Update on North Lake Shore Drive Project -- Bikers/Peds needed @ community meeting 9/26 6-8pm

North Lake Shore Drive Project final meeting re. Montrose-Wilson-Lawrence at Truman College on Sept. 26, 2019, at 6 PM.

The most recent NLSD Project meeting in August showed very worrisome things on the sustainability front. Pedestrian, bike, bus, and park advocates (history & nature) are badly needed to give input to the project team at this last meeting.

At the August meeting at Temple Shalom, one of the planners told a community member (as relayed to me) that they are focusing first on where the cars are going and are going to add in "the details" of pedestrians and bikes later. CDOT's sustainable design modal hierarchy is pedestrian, bus, bike, car in that order. The designs keep putting pedestrians and bikes in viaducts--literally below cars and out of sight, which is a pretty big safety risk. So advocacy for CDOT's own modal hierarchy is really needed.
Also, issues at places like Foster & Marine, where pedestrians are being forced to walk even further to get across Foster, aren't getting attention.
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If you can show up for our community, please do!
Event posted on the calendar and flyer attached as well.

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Permalink Reply by Tricolor on September 18, 2019 at 10:46am

Put in a bus lane and lengthen the exits for Belmont where traffic backs up onto the drive. Use flyovers/underpasses for non-car traffic to avoid conflicts with lights, install red light cameras to identify people that clog intersections. Coordinate traffic lights at the exits and a block or two in to keep traffic from backing up.

All the overpasses are way overdue for replacement, but while the CTA can replace overpasses in a weekend I'm guessing LSD will be a complete nightmare. Don't schedule it for the same time as the CTA's redline revisions.

I did get a chuckle from this bit:

Vehicle speed studies conducted at twelve locations along the length of NLSD for a 48‐hour weekday period showed non‐compliance rates with the posted speed limit (40 mph at the time of the study) of 78% in the southbound direction and 95% in the northbound direction, with most compliance occurring only during periods of heavy congestion. Within the highest speed section of NLSD, nearly 9% of the 48‐hour traffic volume exceeded the posted speed limit by 30 mph or more. The speed study substantiates that prevailing vehicle speeds along much of the Outer Drive are substantially higher than the posted speed limit.

Permalink Reply by Renee Patten on September 19, 2019 at 1:58am

Just to clarify, I'm not taking comments/associated with the people making decisions, I don't have anything to do with them - just passing along the information on the meeting for the community here :)

Permalink Reply by Mark on September 19, 2019 at 3:08am

This meeting is important for any LFT cycling commuters out there.  The original renderings for this project were released with great fanfare and portrayed the importance of a bike path that was the fastest, most-direct route to downtown.  It included bridges to carry cyclists over all access points to avoid any conflicts with cars and pedestrians.  The plan that I saw at the last meeting I attended at Truman early this year did not include any of that, and just mapped the same failed design that currently exists between Montrose and Foster (directing bikes east of Cricket Hill).  I wasn't able to attend the August meeting, but it sounds like our concerns are not valued and being heard.

Permalink Reply by Phillip Hutchinson on September 19, 2019 at 4:40am

This upcoming meeting next week is the third (and final) in a series of meetings focusing specifically on the ramp configuration at Montrose, Wilson and Lawrence. The overall project schedule shows that there will be at least 4 more corridor-wide Task Force meetings, and 3 more public meetings between now and mid 2021. 

Even if you can't make it to the meetings, input can be provided via an online comment form. 

The trail design plans for the entire corridor are available to view online, as well as other exhibits, presentation slides and summaries from past meetings. 

Plans (Task Force #8 and #9 have the most current trail plans, which haven't really changed since 2018): https://www.northlakeshoredrive.org/involved_task_forces.html

Comment form: https://public.commentworks.com/nlsd/northlakeshoredrivecommentform/

You can also sign up to receive project updates here: https://www.northlakeshoredrive.org/involved_newsletters.html

Permalink Reply by Renee Patten on September 19, 2019 at 4:48am

Thanks for sharing these details!

Permalink Reply by Eric Pounder on October 2, 2019 at 4:55am

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