Letter from advocacy groups calls for protected bike lanes on Lincoln Ave. in Lincoln Square

by John Greenfield / Streetsblog Chicago / September 22, 2022

There’s a growing sentiment among Chicago safe streets advocates that anytime a main streets gets an overhaul – certainly on a retail strip in a part of town where there’s already plenty of cycling – the project must include bike lanes with robust physical protection. That philosophy was evident on September 7, when about 180 people showed up for a protest against the Chicago Department of Transportation’s plans to repave Belmont Avenue in Lakeview without installing fully-protected bikeways that connect to the Lakefront Trail.

Today multiple advocacy groups made that argument once again with an open letter to local decision-makers calling on them to include physically-protected bike lanes along as part of the upcoming Lincoln Avenue Streetscape and Plaza project in Lincoln Square, along the entire corridor. The streetscape covers the stretch of Lincoln, a useful northwest-southeast cycling route, between Catalpa Avenue (5500 N.) and the Ainslie Arts Plaza (4900 N.) Much of the plaza’s street furniture was destroyed on August 1 when a reckless driver crashed into the site and wasn’t even ticketed. Read more HERE