Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Lincoln Avenue to Receive Some TLC

Some good news for all of you who walk or bike on Lincoln Avenue. Alderman Michele Smith has advised that Lincoln, from its start at 1800/Wells Street to 2800/Diversey Avenue, will receive some much-needed attention from the Chicago Department of Transportation. CDOT workers will repaint pedestrian crosswalks as well as re-mark the bike lanes on that two-mile stretch. Just in case you don't think this area needs work, take a look at these "before" photos.

Pedestrians cross at Lincoln and Altgeld. (Photo: Bike Walk Lincoln Park)
The crosswalk at Lincoln and Webster is barely visible even in bright sunlight.
(Photo: Bike Walk Lincoln Park)
How about the bike lanes? They're in just as bad shape. Here's the city's official bike map, showing most of Lincoln Park. Notice how Lincoln Avenue is either a blue line, indicating a shared lane (with a bike symbols and special arrows called "sharrows"), or a red line, indicating a full bike lane (with two stripes on either side, plus the bike symbols). Looks great on the map, doesn't it?


Here's the reality as it looks today.

The 1900 block of Lincoln is a shared bike lane, but the symbols and curb-side line is faded, and the sharrows are completely MIA. (Photo: Bike Walk Lincoln Park)
This part of Lincoln Avenue north of Fullerton, near the Biograph Theater, is a full bike lane, according to the map, but in reality, has no stripes on either side. (Photo: Bike Walk Lincoln Park)
The stripes on either side of the Lincoln Avenue bike lane north of Wrightwood are barely visible.
(Photo: Bike Walk Lincoln Park)
Lincoln Avenue's bike lane just south of Diversey looks like a Rorschach inkblot. What do you see in it?
(Photo: Bike Walk Lincoln Park) 
We hope that many or most of these problems will be addressed. We have also asked that bike lane striping be extended through intersections whenever possible, as we have seen happening in River North at Wells and Chicago.

We'll post the "after" pics in another week or two. Stay tuned!

5 comments:

  1. They did much of this yesterday. The new lines look nice, but they didn't put any dashed lines through the intersection (which would have been great).

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  2. Thanks for the update. I'll try to ride the entire stretch to take pictures and post them soon. -- Michelle Stenzel

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  3. Did Michelle Smith pay for this with her menu funds?

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  4. No, other funding sources were used. -- Michelle Stenzel

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