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Chicago Insights

Prepared by Patrick Miner & Christina Whitehouse

Last Updated June 21, 2022



Background:

  • The data on this page covers years 2018-2021, which are the four "complete" years of data collected by the Bike Lane Uprising database.

  • In these four years, more than 25,000 Chicago bike lane obstructions have been recorded and submitted to the Bike Lane Uprising database.

  • Blocking or driving in bike lanes is illegal in Chicago

  • Chicago bike lane obstructions collected by the Bike Lane Uprising database have a total ticket value of at least $4.8 million.


 


Interactive Table:
Summary of Chicago bike lanes by type & length

  • This table shows bike lane miles have increased from 272mi to 341mi over the past four years.

  • Those 69 miles of additional bike lanes equal 17.25 miles added per year.

  • Most of this increase comes from additional painted bike lanes ("Bike lane" in the table) and new neighborhood greenways, which are traffic-calmed residential streets.

  • Additionally, 12.9mi of protected bike lanes were added.

  • It's important to point out, painted bike lanes offer little protection for cyclists, both neighborhood greenways, off-street trails, and protected lanes help keep cyclists safe.


 



Interactive Table:
Bike lane information for each Chicago ward

Sort the table above by its various columns to learn more about the wards. Scroll horizontally and vertically for additional data.

  • For example, North Side wards 46-49 and 44 have the most bike lane miles compared to street miles with approximately 16-22% of their streets having bike lanes.

  • A subset of these, wards 49, 44, and 48, have the most miles of protected lanes and neighborhood greenways compared to street miles.

  • Meanwhile, 17 wards (more than a third) have no protected lanes or greenways.

  • In a majority of wards (56%), fewer than 1% of street miles have safe space for cyclists—a protected bike lane or a greenway.

  • The wards with the most logged bike lane obstructions are centrally located—for example wards 27, 42, 25, 4, and 2.

  • These five wards (27, 42, 25, 4, and 2) also had the most obstructions per bike lane mile.


 



Interactive Map:
Wards by total bike lane obstructions, 2018-2021

In this map, wards are shown by the total number of obstructions logged in that ward. Hover over the map (or click on it if you're using a touchscreen) to see the ward number and the number of obstructions logged in that ward.


 


Sources:


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