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Permalink Reply by Sean Newby on June 16, 2016 at 5:23am

There is a pedestrian tunnel at that intersection, but the city closed it a couple of years ago.

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Permalink Reply by Michelle S on June 16, 2016 at 9:24am

Yasmeen, I agree. It's astounding how unfriendly the intersection of Oak and Michigan is to biking, walking and public transit, given the huge volumes of people traversing the area on their way to shopping areas or the beach, and who are not enclosed in private cars. It's a wide and complicated intersection due to the convergence of Inner Lake Shore Drive and the on-ramp to Outer LSD. Both Michigan Avenue and LSD are under the jurisdictions of Illinois Department of Transportation, which has been improving recently in its efforts to design for something other than moving large volumes of fast-moving cars, but this intersection was probably designed decades ago. It is part of the greater Lakeshore Drive corridor that is being currently evaluated in the Redefine the Drive project (I'm on a residents task force for that), but that unfortunately has a projected eight-year timeline. 

My condolences to the friends and family of Blaine Klingenberg.

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Permalink Reply by BikeScnhook on June 16, 2016 at 5:12am

For cryin' out loud, there's at least one stop sign on Clybourn specifically for the bike lane that people ignore...

But yeah...I work at Michigan and Illinois...we just moved from River North, and the best way home for me is the Lakefront Trail...it is *not easy* getting there safely...at one point you have to cut across three lanes to make the turn...and with the path under construction, it's very difficult to navigate pedestrian trafffic too....

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Permalink Reply by Mark on June 24, 2016 at 10:47am

I prefer to use Rush/Wabash/State heading north and catch the LFT via the tunnel at North Ave.  It may be a few blocks longer, but is much safer IMO.

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Permalink Reply by Gene Tenner on June 16, 2016 at 5:33am

From DNAinfo: Blaine Klingenberg, 29, of Logan Square was heading north on Michigan Avenue when he disobeyed a red light and turned into the bus at Michigan Avenue and Oak Street at 5:28 p.m. Wednesday, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner's Office and Officer Michelle Tannehill, a Chicago Police spokeswoman

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Permalink Reply by David Barish on June 16, 2016 at 7:25am

This is a tragedy. If what we have read is true it is not a crime.  As a community the best we can do is to make good from the tragedy. Maybe one of us will hesitate at the next red light and take a look that saves a life. 

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Permalink Reply by Anne Alt on June 16, 2016 at 7:49am

There are conflicting stories out there. In some other accounts, the tour bus ALSO had a red light and another direction of traffic had a green turn arrow.  

We don't know all the facts here, except that this was a sad loss of life.

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Permalink Reply by Chicago Bike Tuner on June 16, 2016 at 7:27am

Regardless of who's at fault, my heart goes out to Blaine's family and friends. What a tragedy. That picture, his thumbs up smile while crankin' that Bullit, embodies the joy he felt riding a bike. 

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Permalink Reply by Anne Alt on June 16, 2016 at 7:47am

+1  I didn't know Blaine, though I saw him many times in the Loop. Seeing him riding that Bullitt along Dearborn always made me smile.

My sympathy to his family and friends.

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Permalink Reply by Yasmeen on June 16, 2016 at 11:41am

Thanks for posting the link to Go Fund Me. 

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Permalink Reply by John Greenfield on June 16, 2016 at 11:29am

Here's Streetsblog's post on the case. There are three main takeaways. We don't yet know what caused the crash -- some witnesses said the cyclist ran a red, but others said the bus driver had a red light as well, because southbound traffic from Inner Lake Shire Drive had a left-turn signal. This is the second time in seven months that a Chicago Trolley driver has killed a vulnerable road user on Michigan Avenue. And we need to take steps to make it safer and easier to access Oak Street Beach, and to travel Michigan avenue by bike or foot in general -- right now drivers are heavily prioritized on the boulevard.

http://chi.streetsblog.org/2016/06/16/cyclists-tragic-death-highlig...

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Permalink Reply by Yasmeen on June 16, 2016 at 11:49am

My heart goes out to his family and the bike messenger community. They lost a good friend. 

Thanks for posting the update, John.

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