A new north DuSable Lake Shore Drive? Long running idea takes step forward with a concept that leaves out bus lanes, includes more park space

A long-running idea to revamp north DuSable Lake Shore Drive is poised to take a step forward despite calls to halt the project, as city and state officials have selected their vision for the future of the busy thoroughfare.

That vision includes changes to the sharp curves and bottleneck-inducing traffic lights as the Drive enters downtown, and priority for CTA buses on exit and entrance ramps. It calls for adding lakefill in some places downtown and separating pedestrians from cyclists along the Lakefront Trail. It includes eliminating one lane of traffic north of Irving Park road.

Missing from the concept are lanes on Lake Shore Drive that would prioritize the many CTA express buses that use the route. Transit priority lanes had been a key element of each of the other options that had been finalists for consideration.

Finalization of plans and construction are still years away, but the recommendation of one option by the Illinois and Chicago departments of transportation marks a step forward for a plan to revamp seven miles of DuSable Lake Shore Drive between Grand Avenue downtown and Hollywood Avenue in Edgewater. The plan, estimated at $4 billion, has been in the works for some 11 years, and comes down to deciding how the storied roadway and lakefront should serve drivers, transit riders, cyclists, pedestrians and residents looking for recreation.

The plan only addresses the north section of DuSable Lake Shore Drive. A southern portion of the Drive from 23rd to 67th streets was rebuilt between 2001-05.

But the path forward selected by the transportation agencies has already drawn the consternation of transportation advocates, who said it amounted to maintaining the status quo and didn’t go far enough to promote transit, biking and walking, or to address climate goals.

Elected officials also weighed in earlier this summer, when state lawmakers passed resolutions urging state and city transportation officials to “transform DuSable Lake Shore Drive into a true boulevard and to be creative and forward-thinking in their redesign.” Chicago City Councilmembers voiced their opposition in June, when four lakefront aldermen called for pausing the effort in a letter to the Tribune “because of the trajectory of the project as an urban highway without significant mass transit elements.”

But IDOT and CDOT have now selected their preferred option from among five finalists. They plan to present the recommendation to the public at an open house Aug. 8.

Their selection calls for dedicated transit priority lanes at entrance ramps, which allow buses to bypass backups entering the road. It would replace a traffic light at Chicago Avenue with an underpass and ramps, and smooth out a large curve at Oak Street, intended to cut back on delays and boost safety, IDOT and CDOT said in a joint statement.

The number of places recreational users could access the lakefront would increase from 22 to 27. “Shoreline protection improvements” would be intended to prevent lake waves from flooding the park, trail and road, the agencies said. Existing parks and beaches would be upgraded, and new park space would be created.

Construction does not yet have funding, but IDOT and CDOT said they would pursue several options to pay for the project, including potentially partnerships between public agencies to operate and maintain the lakefront infrastructure.

The option selected is not as significant an overhaul of the road as other options that made the finalist list. The other concepts under consideration would have converted one or two lanes along the center median to either bus-only lanes or managed lanes, which are reserved for buses and toll-paying cars. One option called for building an additional lane and dedicating it only for transit use.

State Rep. Kambium “Kam” Buckner of Chicago, who co-sponsored the House resolution, said the recommended option seemed to be a “rehashing of an old paradigm.” Instead, planners should be talking about transit, dedicated bus lanes and maybe even creating land bridges over the Drive to improve access to the lakefront, he said.

“At the cost of being dramatic, (historic Chicago planner) Daniel Burnham is probably running around his grave at the thought of these plans,” he said. “We should really find a way to not do more of the same.”

The project has also drawn the concern of some city aldermen, who earlier this summer joined a push organized by activist group Bike Grid Now calling to dramatically reconsider the redesign.

Ald. Leni Manaa-Hoppenworth, part of the push and one of the co-authors of the letter calling for a halt to the project, reiterated her call to pause the effort. Changes to the roadway will directly affect the neighborhoods nearby, and the community should have more of a voice, she said. In the letter, the alderwoman, whose 48th Ward includes the northern end of the Drive, wrote the overhaul should include mass transit elements like buses or light rail.

“We do want people to get to downtown easily,” she said. “We want people to get to the South Side of Chicago easily. I would like to also see that when they come to the 48th Ward, traffic does not create conditions which promote less safety for our pedestrians.”

Advocates also opposed the project, saying the plan selected was a missed chance to boost sustainability and accessibility. More than a dozen transportation, planning and environmental organizations signed onto a statement expressing “strong opposition” to the concept.

The project amounts to simply rebuilding a highway along the lakefront, said Jim Merrell, managing director of advocacy for the Active Transportation Alliance, which participated in the project planning process and signed onto the letter. Rather than seeking to improve the road equally for cars and buses, he would have liked to see priority for transit.

“If we want to meet our climate goals, we need to move people out of single occupancy vehicle cars and make transit a good alternative for them,” he said. “And the best way to do that is to give dedicated space on the road for transit”

Transportation officials said the concept they presented balanced transit benefits with preserving park space. As they outlined their proposed path forward to those who were involved in the process, they said alternatives that involved creating bus lanes along the center median or building an additional bus lane would have meant dedicating more space to infrastructure, like access ramps to the center lanes and retaining walls, and would have made the Drive feel more like an expressway.

Each of the options was expected to reduce bus travel times by seven to nine minutes during an average rush hour, they said. But some of the alternatives would have added one or two minutes to an average rush hour drive in a personal car.

The option selected is expected to put more acres of lakefront toward transportation than is used now, but the increase would be less than the other options, according to transportation officials. And it will add more green space than the other options, they said.

But the Regional Transportation Authority, which oversees finances for the CTA, Metra and Pace, pushed back, calling for options that better prioritize transit. After he heard the agency’s vision, Maulik Vaishnav, senior deputy executive director for planning, told transportation officials they should revisit their decision.

“I know there will be some improvements to buses on Lake Shore Drive but especially as part of transit’s recovery from the pandemic, it’s really important to prioritize buses,” he said. “I think the city and the region has been behind.”