Best bike routes across Chicago river

January 3, 2020 7:36 AM

What are the best/quietest/cleanest/safest ways to go from east of the Chicago River to west of the Chicago River? Mainly focused on Lincoln Park/Depaul/Lake View to Bucktown/Logan Square, and places north of North Avenue, but interested in other places too!

I'm not super keen to bike along North Avenue or Fullerton, but maybe Fullerton isn't that bad? I'm especially hoping to minimize breathing air pollution (hello, General Iron plant). Thanks for any guidance!

posted by amtho to Grab Bag (8 answers total)

Unfortunately the best way across, traffic-wise and bike path-wise, in that area is Cortland which runs right past where you want to avoid, General Iron. Webster is relatively low-traffic but is narrow. I wouldn't ride on Fullerton without a marked bike lane.
posted by hwyengr at 7:57 AM on January 3, 2020 [1 favorite]

Diversey isn’t terrible but the only time I’ve been hit by a car was getting into the left turn lane by the Rock n Bowl and a car came too quickly over the small hill of the bridge and didn’t see me, so I’m very careful about it now. Otherwise Cortland or Webster as noted above. North is indeed the absolute worst.
posted by jeweled accumulation at 8:06 AM on January 3, 2020

Webster.
posted by Max Power at 8:11 AM on January 3, 2020

Check out the Mellow Chicago Bike Map - it suggests Cortland, Webster, Damen (which I realize is N-S but it does get you across the river), Diversey. I took a route suggested by the map once and didn't love it (I prefer more direct routes, and some side streets might in theory be lower stress but can be really narrow and still busy at rush hour thanks to Google Maps and Waze sending drivers on side streets to avoid traffic) but maybe you'll find a good route that way.
posted by misskaz at 8:30 AM on January 3, 2020 [1 favorite]

Cortland is the best route by far. Webster is okay but the very narrow bridge + metal grating always feels kind of dicey. I don't like Diversey, mostly because of the blocks east of the bridge where there's usually a lot of car traffic and no room for bikes.
posted by theodolite at 10:10 AM on January 3, 2020

Response by poster: Further south? Division? Chicago Ave?
posted by amtho at 11:33 AM on January 3, 2020

I like to take a gander at Strava Cycling Heatmap for any area I'm not too familiar with, or looking to find different routes. It only tells you which routes are more often used--just one factor in making your decision.

But in the area you're talking about, it looks like Cortland, Damen, and California Ave are the most used. Division & Chicago are far less-used than those (and North far, far less used).

Another option that appears well used is Kinzie - like take Milwaukee all the way SE parallel to the river, then east to cross the river at Kinzie (or reverse).

Another trick is to look at different streets on Google Street View and just see what you think. Usually you can spot at a glance places you'd be happy cycling vs not.

Right away I can see why the Milwaukee-Kinzie route is well used. It's bike lanes all the way, including separated bike lanes for a good chunk of it.

(FWIW Kinzie Street is, by chance, one I've been on--I happened to be in CHI the week they installed the separated bicycle lane there.)
posted by flug at 5:03 PM on January 3, 2020

Forgot the link to the Strava Cycling Heatmap for the area.
posted by flug at 5:17 PM on January 3, 2020