Southside Bike Route (Chicago, Cicero, Brighton: how much, live, dangerous)

[atdot89]

Hello everyone, I am looking to travel to work in the south loop (around 9th and state). I will be coming from 87th and Cicero. I am trying to find the best and safest route i was thinking of riding north on Cicero to Archer and then taking Archer to State and then State to 9th street.

I know that Archer has some sketchy patches.

So I was wondering if anybody else knew of another route that would be better?

thanks - Dan

[ajolotl]

This is one of the worst ideas I've ever heard. I can't think of a more stressful and uglier bike ride.

[Intergalactic]

Archer is okay. I think you are supposed to take Wabash, not State, on your bike:
Streets for Cycling

I'm more concerned about you getting creamed by a car or truck than about crime, especially on Cicero. There don't appear to be official bicycle routes from 87th and Cicero to downtown,
http://www.cityofchicago.org/Transportation/bikemap/usemap/22-K.html
but maybe you can take the little known Columbus Ave diagonal, which gets you pretty close to Damen which has marked bike lanes Streets for Cycling and then up to Archer (with a bit of Racine). Or you could use the city's recommended 83rd street over to Damen.

[ajolotl]

I didn't mean to imply that Archer was dangerous (especially in the day), just not bike friendly or attractive at all.

[chet everett]

Truck traffic and bicycle = recipe for disaster.

Archer is well known haven for trucks, be they "big rigs" whose drives literally cannot see bicycles in their blind spots or delivery size trucks that are notorious for getting out on the traffic side of the vehicle I would think that the traffic issues alone would be enormous.

[Intergalactic]

It might be worthwhile to inquire with the Chicagoland Bicycle Federation, now called the Active Transportation Alliance http://www.biketraffic.org http://www.activetrans.org with your needs.

[mycrows]

Take Cicero to 59th St, lock up your bike, and get on the Orange Line.

Just kidding! I would do this ride, though I don't know if I'd want to do it on a regular basis.

A couple of thoughts:

Rather than going straight up Cicero, you could take a right at Marquette Rd and then head up on of the K streets to Archer (maybe Kostner?).

Archer's definitely the most direct route, but it's pretty busy. Depending on how much time you have, you could take some detours through Brighton Park or McKinley Park. For Brighton Park, you could take 46th St east and then Campbell St North. In McKinley Park, you could take 37th St east to Ashland, then 35th St east to Halsted, Halsted north to Archer (to make use of the Halsted bike lanes).

Halsted to Archer to State is pretty good. State St is fine for bikes, though Wabash does have a marked bike lane (which is usually intermittently blocked anyway).

Intergalactic: Is Columbus Ave good for biking?

[Intergalactic]

Originally Posted by mycrows

Intergalactic: Is Columbus Ave good for biking?

It looks pretty deserted on Google Street View, and has no parking, just two lanes in both directions. It looks a bit narrow for semis, and the trees look like they might not get wanged by tall trucks all the time. I don't know, but at least if you have to you can jump out of the way into the parkway at any time. The Google Street view car went through pretty early in the AM, but I "approached" from other streets like Pulaski and it still looked ok.
Google Maps

[mikeg453]

Originally Posted by mycrows

Intergalactic: Is Columbus Ave good for biking?

Originally Posted by Intergalactic

It looks pretty deserted on Google Street View, and has no parking, just two lanes in both directions. It looks a bit narrow for semis, and the trees look like they might not get wanged by tall trucks all the time. I don't know, but at least if you have to you can jump out of the way into the parkway at any time. The Google Street view car went through pretty early in the AM, but I "approached" from other streets like Pulaski and it still looked ok.
Google Maps

Having grown up around 79th and Kedzie, I am pretty familiar with Columbus Ave. It is not a good stretch of road for biking. It is two lanes and posted speed is 35mph but most drivers are clipping along at 45 to 50mph. It is a huge speed trap for CPD east of Kedzie.

Having driven to work on Kedzie, Columbus and Western, IMHO, any bike riding on these streets to get to downtown would be a a bit scary. It would be extremely stressful for a bicyclist who is trying to avoid the pot holes and loose gravel on streets while also competing with cars and trucks for the same bad stretch of road.

I would peddle your bike to orange line and take the el to work.

[atdot89]

thanks everyone, sounds like i should move to a more bike friendly side of town. i'll be biking to the EL until i can think of a better route.

Intergalactic: thanks for the links, those are very helpful!