State Comes Between Emanuel and Protected Bike Lanes

Mayor Rahm Emanuel may have to pump the brakes on his plans to create more than 100 miles of protected bike lanes throughout the city's neighborhoods.

Those outlined Chicago Department of Transportation plans come with a 2015 completion date and include projects along Clybourn, Diversey and Elston avenues, among many others. The aisles are part of the city of Chicago’s plan to have a 650-mile network of bike lanes and paths by 2020.

READ: Two-Way Bike ‘Greenway’ Considered on School Street

Protected lanes would include creating a physical barrier between moving vehicles and bikes, according to a report published Monday in the Chicago Tribune. 

"But in many of the selected locations, sections of the roadways fall under state jurisdiction," the Tribune story says. "The Illinois Department of Transportation won't allow protected bicycle lanes to go on state-designated routes until it is satisfied they are safe ... IDOT will collect at least three years' worth of traffic accident data and then make a determination based on the analysis, officials said, adding that the existing information is inadequate because protected bike lanes are new here."

Adding the "unprotected" bike lanes locally, on School and Roscoe streets, is part of the overall plan Chicago has for making the city more bike-friendly. There are also preliminary plans for transforming West School Street into a two-lane bike corridor.

But according to Sougata Deb, Ald. Tom Tunney's (44th) director of infrastructure and special projects, this won't affect their big plans for Roscoe and School streets. 

"The article is referring to protected bike lanes and buffered bike lanes (like the lanes on Clark and Halsted)," Deb said in an email. "The IDOT roadblock won’t hinder our efforts on the School/Roscoe proposal. Plus the City has jurisdiction of both streets."

Chicago’s Streets for Cycling Plan 2020 highlights both thoroughfares as a potential Neighborhood Bike Routes, or shorter routes in the city that “provide access to local destinations, such as parks, schools, transit, and neighborhood retail, as well as residential areas.”

The route on Roscoe Street would span from Lake Michigan through Roscoe Village to the river. The bike lanes on School Street would end at Ravenswood Avenue, near where Roscoe becomes a two-way street.

The two-way bike corridor down School Street would connect bikers with already bustling lanes running north and south, like North Halsted Street, Clark Street and Lincoln Avenue. However, the proposed lanes would be more similar to the Berteau Greenway in Ald. Ameya Pawar’s (47th) ward.

For the full Tribune story, follow this link.