New, Unprotected Bike Lanes Coming To 2 Miles Of Crawford Avenue In Skokie By End Of 2026

SKOKIE, IL — Safety and accessibility improvements are coming to a two-mile stretch of Crawford Avenue in Skokie.

Plans for a reconstruction project on the north-south boulevard, which is under the jurisdiction of the Cook County Department of Transportation, include the addition of painted bike lanes, curb bump-outs, median islands for pedestrians and storm sewer inlets at low spots to improve drainage.

Village trustees last week unanimously approved a design engineering contract and an intergovernmental agreement with Cook County to allow for the county to reimburse the village for all but about $153,000 of the $1.9 million contract with the firm Christopher B. Burke Engineering.

The plan calls for a single travel lane on Crawford Avenue in each direction, on-street parking and an unprotected bike lane in between them. At its intersections with Golf Road, Dempster Street and Oakton Street, Crawford would expand to two car lanes at the stop lights.

Skokie Village Manager John Lockerby said the village had considered installing protected bike lanes but decided against it.

"There's a number of factors that come into play when the design of a roadway is selected. One of that is the width, and so the width of a street is a very important variable in determining what the best bicycle solution is," Lockerby explained ahead of the vote.

The village manager said the plan calls for preserving as many trees as possible in the median, suggesting that contributed to the unprotected bike lane design.

"All of these different variables have been taken into consideration, even the location of the bike path has been considered, through the alternatives, what is the best location," he said. "And it was determined that the best location in this situation is between the parked cars and the vehicle lane of traffic."

The other alternative considered during the first phase of planning called for keeping two traffic lanes and adding a separated multi-use path for pedestrians and cyclists, which would be worse for trees and parking, according to village staff.

Currently, the pavement is about 20 to 21 feet wide with a landscaped median with a width of 16 to 18 feet, according to a project information page.

Crawford Avenue's current arrangement — combining two lanes of vehicular traffic where one of them sometimes has cars parked in it — "contributes to driver confusion," according to village staff.

There were 233 crashes along that stretch of Crawford Avenue during a four-year period ending in 2018 — the most recent Illinois Department of Transportation data available when the project was developed.

There were 83 injuries from those crashes, nine of which were considered "severe."

Skokie Engineering Director Russ Rietveld said village staff had rejected the idea of placing the bike lane along the curb and separating it from the 35 mph traffic lane by placing parking spaces in between.

"Our experience and our conversations with bicyclists indicate is that this is actually preferred," Rietveld said. "Drivers are more in tune with there being a bike lane over their shoulder as they open the door, whereas passengers are not, and so then there's a higher chance of a collision with the bicyclist."

And Lockerby suggested an unprotected bike lane was actually safer for cyclists.

"There is an escape hatch when you're a bicyclist in this scenario, and a car door opens. Hopefully, there's not a car to the left. But you have an opportunity to move to the left," the village manager said. "If the bike lane is against the curb, there is no escape hatch."

The design engineering phase, which includes preparation for land acquisition and finalizing construction plans, is expected to continue through next year.

Under the current project timeline, construction will take place in 2026, with the goal of finishing the roadwork by the end of that construction season.