As I suspected, construction began today, Monday, June 6, 2011, on Chicago’s first 0.5 miles of protected bike lanes at Kinzie and Desplaines.
Chicago Department of Transportation employees were out on the street this morning striping the bike lane and bike lane buffer, as well as a painted “median” at the start of the bike lane that will presumably keep out automobiles.
Looking east on Kinzie from Desplaines, down hill. More photos.
Looking west on Kinzie from Jefferson, up hill. More photos.
The configuration is probably a 5-feet bike lane, 3-feet buffer zone (which will soon have soft-hit bollards), 8-feet car parking lane, and 10-feet travel lane. As of 9:30 AM this morning, when the photos were taken, crews had not worked on westbound Kinzie Street.
More
- See the complete photo set on my Flickr with photos by Brandon Souba.
- Keep up with the discussion (from people both optimistic and pessimistic about this project) on The Chainlink.
- Read my previous posts about this project.
- Follow the discussion on Chicagoist (although much of it centers around the law allowing bicyclists and motorcyclists to go through red lights in specific circumstances).