Milwaukee bike lanes require some parking removal; bus stop changes planned

by BRIAN NADIG

The planned installation of bike lanes on Milwaukee Avenue between Irving Park Road and Addison Street will require the removal of parking on one side of Milwaukee, where several CTA bus stop changes are planned.

“(The city Department of Transportation) conducted 8 parking demand counts at various times on weekdays and weekends. Based on this survey, the city recommends removing 92 on-street parking spaces, or 9% of the over 1,000 existing private and public parking spaces,” Alderman John Arena (45th) announced in his Aug. 6 newsletter.

The project also called for bike lanes on Milwaukee between Lawrence Avenue and Irving Park, but no parking will be removed along that stretch of Milwaukee. The bike lane project was one of the winning infrastructure improvements which residents voted for in the ward’s participatory budgeting process in 2015.

“CDOT determined that Milwaukee Avenue is too narrow to accommodate motor vehicle lanes, bike lanes, and parking lanes in each direction. As a result, parking removal on one side of the street from Addison Avenue to Irving Park Road will be required to provide space for the new bike lanes.

“CDOT did not recommend removal of parking spaces from Irving Park Road to Lawrence Avenue, however, due to the high parking demand. Instead, CDOT is recommending to install marked shared lanes in this section of Milwaukee Avenue,” the newsletter states.

In addition to the removal of parking spaces, CDOT coordinated with the CTA to identify the following recommendations to the existing Route 56 Milwaukee:

Removal of the northbound and southbound Waveland Avenue bus stops due to low ridership, combining the southbound Kilbourn Avenue stop with the southbound stop at the Grayland Metra Station and combining the northbound and southbound Wilson Avenue stops with stops at Laramie Avenue to provide a better pedestrian crossing at a traffic signal.