LFT Separation Ardmore to Montrose

The planned bike path route has many sharp turns and detours closer to the lake.  This doesn't seem very realistic.  If this is enforced, I may take streets south to Montrose and pick up the LFT there.  I don't think this is what the public had in mind for the trail separation project.

https://www.chicagoparkdistrict.com/sites/default/files/documents/l...

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Permalink Reply by Dawn on August 10, 2018 at 11:05am

The whole thing is frustrating me every time I bike it now. Even with the new markings from Ardmore to Foster, most people are completely ignoring them. The designated running path is too narrow for runners and walkers going in both directions to be on the same path, especially when the large groups are out. Plus, it now seems like people feel safer since the path is "separated" so they bring out their baby carts and their whole family and stretch across the nice, wide path.

Sadly, I am just as much to blame for not following the designated markings because I hate the new path south of Foster so much that I use the old one that is designated as the running path (and has always been and will probably always be the biking path).

The Montrose underpass, like the loop(s) around the Foster Ave Beach house, is an accident waiting to happen.

The new destruction of the path around the peace garden is just another chapter of this debacle and the detour is a joke. On top of the above-mentioned gravel and shoddily filled in holes, there have also been park district personnel all over it during the morning "rush hour" trimming weeds and standing around their trucks. As if maneuvering road tires around large rocks and craters and ponds wasn't hard enough!

I feel like I should be grateful that we even have something as great as the path in a city with the views that Chicago has, but having been commuting on it for close to 20 years, it has definitely seen its ups and downs. Sadly, this seems more like another big down than an up. 

As a result, I'll be biking home on the streets today. But, as we all were reminded yesterday, that comes with a whole different set of risks.

Permalink Reply by Matt L. on August 17, 2018 at 4:56am

so i have no idea how far south theyre tearing everything up, but now its down to at least addison if not further, im not even bothering anymore. its completely impassable. love how this is just after the year where they systematically shut the entire trail down for nearly an entire summer with chain link fencing to spray a coat of sealant on everything and throw down new gravel in the gutter. im beyond frustrated. the worst part is that all of the alternate streets (clark/broadway etc) are all ripped up to various degrees as well. 

Permalink Reply by djm on August 17, 2018 at 7:50am

...and the course for Stan’s Donut 5K last weekend used the new bike path rather than the nearby walking path. 

Permalink Reply by Sean Newby on August 17, 2018 at 8:43am

nice of the Park District to install these "segregated" bike paths, then allow them to be co-opted by race organizers for their routes. it seems to me that this would be an excellent occasion promote the new paths, and their proper usage.

the Big 10K last Sunday was routed along the bike lanes as well; those of us that rode the 32 mile route of the Boulevard Lakefront Tour found that out the hard way. not that we could actually access the bike path as there was a non-stop stream of runners that made crossing over the pedestrian path impossible.

Permalink Reply by Tricolor on August 22, 2018 at 4:58am

These detours are getting longer. I think the crew tearing up the trail is on a very different schedule from the people doing the paving. Are the shoulders of the new trail going to have gravel for runners and the occasional cyclocross trainee?

Permalink Reply by Ernesto Lube on August 22, 2018 at 5:26am

DA! I am headed south today to avoid all those shenanigans. 

Permalink Reply by Mike Zumwalt on August 22, 2018 at 4:41pm

I rode and followed the signs but you cant even ride to the under pass South of Belmont after the detour along the golf course service road.

The thing is these trails and sidewalks have been in place for years, decades even and not maintained.

Now they come along and cut down trees, rip up existing trails to re-pave them and now they're installing new lights and ripping through more trees.

I really hope the sponsored guys trying to shave 40 seconds off their 100k from last year and commuters can breath in in all that vehicle exhaust, get to work feeling healthy, feeling smug that they rode a bike to work while others drove a polluting vehicle while at the same time leaving inner tubes on the path and contributing to more pollution from more asphalt, less trees and paint on a trail no one will obey.

Permalink Reply by Tricolor on August 28, 2018 at 9:13am

No commuter familiar with the trail is going to use the extra half-mile looping bit that's supposed to be for bikes. And the kink to cross under Montrose on the south side of the street is seriously sharp so everyone will be using the scenic roped path through the tall grass. It's actually kind of fun in the morning, and once the paving is done it will be again.

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