Lethal stretch of Milwaukee Avenue raises concern amongst cyclists because the season will get underway

When cyclists cruise alongside Milwaukee Avenue in Previous Irving Park on the Northwest Facet, they whiz by the unending development and bike memorials as acquainted, but unsettling, backdrops.

This half-mile stretch, from Kilbourn Avenue to Addison Avenue, has turn into one of many deadliest for bikers to trip in all of Chicago, some biking advocates say, with its heavy automotive site visitors, a significant Metra reconstruction mission, and little safety for bikers and pedestrians. With summer season looming and gasoline costs persevering with to surge, advocates concern {that a} busier than standard bike season could possibly be a deadly one with out higher safeguards for bikers.

“This stretch of Milwaukee (Avenue) has a number of main site visitors arteries and there’s simply a number of site visitors and dashing automobiles, and no protected indicators,” stated Amanda Marien, a security advocate who lives within the neighborhood. “However the ones that undergo this probably the most are pedestrians, bikers and the those that reside on this space.”

Earlier this month, Nick Parlingayan, 22, of Chicago, grew to become at the least the third bicyclist fatality within the metropolis this yr when he was killed close to Milwaukee and Kilbourn avenues in a hit-and-run automotive crash. The driving force later turned himself in to police on the urging of his mom. In the meantime, Carla Aiello, a 37-year-old highschool counselor, was killed close to the identical intersection when the motive force of a dump truck made a proper flip from Milwaukee onto Kilbourn.

Two memorials for the cyclists now sit throughout the road from one another: a ghost bike for Aiello, and flowers, candles and photographs of Parlingayan. They’re among the many newest victims in an space with an extended historical past of motorbike and automotive collisions, information present.

“Each bike plan town has ever put out has recognized Milwaukee Avenue as a key route,” stated Kyle Whitehead, managing director of public affairs for Lively Transportation Alliance. “And the latest bike plan that town had, which was developed in 2012, referred to as for protected bike lanes all alongside Milwaukee Avenue.”

Nevertheless, solely 13% of Milwaukee Avenue has protected bike lanes, he stated.

Chicago Division of Transportation officers preserve that there was an almost 30% lower in bike crashes with main accidents prior to now 10 years, even with a “nice enhance of bikers within the metropolis for the reason that pandemic.” However biking advocates paint a special image.

Ken McLeod, coverage director of the American League of Bicyclists, based mostly in Washington, D.C., stated the Nationwide Freeway Site visitors Security Administration reveals that Chicago has had a median of about six bicyclist deaths per yr since 2016.

“(Chicago) had a median of practically 47 pedestrians killed annually,” stated McLeod. “In 2020, in line with information from the Nationwide Freeway Site visitors Security Administration, Chicago had eight bicyclist deaths, which is probably the most that it’s had from 2016 to 2020. … And for those who ask me, that could be a huge quantity for a metropolis.”

For the Chicago biking group, the statistics really feel overwhelming.

Avid bike owner Lena Reynolds Guerrero, 34, of Jefferson Park stated she was “completely horrified” to see historical past repeat itself when Parlingayan was killed in the identical spot on Milwaukee Avenue as Aiello.

“It feels actually private as a result of I take that route so typically, dwelling in Jefferson Park, and so that would have been me, proper?” she stated.

Marien, 33, moved into Previous Irving Park in 2017. Her home is one in all 48 single-family properties that had been accomplished that yr in a fancy alongside Milwaukee Avenue.

Previously six years, she stated she’s been woke up to a sequence of close by site visitors crashes in her neighborhood, from damaged fences to deadly collisions. She and her neighbors have witnessed automobiles leaping the curb, drivers veering into bike lanes throughout rush hour, automobiles slipping on snow and late evening drag racing.

As president of the housing affiliation for the advanced, she stated she’s seen and heard all of it.

“I don’t trip a motorbike as a result of I’m too afraid of that,” she stated. “That’s why I choose driving, however I’d in all probability like biking higher if I felt safer right here.”

In her neighborhood, there was the October 2019 deadly hit-and-run of Vincent Tran, who had been biking on Irving Park Street, when a black automobile struck him and knocked him off his bike. Then a few months later, in February 2020, an SUV driving down Milwaukee struck a pothole and misplaced management of the automobile that veered straight into the Concordia day care, crashing the entire window storefront foyer, police stated. Because it occurred earlier than opening hours, no youngsters or employees had been current when the crash occurred.

Marien stated through the years her group has tried to steer the varied aldermen which have represented their neighborhood to make it safer for bikers and pedestrians. Whereas they’ve been mildly profitable with some requests — a brand new crosswalk was put in in 2019 close to Schurz Excessive College, between Milwaukee and Waveland avenues — Marien stated it’s not practically sufficient.

