention to the lanes. There are still a few douchebags (I know that there will always be a few), but they are few.

Thank you CDOT for finally figuring something out in that small corridor.

Now, if you could work on Archer Ave from Halsted going west, that would be great !!!

 

 

Respectfully,

 

Manny

Permalink Reply by yai danche on September 10, 2013 at 6:08am

I usually take Canal south of 18th because there's less traffic, although it is dicey going over the river by Cermak.  Now I'm taking the new buffered lane on Halsted and it is pretty nice.  I wish more cyclists would use it though, I'm still seeing people get on the sidewalk going over the river.  I did almost get doored yesterday by a driver illegally parked underneath in the striped zone at 26th.  Luckily I was mostly in the buffered zone so I was able to move left in time.  

We all have an inner Beast... said:

My take on this is that I am finally glad that they are marking the lanes on this stretch of Halsted.

Many a time have I been in the "shared" lane and some jerk-off comes speeding up that lane trying to pass up traffic to get ahead. I have had many encounters with vehicles' side view mirrors at their accelerated/ing speeds, and it's not that much fun to try to keep control of my bike when I have a mirror hitting me in the shoulder (for pick-up trucks) or smacking into my handle bars.

This new lane marking has me smiling all the way in to work and back home again. I feel a bit safer, and for the most part, most driveres are paying attention to the lanes. There are still a few douchebags (I know that there will always be a few), but they are few.

Thank you CDOT for finally figuring something out in that small corridor.

Now, if you could work on Archer Ave from Halsted going west, that would be great !!!

 

 

Respectfully,

 

Manny

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