The Chainlink

Have you ridden the new Madison Street bike lane?

I was thrilled when I heard CDOT was striping the city's first bike lane in the central Loop, breaking a longstanding taboo against lanes in the area south of the river, north of Congress and east of Michigan. But after riding the new lane on Madison Street I've got mixed emotions.

 

On one hand it's awesome that the city is finally striping bikeways in an area that desparately needs them.

On the other hand, the Madision lane places cyclists between two lanes of moving traffic, which feels less safe to me than the old configuration.

On the other hand, the lane continues through intersections as dashed lines, which is really cool.

On the other hand...

 

Read our full analysis on Grid Chicago.

 

Have you ridden the new Madison lane yet? If so, how do you feel about it?

 

Keep moving forward,

 

John Greenfield

 


 

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Juan 2-3 or more mi. on August 19, 2011 at 11:35am
I am loving it, but not as much as I love the protection I feel on Kinzie. It is a good start though.
Permalink Reply by John Greenfield on August 19, 2011 at 11:37am
What do you love about it?
Permalink Reply by Juan 2-3 or more mi. on August 19, 2011 at 11:40am
I finnally have a space to confidently ride out to the west loop from home once it is comlpete.
Permalink Reply by John Greenfield on August 19, 2011 at 1:06pm
Yeah, I'm not a big fan of riding under el tracks either. I'm guessing there were some extenuating circumstances as to why Madison and Kinzie both stop short of why we'd like them to, such as funding and other upcoming projects, but it would be great if they eventually connect with more good north-south routes.
Permalink Reply by Joe Studer 8.0 mi on August 19, 2011 at 1:16pm

I keep thinking that one of the primary reasons the Madison lane stops at Wells is that Madison is obviously under construction west of Wells.  I'm hopeful that once that reconstruction is done, that the lane will extend at least as far west as Wacker, and perhaps beyond the river.

 

In any event, I ride that lane every day, and I'm loving it.  Particularly where Madison crosses State Street, as cars used to always squeeze me out where the street jagged.  The lane really helps stop that.

Permalink Reply by Jason W on August 19, 2011 at 1:23pm

My assumption was that it will be extended more once the Madison bridge is done. I hope that is correct.

 

I rode it's entirety last night. It's ok I guess. I noticed before wabash going west they missed painting a bike on the street. It is marked to do so, but they screwed up. I was squeezed by a car right where joe mentions. I guess it didn't eliminate that entirely.

Permalink Reply by Michelle S on August 19, 2011 at 1:33pm

I just saw a motorized scooter happily using our new bike lane. Um, you get the other four lanes on Madison, sir.

Permalink Reply by Duppie on August 19, 2011 at 1:57pm
Not sure if it will extend much beyond the river. They redid the pavement from the river to the Kennedy a few weeks back and already put in new striping. No sign of a bike lane there...

Jason W said:

My assumption was that it will be extended more once the Madison bridge is done. I hope that is correct.

 

I rode it's entirety last night. It's ok I guess. I noticed before wabash going west they missed painting a bike on the street. It is marked to do so, but they screwed up. I was squeezed by a car right where joe mentions. I guess it didn't eliminate that entirely.

Permalink Reply by Juan 2-3 or more mi. on June 11, 2012 at 5:33pm

Since it was first installed, I had been riding it every other day out to the West loop for work. I am glad it's there but lately it seems just like a good gesture towards being bike friendy.

One of these days when I'm not in a hurry to get to work I'll have to take a picture of how most traffic ignores the lane even as I ride it with busses pushing me out of the way.

Still, it is not as invisible as the lane on Canal wich is even more non-existent to the ones who cannot live beyond the dashboard.

Permalink Reply by Cody Wolcott on June 11, 2012 at 8:20pm

It dumps you in front of Ogilivie, right where a lot of cab drivers take up two lanes dropping people off and picking them up.  There's a ton of confusion there.  Then you have to take a lane to get past the Kennedy, which is enough to get drivers honking at you, and not giving you any room when they pass.  Some sharrows would be nice if they can't do anything else.  I almost want to paint them down myself. 

Permalink Reply by Tony Adams on June 12, 2012 at 11:25am

The Draft 2020 Network plan shows DesPlaines and Jefferson replacing the neglected bike lanes currently on Canal and Clinton. Those streets, while a couple blocks further from the loop make way more sense for bikes than trying to deal with the train stations and all the shuttle buses on Clinton and Canal.

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