The Chicago Department of Transportation has committed to installing 100 miles of protected and buffered bike lanes by 2015. However, Steven Vance discovered that the Illinois Department of Transport is blocking the installation of protected bike lanes, which have been proven to reduce crashes, not only for cyclists but also pedestrians and motorists. Here's Steven's article on the subject.

Steven found out that IDOT's policy is to not allow CDOT to build protected bike lanes (which shelter bicycle riders from traffic with a line of parked cars) on IDOT-jurisdiction roadways within the city until mid-2014. This is because the state transportation department wants three years of Chicago-based safety data on protected lanes before it allows them on its streets, but Chicago didn't build its first protected lane until mid-2011. This makes no sense because there already is data from cities like NYC and Berkeley going back more than three years proving that the lanes improve safety.

IDOT's backwards-thinking policy has already hurt safety efforts in Chicago. When CDOT  recently installed a protected bike lane on Jackson Boulevard in the West Loop, IDOT would not allow protected lanes on the IDOT-jurisdiction section of Jackson east of Odgen Avenue. As a result, this portion only got buffered lanes (with additional dead space striped on either side of the lane), which offer zero physical protection from cars. This policy will also block CDOT from building protected lanes on several other streets, such as Clybourn Avenue, which are included as potential bike routes in the city's Streets for Cycling Plan 2020.