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For more than a decade, the Illinois and Chicago departments of transportation have been holding public meetings on a proposed redesign of North DuSable Lake Shore Drive. Earlier this month, they held an open house to show off their preferred option — one that doesn’t include a dedicated or shared lane for buses that’s aimed at improving often sluggish transit travel times.
Many residents who commented on the plans slammed the agencies for it, documents show.
CDOT provided WTTW News with 308 public comments under a Freedom of Information Act request. Almost all were forms filled out at the open house, with a handful sent via email.
Of the 308 comments, 192 say the proposed redesign doesn’t do nearly enough to improve public transportation, with one saying “transit has been given the scraps of scraps.”
Another commenter, who says they’re a low-income resident who depends on transit, wrote that “you are trying to re-entrench a structure and a social order that favors wealthy commuters and their free time at the expense of Black and Brown working class Chicagoans. None of that is new to Chicago.”
Many commenters slammed planners for focusing on moving drivers along the corridor as efficiently as possible, with one writing that the proposal “locks in the century old assumptions about cars bringing freedom that have filled our world with concrete and called it progress.”
Another put it more bluntly: “This plan is the most car friendly plan possible, as if Henry Ford and Elon Musk designed it!”
Of the 192 respondents who say the plan fails transit, 112 of them specifically call for a bus lane. The option IDOT and CDOT said is their preferred choice only creates bus priority at on and off ramps, but has no dedicated or shared bus lane.
“To refuse to build bus-only lanes in 2024 while declaring that this project serves transit users is unconscionable,” one person wrote. “This project is asking the question ‘How can we improve this highway on the lakefront?’ rather than asking ‘How can we better move people along our lakefront?’”
The rallying cry of “no highway on the lakefront” has long been a focus of Lake Shore Drive’s opponents, who say it runs counter to the idea of a shoreline open to all.
“This plan had the premise that Lake Shore Drive is essentially a highway and will continue to be -- with everything else built upon this idea,” a commenter wrote. “This is not the way things need to be!”
The anti-Lake Shore Drive sentiment was echoed by a significant number of the remaining 116 people who didn’t specifically mention transit, with one asking “How many Chicagoans need to tell you they don’t want a highway before you bring any amount of bold vision to your plans?”
About two dozen comments leaned positive or were supportive of the project. Some appreciated the proposal’s plans for pedestrian access, bicycle infrastructure and new park space. Others said the Drive should remain a thoroughfare for drivers.
“I support the proposal,” one person wrote. “Automobile LSD access is one of the major reasons I like living in Edgewater.”
“Please DO NOT indulge the small, vocal minority of anti-car activists, and the politicians catering to their madness,” said another.
Some of those activists and politicians rallied outside the open house, saying the proposed overhaul doesn’t go far enough to increase lakefront access, improve transit trips or help Chicago meet its climate goals — calling for IDOT and CDOT to pause the process and drastically rethink their plans.
Those departments did not respond to a question from WTTW about whether they’ve considered putting on the brakes. But in a joint statement, IDOT and CDOT said their work “has been guided by an extensive public engagement process.”
“This has included more than 80 stakeholder meetings, 14 Task Force meetings, 13 Community meetings, and the collection of thousands of written comments and survey responses, in addition to those received at the public hearing earlier this month,” the statement reads. “Throughout this engagement, the project team has consistently heard that the redesign of NDLSD should prioritize transit, design for people, enhance parks, build in climate resiliency, improve safety and operations, and preserve the character of the roadway.”
Commenters also said planners need to do more to reduce the noise of speeding cars; reduce the number of lanes and keep the Oak Street curve in place to prevent further speeding; and move the lakefront trail away from the Drive so motorists and cyclists aren’t side by side.
Asked how they plan to incorporate the feedback, IDOT and CDOT said they “appreciate the public’s interest and the valuable feedback received at the Aug. 8 public open house meeting. We are actively reviewing those and all other comments that we’ve received and continue to receive.”
Elected officials joined in the August rally calling for a pause in the planning process, including Alds. Maria Hadden, Bennett Lawson, Daniel La Spata, Leni Manaa-Hoppenworth and Andre Vasquez; state Sen. Robert Peters (D-Chicago); and state Rep. Mike Simmons (D-Chicago).
Asked whether transportation planners have spoken with opposition politicians, IDOT and CDOT said in their statement: “The project team continues to engage with elected officials and other stakeholders and will conduct additional analysis and coordination to further refine the preferred multimodal roadway alternative so that it ensures the project is minimizing impacts, preserving and enhancing the existing park land, as well as improving all modes of transportation to, from, and along the north lakefront.”
Regional Transportation Authority Chair Kirk Dillard has joined the chorus of politicians calling for buses to get dedicated space on the redesigned Drive, noting bus rapid transit is backed both by Mayor Brandon Johnson’s transition report and the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning.
“Compared to our peers, the Chicago region is falling behind when it comes to dedicating roadway space for public transit,” Dillard wrote in a letter to the Chicago Sun-Times. “Los Angeles, Seattle, Miami, Minneapolis, Houston and Phoenix all have over 100 miles of transit-only or transit-priority roadway lanes. Chicago has less than 15.”
While Chicago Transit Authority President Dorval Carter didn’t quite give bus lanes on the Drive his full-throated approval, at a CTA board meeting earlier this month he said the protesters outside the IDOT/CDOT open house meeting were heard “very loud and clear.”
“I don’t have a crystal ball as to whether that will influence the final outcome of this process one way or another, but certainly I do know that it was heard,” Carter said. “That kind of advocacy is always very helpful because it amplifies a lot of what CTA tries to convey in terms of what we believe is the position on various issues and how it may affect our customers.”
IDOT and CDOT said there isn’t an “immediate deadline” to choose a redesign, but that there’s an urgent need to move ahead.
“Aging infrastructure along NDLSD that is beyond its intended service life now requires frequent, costly and disruptive repairs that impact people traveling along or to the north lakefront,” the departments said in a statement. “Complete reconstruction is critically needed to protect the park, trails and roadway from the effects of climate change and to promote a more accessible and multimodal transportation corridor for all users.”
IDOT and CDOT said they’ll take feedback anytime at [email protected], with comments submitted by Sept. 9 becoming part of the official record.
Contact Nick Blumberg: [email protected] | (773) 509-5434 | @ndblumberg
