Chicago low underpass street map8/2/2023 ![]() ![]() Photo: John GreenfieldĭuSable Lake Shore Drive continues to be one of the worst examples of this reality. DuSable Lake Shore Drive as seen from the North Avenue bridge. Instead we should focus on the efficient, sustainable, and equitable movement of people. On a daily basis Chicagoland residents experience the indignities and frustrations of a transportation system where resources are concentrated on the futile task of trying to make it convenient to travel around a dense city and region in large metal boxes that usually only have a single occupant. Pritzker’s vocal support for using much funding from Illinois’ projected $17 billion from the new federal infrastructure bill for widening expressways and Interstates. That’s obviously the case in Springfield as well, judging by Governor J.B. Unfortunately, while City Hall often gives lip service to the importance of fighting climate change and making Chicago a world-class city for walking and biking, it appears that decision-makers don’t actually care that much about creating a sustainable or equitable transportation network. It begs the question: If city officials do such a bad job of maintaining access to Chicago’s favorite multi-modal corridor, then what are their real mobility priorities? Whether that’s due to bad design and weather-proofing, or simply neglect, it reflects the city’s lack of regard for the safety and convenience of pedestrians and cyclists (existing and potential), and its preoccupation with making driving as easy as possible. In many locations it can only be accessed by underpasses that are not-infrequently impassible due to flooding, and are often in terrible shape, in some cases nearly as bad as Buena. It is also one of only a handful of off-street paths in Chicago that are useful for bike commuting. ![]() ![]() The Lakefront Trail is one of the few spaces in Chicago that is dedicated to and ( at least in theory) safe for people on foot and bike. Not least among these is the way DLSD cuts residents off from the city’s most beloved natural feature and public space: the Lake Michigan shoreline. While the highway remains extremely popular in Chicago’s collective imagination, it is time we seriously reassess the drive’s place in the city’s transportation system and honestly discuss its many negative impacts. The closed and obstructed underpasses along DLSD are symptoms of a larger problem, which is the existence of the massive lakefront roadway itself, which is exacerbated by its profoundly car-centric and anti-urban design. Just once I want the car infrastructure to flood and the adjacent pedestrian infrastructure to be dry. Both situations are apt metaphors for the city’s inadequate approach to mobility, lakefront management, and environmentally sustainable practices. In each case, the impassible viaduct meant pedestrians and cyclists were forced to detour up to half a mile out of their way to safely cross the six- or eight-lane highway. The passageway is just one of many tunnels and bridges that provide a grade-separated connection between neighborhoods and the lakefront for people on foot and bikes.Īround that same time, Hyde Park transportation advocate Steven Lucy posted an image of another DLSD underpass at 55th Street in Hyde Park that was severely flooded. ![]() At the end of February, the Chicago Department of Transportation abruptly boarded up the Buena Avenue underpass below DuSable Lake Shore Drive in Uptown after discovering dangerous structural damage. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply.AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |