The uptick in cyclist fatalities in Chicago this year underscores the need for more protected bike lane projects, Chicago Department of Transportation officials said this week.
At the third quarterly Mayor's Bicycle Advisory Council meeting of the year, city officials said they've installed 19.5 new miles of protected bike lanes on city streets so far this year, for a total of 67.75 since 2011. And 45 more miles of bike lanes will be installed next spring, which would send the city just over its goal of constructing 100 new miles of protected lanes by next year.
At the Wednesday meeting, CDOT Commissioner Rebekah Scheinfeld said officials are concerned about the "significant uptick" in cyclist fatalities the city has seen so far this year-seven, compared to three by this time last year.
Expanding the network of protected bike lanes, which create physical barriers or extra space known as a "buffer zone" between a lane for bicycles and a lane for cars, could help Chicago make the streets safer for cyclists, Mike Amsden, CDOT's assistant director of transportation planning, said.
Most cyclist fatalities in Chicago occur when a motorist hits a cyclist.
"Nationwide and worldwide, it has really shown that crashes can go down," with protected lanes, Amsden said. "And that it's not just for cyclists; we're really trying to make the roads safer for everybody."
Of the new protected lane projects currently in the works, 23 miles will be installed in several stretches, including Milwaukee Avenue from Lawrence Avenue to Elston Avenue, and on Lawrence Avenue from Central Avenue to Central Park Avenue.
Plans for another 14 miles of bike lanes include stretches on Elston Avenue from Webster Avenue to Milwaukee Avenue, Kedzie Avenue from Milwaukee Avenue to Addison Street, Pershing Street from Martin Luther King Jr. Drive to Oakwood Avenue.
And another 7.5 miles are tied to street resurfacing projects planned for fall and spring, according to officials. They include Armitage Avenue from Western Avenue to Damen Avenue, Augusta Avenue from Central Park Avenue to Grand Avenue, and Lake Street from Austin Avenue to Laramie Avenue.
The city is eyeing streets that will help "close the gaps" between existing protected bike lanes on unconnected roads across the city, Amsden said.
"There are streets, like Ogden Avenue on the South Side, where we have done a decent job of starting to build a network in areas that didn't have any bike lanes, the south side for example, the southwest side," he said. "But now, how do we start closing the gaps and building a cohesive, continuous network?"
New protected bike lanes, like one recently installed on Broadway in Uptown, have been positively received by the communities they run through, Amsden said.
"We've heard from businesses along the corridor that so far they like the changes; it's slowing down traffic where [people] are not flying by the businesses," he said. "Pedestrians love it; they can now cross the street and feel safe and comfortable."
Some critics of the city's protected bike lane plans say that they would cut into scarce road space for motorists and increase congestion in their neighborhoods, which could be bad for business and pedestrian safety.
Protected bike lanes don't make sense for every neighborhood, said John Garrido, a police officer who spearheaded a petition to oppose a protected bike lane on Milwaukee Avenue in Gladstone Park.
"It's absolutely case by case," he said. "We're not Bucktown and we're not Lincoln Park, which has more density, more apartment buildings, more people walking and using bikes. Our community is more single family homes, and people drive everywhere."