Kinzie or Grand?

I'm trying to commute Hyde Park/LFT to Logan Square and have lately found Kinzie to be an absolute stress ball trying to get to Milwaukee/Elston. I've noticed on Strava a lot of bikes taking the LFT to Grand to Mil. Do you just ride in traffic on Grand? I'm wondering if riding in traffic on Grand would be less stressful than dealing with the stop sign/valet/pedestrian insanity on Kinzie. Thoughts?

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Permalink Reply by Lisa Curcio on May 19, 2015 at 7:00am

Is Jefferson particularly busy in the morning?  I have taken it often on weekends to get from the south Loop area to Milwaukee (well, to Fulton to DesPlaines to Milwaukee or to Fulton to Clinton to Kinzie to Milwaukee).  It has always seemed pretty low stress to me.  Much better than Canal.

But I have to say that I never have been fast enough to continuously ride in a lane of traffic.

Permalink Reply by Maurice on May 19, 2015 at 8:28am

I routinely take Jefferson instead of Canal.

 

Canal is one of the worst bike lanes in the system for a number of reasons.

Permalink Reply by Anne Alt on May 19, 2015 at 8:59am

Yep, Canal is a mess in its current configuration.  Jefferson is much easier, since it doesn't have all the train station traffic.

Permalink Reply by Shawn Evans on May 19, 2015 at 5:06pm

Why go thru downtown at all?

Take a street west (like 51st) to Racine, then north on Racine, changing to Loomis to get across the river, then where Loomis ends (at Adams), take Adams west to either Wood or Leavitt/Oakley. Wood crosses Milwaukee at 1400 North, and ends at Armitage. Leavitt ends close to Fullerton.

Permalink Reply by David P. on May 20, 2015 at 4:52am

For a north-then-west route:

I don't find Belmont particularly bothersome, at least until you get to Western, when it gets worse because of the lane configuration. But Roscoe, 1/4 mile north, is much, much nicer. You are still stuck taking Belmont past Western unless you go south earlier.

Webster is the other low-stress route that is closer to Logan Square, and it crosses both the freeway and the river. You do have to do some wiggling once you get to, yes, Western.

Permalink Reply by Shawn Evans on May 20, 2015 at 8:28am

Webster has too much (Lincoln Park) traffic. And it doesn't go to Western (it ends at Leavitt).

Permalink Reply by Gecko on May 20, 2015 at 5:49am

I'd probably take 31st west from the LFT to Loomis headed north, then cut over a few blocks on 18th back east to Racine headed north.  Racine does a little jig jog to the east at Madison, but you can follow it all the way to Hubbard, cut west on Hubbard to Noble and then come back east just a bit on Chicago from Noble.

You could also take 18th from the LFT all the way to Racine, but I've heard 18th is under construction closer to the lake lately.

Permalink Reply by Tandemonium on May 20, 2015 at 1:48pm

Well, mweerd, about the only thing I can be sure of after reading this whole thread is that nobody would do what you are currently doing :P

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