Some good news about paths

Federal funds pave way for Chicago-area bike paths, walking trails

Specifically....

"•The North Shore Channel Trail, $979,600 awarded for construction of a pedestrian bridge near the Lincoln Village shopping center and Hood Avenue. Future improvements are also planned on the trail, which extends from Evanston to the Northwest Side of Chicago. Most of the trail runs alongside the North Shore Channel, a drainage canal built in 1909."

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Permalink Reply by Dan Allison on January 31, 2013 at 6:29am

as a regular rider of the north shore channel trail and north branch trail, this will be a wonderful gap to fill.

in my dream world underpasses would be constructed at devon, touhy, howard, oakton, main, dempster, etc. along the north shore channel trail because not only are some of those traffic light cycles ridiculously long, but the intersections with mccormick can be dicey to cross with very busy traffic and aggressive motorists who make turns at speed without any regard at all for crosswalks and the people who are in them.

Permalink Reply by Duppie on January 31, 2013 at 6:58am

Pretty amazing indeed. Sometimes I forget, but this is one of the longest trails on the northside without any road crossings, at least until the Weber Spur trail will be completed. This new addition brings that to almost two miles. An underpass @ Devon would bring this to 3 miles of uninterrupted trail.

Dan Allison 14.5 mi said:

as a regular rider of the north shore channel trail and north branch trail, this will be a wonderful gap to fill.

in my dream world underpasses would be constructed at devon, touhy, howard, oakton, main, dempster, etc. along the north shore channel trail because not only are some of those traffic light cycles ridiculously long, but the intersections with mccormick can be dicey to cross with very busy traffic and aggressive motorists who make turns at speed without any regard at all for crosswalks and the people who are in them.

Permalink Reply by Lanterne Rouge on January 31, 2013 at 7:38am

Thank goodness. This is awesome news. 

Permalink Reply by Lanterne Rouge on January 31, 2013 at 7:40am

You bring up a good point. walkers/runners/cyclists have to be hyper-vigilant at those intersections as they continue on the trail. I've had some hairy situations arise from people swooping in to make right hand turns on both the SE and NE corners of each intersection. Yikes.

Dan Allison 14.5 mi said:

as a regular rider of the north shore channel trail and north branch trail, this will be a wonderful gap to fill.

in my dream world underpasses would be constructed at devon, touhy, howard, oakton, main, dempster, etc. along the north shore channel trail because not only are some of those traffic light cycles ridiculously long, but the intersections with mccormick can be dicey to cross with very busy traffic and aggressive motorists who make turns at speed without any regard at all for crosswalks and the people who are in them.

Permalink Reply by Albany Park Al on January 31, 2013 at 4:30pm

Great news!  Can we suggest that it be named the Bernie Stone Memorial Bridge?   And he should be forcibly brought to the dedication.  He's not dead yet (as far as I know) but it would be great to see him, the one reason this bridge was NOT built before, forced to acknowledge its existence.

Permalink Reply by Duppie on January 31, 2013 at 5:23pm
He already has a onetime piece of traffic infrastructure named after him:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_Stone#.22Berny.27s_Wall.22

Albany Park Al said:

Great news!  Can we suggest that it be named the Bernie Stone Memorial Bridge?   And he should be forcibly brought to the dedication.  He's not dead yet (as far as I know) but it would be great to see him, the one reason this bridge was NOT built before, forced to acknowledge its existence.

Permalink Reply by Adam Herstein on February 1, 2013 at 8:07am

This is good news. I'll be glad when that cluster is fixed at Lincoln. Having to cross under Lincoln, make a U-turn onto Kedzie, bike down the sidewalk at Lincoln, then turn right back onto the trail is ridiculous.

Permalink Reply by Far'arned Retrogrumpalunkus #63 on February 1, 2013 at 6:53pm

Great.  Oustanding.  It's about time.

When will construction start?

How long will we need to route around it?

I suppose we could pop out at the intersection of Peterson & Lincoln and take our chances along Lincoln for the block or so until Kedzie, or just keep going across the bridge to the other side of the channel.  The trail might be closed on the West side for construction access there too though.  

Best to just say on Kedzie?  It's not great.  But it will be worth dealing with the construction for a while for the bridge to be done.  I'm still not a fan of the disk golf maze of death on the West side of the channel, but maybe that will fix itself over time too. 

Permalink Reply by Duppie on February 2, 2013 at 6:55am
To avoid Lincoln, once exiting the trail simply continue North on Kedzie and cross the river at Devon using a left turn light. Kedzie is fairly low traffic up there and has a bikelane No need to use Lincoln at all.

Also allows you to stop at City Fresh Market on Kedzie @ Devon, one of the best eastern European groceries stores on the Northside.

Adam Herstein (5.5 mi) said:

This is good news. I'll be glad when that cluster is fixed at Lincoln. Having to cross under Lincoln, make a U-turn onto Kedzie, bike down the sidewalk at Lincoln, then turn right back onto the trail is ridiculous.

Permalink Reply by Bradley on February 2, 2013 at 4:28pm
I second James questions for more deets. Also curious about "Future improvements are also planned on the trail, which extends from Evanston to the Northwest Side of Chicago." I hope this means underpasses at major streets.
Permalink Reply by Far'arned Retrogrumpalunkus #63 on February 2, 2013 at 4:41pm

I would love to see a real bike lane on McCormick on the North section where the trail turns to tight gravel and gardens that really are not all that appropriate to be riding through.

McCormick has a HUGE center mall area that isn't being used for that last half mile or so until it hits Green Bay.  It's lightly traveled there and could easily have the two auto traffic lanes pushed to the center of the road and actual honest-to-goodness protected lanes installed with room to spare on the outsides of that.  

Linking the Northern portion of the trail officially (with actual, signage no less!) to the GB trail would be a huge boon for those newer riders who don't know their way through.  It's not obvious.  At least getting it to the service drive on the other side of the tracks so that one could progress to where the trail starts further Northwest would be awesome.  

Permalink Reply by Lanterne Rouge on February 3, 2013 at 3:35am

I agree. And, it's mostly just a pain in the ass around Golf Rd. where the actual trail ends, and you have to meander across golf, up McDaniel and through the neighborhoods to get to the Green Bay trail.

James BlackHeron said:

I would love to see a real bike lane on McCormick on the North section where the trail turns to tight gravel and gardens that really are not all that appropriate to be riding through.

McCormick has a HUGE center mall area that isn't being used for that last half mile or so until it hits Green Bay.  It's lightly traveled there and could easily have the two auto traffic lanes pushed to the center of the road and actual honest-to-goodness protected lanes installed with room to spare on the outsides of that.  

Linking the Northern portion of the trail officially (with actual, signage no less!) to the GB trail would be a huge boon for those newer riders who don't know their way through.  It's not obvious.  At least getting it to the service drive on the other side of the tracks so that one could progress to where the trail starts further Northwest would be awesome.  

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