East Garfield Park – Grid Chicago

Looking north on Pulaski approaching Congress.

2012 Chicago fatality stats*:

Pedestrian: 15 (6 have been hit-and-run crashes)
Pedalcyclist: 4 (1 is a hit-and-run crash)
Transit: 6

News of yet another fatal pedestrian crash this morning means that five pedestrians have died in crashes in Chicago within a last 14 days. That’s a third of all pedestrian deaths for the entire year so far, 35 weeks, within only a two-week period.

The Chicago Tribune reports that Alejandro Cruz, 33, was killed by a crash this morning at the 500 block of South Pulaski Road in the East Garfield Park neighborhhod. Cruz, an Oak Park resident, was running across Congress Parkway at 7:55 a.m. when a northbound driver on Pulaski struck the pedestrian with his Chevrolet Impala, according to Police News Affairs.

Continue reading Fatality Tracker: 5th pedestrian death in 14 days takes place in East Garfield Park

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Bikeway construction in 2012 continues at a breakneck pace. Crews were installing a buffered bike lane on Franklin Boulevard on Wednesday, between Central Park Avenue/Conservatory Drive and Sacramento Boulevard (0.75 miles) in East Garfield Park. The safety project eliminates a travel lane in each direction, creates a center left turn lane, and refreshes crosswalk markings. Adding a concrete barrier or parked cars could make it a protected bike lane. Read John’s earlier article about bikeways in this neighborhood, Are the upcoming Streets for Cycling projects in good locations?.

The abysmal pavement condition in the bike lane should have been repaired before bike lane markings were striped. The Franklin Boulevard buffered bike lane connects to a conventional bike lane on Central Park Avenue/Conservatory Drive (which connects to a bikeway on Lake Street coming soon). Sacramento Boulevard doesn’t have a bikeway.

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CDOT should address this unsettling missing sewer cover and other deep potholes and pavement cracks in the bike lane. See all 18 photos. Continue reading Bike lanes update: Franklin Boulevard under construction, Wells Street soon