Take a look at this protected two-way bike lane in Brooklyn, New York City.
Some people are suing to remove (or change it). If you’re someone who doesn’t live there, here’s why this fight could still be important for you. Or maybe you want to know why the bike lane was installed.
If your city’s transportation or public works department proposed a protected bike lane or cycle track for your town, where should the first one go?
I propose 11 locations for Chicago (see link for ideal segments):
- Blue Island Avenue
- Chicago Avenue
- Fullerton Avenue
- Grand Avenue
- Halsted Street (in some discrete locations)
- King Drive (connecting downtown/South Loop to Bronzeville, Hyde Park, Washington Park)
- Ogden Avenue (the entire street, from the city boundary on the southwest side to its dead end at the Chicago River near Chicago Avenue)
- Wabash Street (connecting downtown and IIT)
- Washington Boulevard/Street
- Wells Street – this may be one of the easiest locations to pull off, politically at least, especially if Alderman Reilly pays for all or part of it with his annual appropriation of $1.32 million (“menu funds”).
- Western Avenue
Notice how I didn’t propose Stony Island. Here’s why.
P.S. This will not be like the case of high-speed rail in America, where if one governor refuses money for an HSR project, other governors can compete for that money. The Prospect Park West bike lane will not be picking up and moving to another state 😉
Look at all that room for people to go about their business, whether by car, bike, roller skates, wheelchairs, or their own two feet. Photos by Elizabeth Press.