Amid a recent rise in cyclist fatalities, Chicago transportation officials unveiled a new bike lane strategy for the city, NBC 5’s Evrod Cassimy reports.
New plans from the Chicago Department of Transportation detail how the city is working to make biking in the city safer, complete with more than 150 miles of new bikeways and additional protected lanes in the coming years.
Alex Perez with Active Transportation Alliance worked with CDOT to come up with some of the plans.
“It’s good now to have a document to look at like hey this is what the city is working on to talk to the community and alderman so they can be aware to like hey this is what a potential project can look like in my ward,” said Perez.
The biggest part of the plan includes adding 150 additional miles of bike lanes. Other parts include adding low-stress options like concrete curbs separating the bike lanes from vehicular traffic, making bicycles like Divy more accessible to everyone.
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The plan also would bring more bike lanes closer to homes, while increasing the bike routes to more places Chicagoans frequent.
“I fully support more bike lanes," said bicyclist Kevin Longstreth. "It doesn’t always mean more traffic. It will mean more safety.”
“If there’s any opportunity I can have to be away from cars while biking and get around faster and feel safer that’s just amazing news to me,” added bicyclist Zach Ashby.
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“It’ll be good for the bicyclists because they’ll be closer to the curb and that’ll keep them out the street,” said driver Charles Freeman.
Bikers and drivers we spoke with like the ideas, especially having more lanes to ride safely with less stress. Some even had suggestions if their own.
“I like those little bike stop lights," said Longstreth. "If you’ve seen those, there’s a couple of them on Milwaukee which tells bikers it’s okay for you to go.”
Parts of this blueprint plan are already under construction. A CDOT spokesperson says the project is being funded on the local, state and federal level, and will take several years to complete.
“We are excited to share this latest update of our Chicago Cycling Strategy, which tells the story of where we’ve been and where we’re headed on the journey to build the best bike network of any big city in the county,” said CDOT Commissioner Gia Biagi. “We’ve set a vision for the next 150 miles of bikeways in our city and, more importantly, have outlined the practiced methods that will help us get there.”
The city has published a full map of the proposed bike lanes on the CDOT website.
