The Business of Maintaining and Expanding Chicago's Bike Infrastructure

Steven Vance provides a dispatch from the front lines of Chicago's efforts to build and maintain its bicycle infrastructure. The news comes from the information shared by the Chicago Department of Transportation at a recent meeting of the Mayor's Bicycle Advisory Council.

The article shows how the sausage is made—in this case how the Chicago DOT seeks funding for maintenance expenses that aren't often included in the grants that fund new bike infrastructure. According to Vance, "funding for restriping faded lanes has to be cobbled together from various sources, which is why many bikeways shown on the city’s bike map are actually faded to near-invisibility." Some of those potential sources of funding for maintenance work include CDOT’s Arterial Resurfacing program, discretionary “menu” money allocated annually to each of Chicago’s 50 wards, and, in the unique case of Chicago, a sponsorship by Blue Cross.

With the critical matter of funding explained, Vance then turns his attention to the ongoing and expected bike infrastructure work going on around the city.