She stated automobiles not often cease for pedestrians within the crosswalk as a result of it’s not an “precise cease signal.”

“They don’t suppose (automobiles) should cease for pedestrians to cross legally,” she stated. “(This space) wants protected bike lanes as properly or one thing extra to get folks from Wicker Park to Six Corners. Even so, some stretches with plastic bollards stay harmful as a result of they get taken out in the course of the winter time or, even when they’re on, automobiles hit and bend them ceaselessly.”

In 2020, then newly-elected Ald. Jim Gardiner, forty fifth, ordered a site visitors examine after a crowded assembly with involved residents at the highschool. However after months of ready, Marien stated the embattled alderman refused to launch the outcomes of the examine, which was accomplished Oct. 1 of that yr.

“I stored asking the alderman principally if the site visitors examine was performed but and he would simply ignore me or say they had been ready,” Marien stated. “Then I lastly was like, oh properly I can (file a Freedom of Info request) after which I gained’t want him, so I lastly did it. And the examine had been accomplished.”

Marien obtained the examine on June 22, 2021 — over eight months after it was accomplished. It confirmed suggestions for an additional crosswalk, a cease signal, and presumably a flashing radar or velocity indicators. Marien stated she instructed Gardiner she’d obtained the outcomes of the examine.

“And the one factor he may do at that time was signal it, you understand, like I had all of the proof in entrance of them,” she stated.

Gardiner, who didn’t return a number of calls from the Tribune for remark, signed the plans for the crosswalk and cease signal on April 15, 2021. In July of that yr, he additionally made a request for a velocity digicam to be put in on Milwaukee between Kilbourn and Addison. Though Gardiner had introduced on his Fb web page that the digicam can be put in by Aug. 31, a digicam has not but been put in, and a CDOT spokesperson instructed the Tribune there aren’t any present plans to take action.

The neighborhood was not too long ago taken out of Gardiner’s ward within the newest remap by Metropolis Council.

In the meantime, the cease signal and crosswalk had been put in earlier this month — days after Parlingayan was killed.

“It’s form of a patchwork and that’s actually the issue,” stated Whitehead of Lively Transportation Alliance. “The identical downside (as in Milwaukee Avenue) exists on key corridors all throughout town. There are segments of three- to four-block stretches with a protected bike lane and it’s protected and comfy, however then you definitely’ll hit a stretch the place there isn’t any bike lane or the bike lane has light and disappeared. Most bike rides are longer than three to 4 blocks, so what we’d like is safety.”

Whitehead stated that this “patchwork” strategy leaves town with harmful places the place folks on bikes are weak: “Even when they could have felt comfy earlier of their trip, you understand, just a few blocks later, they’re put in a harmful scenario.”

Whitehead factors to safety on Milwaukee, nearer to downtown and the Close to North Facet, the place there are concrete curb bike lanes, that are what “high quality infrastructure” appears to be like like, he stated.

“It’s concrete. It’s impenetrable. You may’t drive over or park on high of it,” he stated.

In the meantime, the plastic bollards town places elsewhere are second fee, he stated.

“These plastic (bollards) are higher than simply paint however, as you could have seen, typically occasions folks drive over them, folks choose them up and pull them out of the bottom,” he stated. “They’re simply not sturdy, particularly given the climate that we now have right here within the varied circumstances all year long.”

Michael Keating, an legal professional who focuses on bicycle legislation and rides Milwaukee Avenue on daily basis on his strategy to work, stated town’s bike lane security options aren’t actually protected in any respect.

“We now have seen a sample of what the Chicago Division of Transportation refers to as ‘infrastructure’ in lots of locations is simply paint on the roadway,” he stated. “Clearly, if a motorist doesn’t respect the bike lane and drives on that paint, it’s not going to guard the bicyclist.”

Within the stretch of Milwaukee close to the place Parlingayan was killed, a $36.1 million Metra development mission is ongoing to switch a 122-year-old railroad bridge that goes over the avenue for the adjoining Grayland Station.

The brand new Metra plan will embrace a protected bike lane with a bodily curb separation on the southbound channel. Nevertheless, the bike lane on the northbound facet of the road — the facet of the avenue the place Parlingayan’s deadly crash occurred — will solely have a paint divided bike lane.

“There’s not sufficient room on the north facet so as to add a protected lane and preserve the present configuration of the sidewalks,” a Metra spokesperson stated when requested concerning the lack of a protected bike lane on the northbound facet underneath the bridge. “We’re wanting into whether or not that configuration might be altered, however we don’t but know if that’s doable.”

Once more, for residents, it’s not sufficient, stated Marien.

“One thing must be performed,” Marien stated. “This isn’t a coincidence that two bicyclists had been killed in the identical actual spot. We will’t deal with it prefer it’s an accident.”

tmijares@chicagotribune.com