Milwaukee Avenue is by some reports the city’s busiest street for biking, and segments of the street in several neighborhoods have been overhauled in the last half decade to provide protected bike lanes and other safety improvements for bike commuters. But the Active Transportation Alliance is calling attention this week to a still treacherous stretch traversing the busy six-way intersection at Milwaukee, Damen and North avenues in Wicker Park.
A petition released by the cyclist and pedestrian advocacy group points out the lack of bike lanes and the unclear crosswalks in that chaotic intersection, where city Department of Transportation figures show there were 195 crashes resulting in injured cyclists, 56 injured pedestrians and one pedestrian fatality across the five years from 2011 to 2015. The same span saw 74 reported dooring incidents in the same area.
The petition, posted Tuesday, notes that CDOT, the Wicker Park–Bucktown Special Service Area and local aldermen are currently weighing potential improvements to this stretch of Milwaukee. It asks those leaders to consider measures including “new bikeways that eliminate risk of doorings and other common crashes,” reducing speed limits to 20 mph, and additional traffic calming features like curb bump outs, bike boxes and closing off slip lanes.
The ATA’s petition site doesn’t reveal how many signatures it’s received. The group is also hosting an informational event, Mobilizing for a Better Milwaukee Avenue, on Thursday, June 29 at Arc'teryx in Bucktown.
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