Chicago gets a “slow street,” sort of

Overcrowded sidewalks—a bad idea in a time of social distancing—have led many American cities to start a “slow streets” program, in which pedestrians and cyclists are encouraged to use the roadways of certain streets. Chicago came to this movement rather late, but the city’s Department of Transportation finally designated a small number of streets to be “shared streets” late last week. The first of these streets, Leland Avenue between Lincoln Avenue and Clark Street (a distance of just under a mile), opened on Monday, June 1, and I went and walked both ways along the street on four successive days this week.

It’s important to understand that this segment of Leland Avenue (like most of the other designated shared streets) is a lightly used residential street. There is a stop sign at every corner, except where the street crosses Ashland Avenue, where there’s a traffic light. There are speed bumps in the middle of certain blocks. Westbound traffic is forbidden east of Damen Avenue. No driver would use this street to get anywhere fast. Because of the low traffic volume, it’s a pleasant street to walk along, and I’ve frequently found myself using Leland when I’ve wanted to walk between the Lakefront and the Lincoln Square area. Many cyclists use the street as well. During the nearly three months of the Coronavirus Pandemic, I’ve noticed quite a few people walking in Leland’s roadway, since there are enough pedestrians on the narrow sidewalks so that social distancing is otherwise difficult. When I went to take some photos for an earlier post, I made a point of walking along Leland hoping to be able to take a picture of pedestrians in the roadway, and I succeeded.

I’m sorry to report that I couldn’t help but observe while visiting Leland Avenue these last four days that there were actually fewer people walking or cycling in the roadway than there had been a couple of weeks ago, before Leland’s official designation as a shared street. Perhaps the hours I was there—afternoons on weekdays—were ill-chosen. It was quite hot one day, and it’s likely that some people who were working from home or unemployed in May are now back in their usual workplace. Whatever the reason, pedestrians this week were mostly sticking to sidewalks. Most of the time, I was the only pedestrian in sight walking on Leland Avenue itself, and I had to hang around quite a while to take photos of the roadway that included pedestrians or cyclists. Perhaps this isn’t an altogether bad thing. No pedestrian or cyclist would have had any trouble social-distancing on Leland Avenue when I was there.

One factor may be that, early in the week, there was more traffic than usual, including quite a number of delivery trucks. The latter may have been making up for the fact that deliveries were interrupted as a result of the threat of demonstrations (and, unfortunately, looting) on the previous days. Most drivers were, I’m glad to say, moving pretty slowly, but one automobile driver seemed to think that a speed of thirty or forty miles an hour was okay. I’ve observed over the years that drivers sometimes react to what they perceive as a threat to automobile hegemony by behaving with an increased level of aggressiveness. I don’t know whether that was true in this case, but I wouldn’t in any case say that Leland Avenue seemed like a completely safe place for pedestrians.

Perhaps one issue is the signage. Most blocks just had a “Road closed local traffic only” sign (and someone had rotated this sign at the Lincoln Avenue end of Leland so that most drivers wouldn’t see it).

Other blocks had a much smaller “Slow down shared street” sign that I suspect would not have been legible to most drivers at all.

The signs were, I’m guessing, what was readily available to staff at the Chicago Department of Transportation. The “Slow down” sign may have been left over from the city’s experiment on Argyle Street between Broadway and Sheridan Road, where it attempted to create a woonerf, eliminating curbs and repaving both street and sidewalk with the same kind of bricks. The result was a certain level of befuddlement on the part of both drivers and pedestrians who continued keeping to their traditional zones, as they were mostly doing on Leland when I visited.

I certainly hope that pedestrian usage of the street picks up and that Chicago’s version of “slow streets” ends up being a success. If there were more pedestrians and cyclists on the street, the problem of aggressive driving would surely vanish instantly. But what I’ve seen these last few days did confirm a sense that I’ve had for a while that, in the United States, pedestrians (and even many cyclists) just don’t feel comfortable using roads that allow motor vehicles, even when people on foot (or on a bicycle) theoretically have the right of way. I’m not convinced that a shared street in the U.S. is even possible.

Note added 21 October 2020. The Leland shared street was extended west to Virginia Avenue in late June and east to Kenmore Avenue this month; there’s still a somewhat awkward break between Lincoln and Western Avenues. The shared portion now runs approximately 2.25 miles (3.6 km) in all. Its western terminus is close to the southern end of the North Shore Channel Trail, and its eastern terminus isn’t too far from the Lakefront. Leland has thus become the gentlest way to get between these two important pedestrian and cyclist destinations.

I’ve been on both new sections several times. Like the original shared street between Clark Street and Lincoln Avenue, the added segments, while perfectly pleasant, were not very busy when I was there. I was often the only pedestrian for several blocks in both directions (there were plenty of pedestrians on the sidewalks though). And Leland does still carry traffic, including some vehicles being driven at substantial speeds despite all the barrels. I remain a little more skeptical about Chicago’s shared streets than some folks are. 

Note added 7 December 2020. All of Chicago’s shared streets, including the one on Leland Avenue, were dismantled around December 1. The Chicago Department of Transportation argues (quite reasonably) that it cannot keep streets free of snow if the right-of-way is blocked by sign stanchions and traffic barrels.

Note added 30 May 2021. The Leland Avenue shared street was reestablished during the week of May 24 (but only east of Lincoln Avenue). There is one new feature: a 5 mph speed limit, noted on new, highly visible signs in every block. I walked up and down the street several times this week and can attest that, while few drivers were driving as slowly as 5 mph, no one was driving at 40 mph either—that’s basically good news. Just as was the case last year, hardly any pedestrians were using the roadway; there were a few cyclists taking advantage of the implicit permission to go the wrong way on the one-way portions of Leland. 

Note added 10 September 2021. The Leland shared street was completely dismantled soon after Labor Day. CDOT argued that there were not enough users to justify its continuance.