The Chainlink

Montrose v. Lawrence

Last Thursday I rode my Xtracycle to pick up a bike from a fellow near Portage Park.

On the way there, I rode west on Lawrence to Central, pretty much all the way from the channel trail. It was fine, but busy (this was around 6pm). On the way back, I wound up taking Montrose instead, more by mistake than on purpose. While Montrose wasn't officially a bike route, it was more pleasant than Lawrence - more residental, less traffic, etc. In fact, I found it better than Lawrence in almost every respect except for the fact that it lacked a bike lane.

Asking Google Maps to give me the best route by bike from Irving Park and Central to Montrose and California didn't even mention Montrose as a choice:

Is this typical?

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Permalink Reply by Anne Alt on June 16, 2014 at 1:10pm

+1

Davo said:

I find it strange that that google maps thinks Irving ParK is a good bike route. I equate IP to Ashland or Western, I only use those roads if I absolutely have to.

Permalink Reply by Anne Alt on June 16, 2014 at 1:12pm

Many pieces of Ainslie are useful. I really appreciate it as a quiet route across the Kennedy near Jefferson Park blue line stop, Copernicus Center, etc.

Crazy David 84 Furlongs said:

Pretty much all of those routes are no good.    I haven't directly explored the options for Irving, but for Lawrence, East and Westbound Wilson is good (well at least as far as Elston) and Eastbound, Ainslie is also good.   Ainslie's just a little North of Lawrence, Wilson's a little South.    Bryn Mawr is also a pretty good cross street.  

Permalink Reply by Anne Alt on June 16, 2014 at 1:13pm

Yes!!!!

David Barish said:

0= expressway   10= bike only lane with fairy dust and craft beer

Irving = 2

Lawrence=4

Montrose=6

If you go farther north...

Foster=8

....

Skip's Xtracycle =11

Permalink Reply by Rich S on June 16, 2014 at 1:20pm

Foster between Cicero and Pulaski is hardly an 8 in my opinion. Lawrence is much better option for that mile. Thankfully there are plenty of side streets such as Argyle right in between them to avoid that stretch on either street. The stretch of Lawrence from Pulaski to Elston is fine but I don't ride it during rush hour often. 

David Barish said:

0= expressway   10= bike only lane with fairy dust and craft beer

Irving = 2

Lawrence=4

Montrose=6

If you go farther north...

Foster=8

....

Skip's Xtracycle =11

Permalink Reply by Crazy David 84 Furlongs on June 16, 2014 at 1:26pm

Bryn Mawr is a 8 or 7 for the Cicero/Pulaski stretch. And parts of it are only missing the craft beer....  It goes through dead-ends in Saugunash.  And it hooks up to a nice "under" the Edens at Forrest Glen.  The Bryn Mawr stretch that goes by NEIU is a 6 or 5.

Rich S said:

Foster between Cicero and Pulaski is hardly an 8 in my opinion. Lawrence is much better option for that mile. Thankfully there are plenty of side streets such as Argyle right in between them to avoid that stretch on either street. The stretch of Lawrence from Pulaski to Elston is fine but I don't ride it during rush hour often. 

David Barish said:

0= expressway   10= bike only lane with fairy dust and craft beer

Irving = 2

Lawrence=4

Montrose=6

If you go farther north...

Foster=8

....

Skip's Xtracycle =11

Permalink Reply by Skip Montanaro 0mi on June 16, 2014 at 1:45pm

Thanks for the responses. This discussion leads me to an inescapable conclusion: Bikies need to band together to create their own bike map. I don't have the Chicago Bike Map here at work, but I wonder if it simply identifies the streets where bike lanes or sharrows exist, ignoring possible good alternate routes.

Does anyone here know how to extend Google Maps? That is, mash up what Google Maps presents the user with other street-oriented path information. You could, for example, drop a yellow line down on a particular stretch of road to indicate that "it's fine for bikes, but not during rush hour". The Google Maps editing facility seemed particularly feeble to me when I looked at it months ago. You couldn't undo or snap your lines to the streets like you do in MapMyRide.

Permalink Reply by David Barish on June 16, 2014 at 1:47pm


That is true. I live just west of Pulaski, of course in our parts we celebrate Casimir Crawford Day. I recently road Foster from the lake to Lincoln and it was a delight. My rating was based on that segment which has some new paving. Bryn Mawr, as mentioned, is also a good east west corridor, and further west a better one. 
Rich S said:

Foster between Cicero and Pulaski is hardly an 8 in my opinion. Lawrence is much better option for that mile. Thankfully there are plenty of side streets such as Argyle right in between them to avoid that stretch on either street. The stretch of Lawrence from Pulaski to Elston is fine but I don't ride it during rush hour often. 

David Barish said:

0= expressway   10= bike only lane with fairy dust and craft beer

Irving = 2

Lawrence=4

Montrose=6

If you go farther north...

Foster=8

....

Skip's Xtracycle =11

Permalink Reply by KL on June 16, 2014 at 3:13pm
I much prefer Lawrence to Montrose or Foster, anywhere east of Milwaukee.
Permalink Reply by Tom Z on June 16, 2014 at 4:06pm

Why do you give Foster such a high rating? I drive Foster from Milwaukee to the Edens and it doesn't look very friendly to me. Never mind, I read some of the other response and you are talking much further east.

David Barish said:

0= expressway   10= bike only lane with fairy dust and craft beer

Irving = 2

Lawrence=4

Montrose=6

If you go farther north...

Foster=8

....

Skip's Xtracycle =11

Permalink Reply by David Heiberger on June 16, 2014 at 4:08pm

I live in the Portage Park/Jefferson Park area. I regularly use Montrose. The pavement is better and the car traffic less dense than Lawrence or Irving. The only spots that require extra caution are by the viaduct under the train bridge by the Kennedy. Eastbound you've got people who want to get on the expressway. Westbound, the road narrows and the curb is high. I end up taking the lane in both those locations.

Google maps bike directions from here suck. A friend of mine lives in Pilsen. Google maps suggests a meandering path on official bike routes through some pretty rough parts of the westside.

Permalink Reply by Tom Z on June 16, 2014 at 4:33pm


I don't think Google takes into account the "rough parts".
David Heiberger said:

Google maps bike directions from here suck. A friend of mine lives in Pilsen. Google maps suggests a meandering path on official bike routes through some pretty rough parts of the westside.

Permalink Reply by Jerry Lee on June 16, 2014 at 9:02pm

I usually bike home from Franklin Park on Montrose east of the Edens, I also like Sunnyside from Nagle to the river with a slight detour at the Cicero to Pulaski.Then again, I am east bound around 2am, traffic is very light. I have used lawrence and montrose going to work around noon, just gotta to be careful near the expressway, otherwise it is very good. i would never go on foster in the afternoon, especially between kimball and Cicero, I  prefer side streets such as Argyle or Carmen.

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