Recent Streetsblog CHICAGO posts about Lake Shore Drive

Making It Easier to Get to the Museum Campus Without a Car

By Steven Vance | Oct 15, 2014 | 18 Comments

It’s already a bit of a hassle to get to and around Chicago’s Museum Campus, which includes the Field Museum, the Shedd Aquarium, the Adler Planetarium, and Soldier Field. In light of plans to build the Lucas Museum, as well as Rahm Emanuel’s goal to increase tourism from 49 million visitors last year to 55 […]

The River of Traffic On Ridge/Hollywood Hurts Edgewater’s Livability

By Steven Vance | Aug 21, 2014 | 47 Comments

The Edgewater neighborhood along the north lakefront should be a pleasant place to walk. It’s the second-densest community area in the city, with 56,521 residents in an area just 1.5 miles across, and boasts lively commercial areas like Andersonville. Yet local residents say that their neighborhood is effectively cleaved into two by a roiling river of car traffic. […]

Small Steps for IDOT Add Up to Giant Leap for North Lake Shore Drive

By Jessica Papanek | Jun 2, 2014 | 12 Comments

IDOT’s revisions to the newly updated North Lake Shore Drive “Purpose and Needs Statement,” an opening salvo that sets the tone for the long process of rebuilding the Drive, might not quite be on the same scale as landing on the moon. However, a few seemingly minor text edits signal a huge shift in how […]

Tell IDOT to Rehab LSD as a Complete Street, Not a Speedway

By Jessica Papanek | Apr 14, 2014 | 72 Comments

On Thursday, the Illinois Department of Transportation kicked off the feedback process for the the North Lake Shore Drive rehabilitation’s future alternatives analysis, at the third meeting of the project’s task forces. During the previous two meetings, it seemed like IDOT would insist upon just another highway project, with minimal benefits for pedestrians, transit users […]

Sunday’s LSD Crisis Highlighted Value of Chicago’s Diverse Tranpo Network

By John Greenfield | Mar 17, 2014 | 18 Comments

Yesterday’s nine-hour standoff between police and an alleged murderer, which shut down North Lake Shore Drive and created Carmageddon on nearby surface streets, highlighted why Chicago is fortunate to have multiple transportation options. Around 12:30 p.m., officers began chasing accused killer Joseph Andrew Felton Jr., 43, in his car from south-suburban Harvey, through the South […]

More Mental Kass-turbation About the Lake Shore Drive Divvy Rider

By John Greenfield | Nov 18, 2013 | 26 Comments

Some Streetsblog Chicago readers have argued that we shouldn’t take the bait when Tribune writer John Kass writes one of his trademark “little bike people” rants, calculated to stir up controversy and rack up pageviews. That’s a valid viewpoint, but since Kass has such a bully pulpit as a columnist for the region’s highest-circulation newspaper, […]

Troubling Lack of Compassion for Endangered Divvy Rider on Lake Shore Drive

By John Greenfield | Nov 14, 2013 | 88 Comments

What would you do if you were driving northbound on Lake Shore Drive near Ohio Street and pulled up on a young woman riding a Divvy bike by the median of the high-speed highway, obviously lost and terrified? I’d like to think most of us would slow down, roll down the window, ask the woman […]

Lake Shore Drive Has Always Been About People, Not Traffic

By Steven Vance | Aug 13, 2013 | 51 Comments

There is no highway for the sake of traffic. There is a highway for the sake of moving large quantities of people because people generate traffic. Depending on the highway’s alignment, and the land use, how much traffic people will choose to generate is highly influenceable. If it’s tolled, more people than usual will carpool […]

North Lake Shore Drive Will Get Rebuilt, But Will It Be a Great Street?

By Steven Vance | Jul 25, 2013 | 114 Comments

The north portion of Lake Shore Drive, from Grand Avenue to its northern terminus at Hollywood Avenue, will be rebuilt in the next five years. It’s a major transportation project and a huge opportunity for Chicago, but will we make the most of it? A coalition of 15 national and regional organizations presented their vision […]

Thinking Big: The Lake Shore Drive Bike-and-Bus Highway

By Steven Vance | Mar 1, 2013 | 37 Comments

Back in August, longtime bicycling activist Randy Neufeld – currently the director of the SRAM Cycling Fund and formerly the Active Transportation Alliance’s first paid staffer – outlined an intriguing proposal in Chicago Magazine: building a bike-and-bus highway into the north Lake Shore Drive reconstruction project. …the city could create two specialized lanes at minimal cost. […]

The Fullerton Rehab May Slow LSD Buses, Not Just Peds and Bikes

By John Greenfield | Feb 5, 2013 | 5 Comments

When I attended the ribbon cutting for the reconfiguration of Fullerton Avenue at Lake Shore Drive last December, there was a lot of talk from city officials about how the rehab would improve safety for pedestrians and bicyclists. In reality this redesign, planned before forward-thinking Chicago Department of Transportation chief Gabe Klein took office, seems […]