How the Lakefront Trail should be...

 

This is Virginia Beach. It's how the LFP should be, only with wider bike lanes. The LFP is a victim of it's own success and We, The People, of Chicago, need to get our heads around the idea of a radical remodel. Such a remodel would be necessarily expensive, but hey the LFP is that popular the remodel would surely be worth it, huh? Yes, it surely would!

I originally posted this as a reply to the 'Death of a Cyclist' discussion, but on reflection, I think the Virginia Beach model deserves a discussion of it's own.

 

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Permalink Reply by Michelle S on August 7, 2011 at 3:14pm

If they can do it in NYC, we can do it here. From NACTO.org:

 



James BlackHeron said:

I'd like to see something like a limited-access highway for bicycles-only with multiple lanes, on-ramps and off-ramps.  A pedal-expressway that runs down the lakeshore as part of a human-powered-vehicle super-highway grid for the city.   Add in a few bike-boulevards here and there going North/South & East/West -and maybe even a couple of diagonal streets would be cool as well.   There are quite a few unused rail corridors that could be made into bike-expressways which could link neighborhoods together with each other and to downtown.  

 

It'll probably never happen, but it is fun to dream about. 

Permalink Reply by Mike Zumwalt on August 7, 2011 at 6:05pm

A good portion of the lake has the multi use bike trail that's paved as well as the crushed gravel and a concrete sidewalk for walkers and runners which is directly next to the lake until Fullerton?

 

If you live in Chicagoland then you know what the North Ave. beach all the way to Museum campus looks like in the summer. No amount of widening or signs will keep it an express lane for bikes only.

 

 

Permalink Reply by Shawn Benscoter on August 7, 2011 at 7:07pm
AGREED
Permalink Reply by Dan Korn on August 7, 2011 at 8:08pm
That looks great for bikes, but I'd hate to be a pedestrian trying to cross that uncontrolled freeway entrance ramp.

Michelle said:

If they can do it in NYC, we can do it here. From NACTO.org:

 

Permalink Reply by Dan Korn on August 7, 2011 at 8:14pm
Sure, but Virginia Beach doesn't have an eight-lane expressway running along its shoreline.  For much of Chicago's lakefront, there's no room to expand the multi-use path because of Lake Shore Drive.  That's what the Lakefront Path is really a victim of.  Pedestrians and cyclists and rollerbladers and joggers and dog-walkers all have to contend for a narrow strip of space while cars zoom along our most valuable land with over a hundred feet in width of pavement.  If we're going to have big, radical ideas about changing Chicago's lakefront, and making it better for walking and cycling alike, then let's not just reconfigure that little strip of land.  Let's depave Lake Shore Drive!
Permalink Reply by John Wirtz on August 8, 2011 at 12:56am
There are some choke points where finding this much space could be difficult, but I like the idea.
Permalink Reply by Far'arned Retrogrumpalunkus #63 on August 8, 2011 at 2:08am
While we are at de-paving LSD we should pull down those big concrete eye-sore high-rises downtown as well.  Re-claim them as wetland.
Permalink Reply by John Wirtz on August 8, 2011 at 2:16am
LOL
Permalink Reply by S. Cathi on August 8, 2011 at 3:27am
Sorry Dan but I just don't see them depaving LSD.  It would help to widen the path but I just don't forsee the city going that far to the right.  The US is just too known for its love affair with cars.  Before something so extreme happens Chicago would have to first become more friendly to nonmotorized modes of transportation.  I say let's get some more protected bike lanes like at Kinzie around the city.  This would help to prevent tragedies like the death of the cyclist at Lolla this weeken. 

clp said:

Good point Dan.  Indeed: Depave Lake Shore Drive!   There's even a  tee shirt
you can buy to support that campaign.

 

But let's face it: Hundreds of thousands of drivers LOVE Lake Shore Drive...and they're not going to let us, or the City, take it away from them.  IMO us cyclists invented the "Share the Road" campaign.  We now need to learn to "Share the Path."

 

Remember when the LFP through Lincoln Park used to be nothing but a Bridle Trail for horses?  You used to be able to rent a horse and carriage and go out for a pleasant ride in the park.  This was back when most folks knew how to ride and control horses, and the carriage traffic on Sundays was significant.  There was quite an uproar when horses were banned, in the early days of the running craze I believe.

Permalink Reply by Dan Korn on August 8, 2011 at 5:43pm
S. Cathi said:
Sorry Dan but I just don't see them depaving LSD.  It would help to widen the path but I just don't forsee the city going that far to the right.  The US is just too known for its love affair with cars.  Before something so extreme happens.... 

Sorry, but I just don't see "them" doing anything at all like the picture at the start of this thread from Virginia Beach here in Chicago without removing, or at least seriously reducing, Lake Shore Drive. There's simply no more room for much of its length. The lake isn't the problem, the high-rises aren't the problem, the superhighway is the problem.

The question shouldn't be about why we can't get rid of Lake Shore Drive because it's an idea that's too extreme. The question we should be asking is, why do we have an eight-lane superhighway on our lake front in the first place?

 

I agree with the sentiment in the original post: "We, The People, of Chicago, need to get our heads around the idea of a radical remodel." Make no small plans!

By the way, thanks, clp, for promoting the Campaign for a Free and Clear Lakefront:
http://foreverfreeandclear.org/

And yes, I do have several versions of the Depave LSD T-shirt.

Permalink Reply by ambimb on August 8, 2011 at 11:43pm
How about we leave LSD paved, but turn one of its lanes into a protected bike lane like that in the pic from NYC earlier in this thread? That would create a biking superhighway where pedestrians, skaters, joggers, etc. would never be a problem. It would still be costly, but it would be a more realistic goal than others than have been mentioned here...
Permalink Reply by OldGuyCyclist on August 11, 2011 at 4:05am
I broke my pelvis last year, crashing into a group of "yoots" headed for the basketball court at Foster Beach --  the one that's, like, 2 feet from the LFP.  In hindsight I should have come to a full stop and waited for the 15 or so gentlemen to meander across the path.  2 weeks in the hospital; 9 weeks on crutches; $100,000-worth of surgery and rehab.  Folks, the path is extremely dangerous.  Read John Forester's "Effective Cycling," for a professional traffic engineer's blisteringly critical opinion of multi-use paths.

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