The Active Transportation Alliance is putting pressure on the city to create separate bike and walking paths, launching a petition drive to get the public behind the effort.
Right now, the Lakefront Trail is a single, two-way path-on most stretches-shared by a medley of cyclists, pedestrians, runners and inline skaters.
The alliance, a local advocacy group, is calling for the Chicago Park District to create separate paths in hopes of making the lakefront safer for walkers, runners, bikers and others. The organization launched the petition drive Tuesday and by afternoon had 1,000 signatures, according to Kyle Whitehead, who's running the transportation alliance's campaign.
With more than 30,000 people on the Lakefront Trail daily in peak summer months, according to the Illinois Department of Transportation, the trail can become crowded and dangerous, Whitehead said.
Critics have been calling for separate trails for years. After IDOT solicited feedback from citizens on ways to improve North Lake Shore Drive for an expansive, decade-long project earlier this year, creating separate lanes of traffic for cyclists and pedestrians topped the list of suggestions.
The alliance began lobbying the park district more heavily for the changes after 27-year-old runner Megan Williams was struck by a cyclist while training for the Chicago Marathon earlier this fall, fracturing her skull, Whitehead said.
"We think we need to invest in improvements that will make it safer before 2019," Whitehead said.
Using pavement markers to create separate lanes of traffic along the existing trail would work in some places along the 18-mile path, he said. But in others the park district would likely need to invest in infrastructure to widen or repave the trail.
In a prepared statement, the park district said: "We support this idea and plan to work with Active Trans . . . and others to find solutions that can be paid for with federal funds."
Whitehead believes park district officials are in favor of the general idea, but thinks execution will be trickier.
"But of course, like everything else, it comes down to funding," he said. "It'd be great if they could do this in time for next season, but it's not practical."
The alliance's push comes as the park district prepares to approve its 2015 budget during a Wednesday meeting.
The petition also calls for the park district to spend more money on improving access points to the trail, removing sand, ice and debris from the path more quickly and creating more temporary signage to warn users about events on the trail and construction projects.
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