The Irreverent Guide to Chicago Urban Planning Highlights and Lowlights

This morning the morning the Chicago Department of Transportation officially released the excellent Complete Streets Chicago design guidelines, a major landmark in the city's movement to prioritize sustainable transportation.

Also in time for this week's American Planning Association conference in Chicago, Streetsblog would like to present a humbler document, our Irreverent Guide to Chicago Planning Highlights and Lowlights. The post showcases a number of new walking, biking and transit features we love, plus a few car-centric relics from the previous administration that we love to hate.

Did we miss anything important?

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Permalink Reply by Tricolor on April 13, 2013 at 10:39am

I think Fullerton's turned out fine. The northern sidewalk is plenty wide, and the intersection's got a traffic light to keep the sidewalk and street traffic from being in the same place at the same time. With summer foot traffic the stop sign was pretty useless. The underpass for Fullerton just before the bridge over the rowing pond is nice, too.

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Permalink Reply by John Greenfield on April 13, 2013 at 10:48am

I'm planning on doing a follow-up post about Fullerton, observing what routes eastbound cyclists and pedestrians are taking to the lake. Are they making two street crossings to get to the wide north sidewalk, are they taking the circuitous ramp/underpass/ramp-or-stairs route, or are cyclists simply continuing east in the street despite the danger of two right-turn lanes? I'll keep you posted on my findings.

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Permalink Reply by Far'arned Retrogrumpalunkus #63 on April 14, 2013 at 5:53am

Speaking of the LFP flyover, what is the status on this mega-budget extravaGANZA?

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Permalink Reply by John Greenfield on April 14, 2013 at 7:23am

James, the project is slated to be bid out this fall and constructed in 2014. Here's a 56-page city planning document on the subject with lots of cool renderings and more info than you could possibly want: http://www.cityofchicago.org/content/dam/city/depts/cdot/NPFlyover_...

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Permalink Reply by Far'arned Retrogrumpalunkus #63 on April 14, 2013 at 7:29am

Thanks!

Lots of info. What are the chances that it isn't going to be built at this point and an alternative such as Steven's idea is implemented instead? Pretty much zero? Looks like a done deal to me. Everyone's pockets have already been lined.

John Greenfield said:

James, the project is slated to be bid out this fall and constructed in 2014. Here's a 56-page city planning document on the subject with lots of cool renderings and more info than you could possibly want: http://www.cityofchicago.org/content/dam/city/depts/cdot/NPFlyover_...

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Permalink Reply by John Greenfield on April 14, 2013 at 7:37am

Yep, it looks like it's going to actually happen. One could argue it's not the wisest use of $44.5 million when there's a much cheaper alternative that would solve much of the current problem. On the other hand, you won't hear me complaining once I'm soaring over the city on my bike on the flyover, checking out awesome views of the lake and skyline.

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Permalink Reply by Far'arned Retrogrumpalunkus #63 on April 14, 2013 at 7:45am

I suppose it's comparable in cost to the Bloomington Trail Bridge to Nowhere project and at least this is going to get a bunch of through traffic linking through this much-used and highly congested danger zone.

Hopefully no other needed transportation bicycling infrastructure projects will be getting cut in the future due to shortfalls in the overall budget. A million here, and a million there, and pretty soon it starts adding up to real money...

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Permalink Reply by John Greenfield on April 14, 2013 at 7:55am

James, the Bloomingdale will be far from a bridge to nowhere. It will be a spectacular park and recreation facility and, unlike New York's High Line, which you can't bike on, it will also be a very useful transportation route. I know I'll be using it to pedal from my home in Logan Square part of the way downtown, when I'm not in the mood for direct-but-hectic Milwaukee Avenue. And the trail will link a number of street-level parks and schools, so it will be terrific car-free walking and biking route for neighborhood kids. Definitely $90 million well spent.