Chicago Had a Banner Year for Bike Infrastructure

Writing in Streetsblog Chicago, John Greenfield outlines the city’s fairly impressive progress on bike infrastructure in the last year. According to CDOT Complete Streets director David Smith, “From the infrastructure side, more projects completed than in any other previous year. More miles of protected bike lanes completed this year than ever before. More Neighborhood Greenways [traffic-calmed side street bike routes, often with contraflow ‘wrong-way’ bike lanes] than any year before.” 

Smith adds, “Over the last two years we've implemented about 50 miles of projects, just on the West Side, through the Neighborhood Bike Networks, and those are neighborhoods that historically did not have much in terms of cycling infrastructure.” Smith delves into the list of projects completed or in the works this year in addition to bike lanes, such as raised crosswalks and curb extensions to slow traffic and protect cyclists and pedestrians. “We're really building great partnerships in neighborhoods throughout the city so that we can continue to expand the network in a connected way, and in a way that builds longterm success.”

See the source article for a full list of Chicago bike projects.