Wells Street buffered bike lane construction began today (photos)

By On June 19, 2012 · 9 Comments

Several #bikeCHI tweeters noticed in the past few days that existing bike lane stripes on Wells Street had been ground out (probably last Friday). Today, new bike lane striping was installed south of Chicago Avenue, to at least Ohio Street, in the River North neighborhood.

Photos are from Adam Herstein. They start at the north end of the project and move south (in the direction of travel). Wells Street is one-way south of Erie Street (until Congress Parkway) and two-way north of Erie Street.

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Wells and Superior Streets. 

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Wells and Huron Streets. 

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Wells between Huron and Erie Streets. 

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Wells and Erie Streets.

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Wells and Ontario Streets.

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Wells between Ontario and Ohio Streets.

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Wells and Ohio Streets. 

Cars parked in bike lanes will still be an issue with this design.

Project details

  • In the two-way section of Wells Street (which is three short blocks between Erie Street and Chicago Avenue), the northbound direction will have a conventional bike lane while the southbound direction will have the buffered bike lane as seen in the photos above.
  • In the one-way section of Wells Street between Erie Street and Merchandsize Mart Plaza (a road), there will be a buffered bike lane.
  • In the one-way section of Wells Street between Merchandsize Mart Plaza (a road) and Wacker Drive (over the bridge), there will be a conventional bike lane.
  • In the one-way section of Wells Street between Wacker Drive and Van Buren Street, there will be an “enhanced” marked shared lane.

See this post for more information.

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  • Aaron Berlin

    Does it run both two ways the entire length or is it one-way where Wells is one-way?

    • http://www.stevevance.net/ Steven Vance

      In the two-way section of Wells Street (which is three short blocks between Erie Street and Chicago Avenue), the northbound direction will have a conventional bike lane.

      In the one-way section of Wells Street between Erie Street and Merchandsize Mart Plaza (a road), there will be a buffered bike lane.

      In the one-way section of Wells Street between Merchandsize Mart Plaza (a road) and Wacker Drive (over the bridge), there will be a conventional bike lane.

      In the one-way section of Wells Street between Wacker Drive and Van Buren Street, there will be an “enhanced” marked shared lane.

      See this post for more information:
      http://gridchicago.com/2012/bike-sharing-delays-bike-lane-designs-and-other-highlights-from-wednesdays-mbac-meeting/

  • Scott Sanderson

    This looks great, but there is still no good way to get into the loop from Wells Street. I end up going West on Kinzie, then South on Clinton, and into the Loop from the West side because I find Wells to be unrideable South of Wacker.

    • http://www.stevevance.net/ Steven Vance

      Wells Street south of Wacker Drive will be getting an “enhanced” marked shared lane.

      See more details about the design here:
      http://gridchicago.com/2012/bike-sharing-delays-bike-lane-designs-and-other-highlights-from-wednesdays-mbac-meeting/

    • http://twitter.com/AdamHerstein Adam Herstein

      I find most streets in the Loop to be very unfriendly to cyclists – even the bike lane on Madison – but Wells seems better than most. The ‘L’ supports provide some protection on the right, and as long as you ride in the middle of the right lane it’s not so bad.

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  • http://twitter.com/karenaltes Karen Altes

    The buffered lane is nice! I like it a lot. It needs to be extended further north though, preferably all the way to Lincoln. The block in front of Walter Payton College Prep School is especially bad – all the cars and buses dropping off kids during the school year, and the road surface is a complete mess right there. They should take advantage of summer break and fix the road and stripe a bike lane while traffic on that block is reduced.

    • http://twitter.com/AdamHerstein Adam Herstein

      Yeah, I don’t get why buses park in the bike lane when there is a perfectly good bus turnaround. http://goo.gl/maps/xjmT

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