Looking back and looking forward

by Michelle Stenzel

Kidical Mass family bike rides began in Lincoln Park in 2013. (Photo: Bike Walk Lincoln Park)

It’s been a busy year for us at Bike Walk Lincoln Park! Before we ring in the new year, here’s a partial list of what we accomplished in 2013:

Led four “intersection evaluations”, in which we documented what’s working well and what’s not for people walking, biking, and using transit, and then submitted our recommendations to Alderman Smith for future improvements. This year we tackled the following intersections:

• Clark and Fullerton
• Halsted and Armitage
• Halsted and Wrightwood
• North and Sedgwick

Co-hosted a community workshop to brainstorm ideas for improving Clark Street from North to Armitage to make it better for people on foot, on bike and on transit.  More -->

Held a “Bike Lane Potholepalooza”, during which we rode up and down miles of marked bike lanes in Lincoln Park to make a list of the worst of the existing potholes. We submitted a list of 53 potholes to 311 via Alderman Smith's office, and the city patched a number of them.

Called for enforcement of the morning rush bus/bike only lane parking restrictions on Clark Street from Diversey to Armitage.

Made videos to document the current state of bicycling in and around Lincoln Park four times:

• A commuting route from the Loop to Lincoln Park via Dearborn and Wells
• The new Fullerton Parkway bridge’s access to the Lakefront Trail
• Clybourn Avenue’s new buffered bike lanes
• Clark Street morning rush hour from Diversey to North Avenue 

Hosted a social ride to encourage bicyclists go “Beyond the Lakefront Trail” and ride on the city’s newly marked bike lanes through River North, the Loop, Noble Square, and Bucktown.

Supported the roll out of the Lincoln Park neighborhood’s first “Kidical Mass” family bike rides.

Supported the roll out of the city’s Divvy bike share system in Lincoln Park.

Crossing Clark Street on foot. (Photo: Bike Walk Lincoln Park)

And what’s on our agenda for 2014?

We will certainly continue to call for more improvements in the neighborhood for biking and walking, including supporting the roll out of the Streets for Cycling 2020 plan’s sections that are in Lincoln Park. 

We’ll continue to work with the alderman, Active Transportation Alliance and CDOT to make sure a design for Clark Street that encourages all modes of transportation is implemented. 

We’d like to undertake many more intersection evaluations! 

We’ll provide input for projects like the Children’s Memorial site and the North Lake Shore Drive redesigns, to make sure that their plans encourage biking and walking.

Riding a bike in Lincoln Park on a warm summer day. (Photo: Bike Walk Lincoln Park)

Beyond Lincoln Park, there are many projects in Chicago that we’re excited to see completed or started in 2014. These include most of all the Bloomingdale Trail, which is already under construction and will open in fall 2014! The easternmost point of the trail will be fairly easily accessed by bike from Lincoln Park, and we look forward to having a cool new destination so close.

The Loop/Streeterville Bus Rapid Transit line will be built in 2014, which will be a useful and much-needed transportation option downtown, but it will also bring with it protected bike lanes on Washington and Madison streets. The addition of the first east-west protected bike lanes in the Loop will provide even more opportunities to encourage people to give bicycling in an urban environment a try, especially with the presence and convenience of Divvy bikes.

Also, Northerly Island and Maggie Daley Park renovations are both scheduled for completion in 2014, and they'll provide great destinations within a few miles' bike ride of Lincoln Park.

Here’s to a happy and safe year of biking and walking in 2014!