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Permalink Reply by Jeremy Bloyd-Peshkin on October 25, 2016 at 5:37am

I like Augusta and Madison when Lake is too bad. Both are a shade sketchier than Lake though. Both also have bike lanes. 

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Permalink Reply by ad on October 25, 2016 at 6:07am

Washington/Warren also have bike lanes and is a solid route in an out of Oak Park through the west side.  It's my go-to when Lake is shut down (if you ride year round, Lake can be bad in winter at times, and the lanes on Washington/Warren often get plowed better and have less black ice).  Only rub is the lanes drop off between Central and Lake, and Washington gets a bit narrow during rush hour traffic. You have to ride the door zone essentially.  Just a heads up that they are also doing water main road work on Warren (which is the east-bound route where Washington is a one-way going west), so around California I think has a one-block stretch shut down.      

Madison is decent IMHO, but I prefer the above route at night.  Madison gets a lot of traffic at evening rush, with a lot of people making right turns.  Bike lane picks up just west of Central Park Ave and runs almost all the way out to Austin Blvd., though, in both directions.  

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Permalink Reply by Yasmeen on October 25, 2016 at 6:27am

We did a route guide a while ago for Oak Park to/from the city:

http://www.thechainlink.org/page/routes-to-and-from-oak-park-to-chi...

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Permalink Reply by Chitown_Mike on October 27, 2016 at 3:04am

Franklin is getting the curb islands for a bike lane, but that is so far the stretch from Sacramento to Central Park, and West of CP is rather sketchy. Like avoid it type, plus it dead ends at Pulaski anyway.

Jackson could be useful but the bike land ends at Hamlin but it is a rather wide street and traffic is generally light.

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Permalink Reply by Tiberculosis on October 27, 2016 at 3:26am

Division is my go to east-west route. The streets are wide enough to Austin that I feel I can ride three feet from car doors and at the same time not feel like the cars riding next to me are squeezing me in. Route is pretty chill, mostly business, well paved. 

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