Construction Companies Must Accommodate Cyclists When Working In Bike Lanes

I have been biking around Chicago for more than two decades now. I ride from my home in Logan Square to my office in the Loop daily. Frequently, I find that construction crews doing work in designated bicycle facilities fail to accommodate bike traffic while work is taking place. A glaring example of this occurred this morning in the Dearborn Bicycle Lane in the Loop.

Dearborn and Lake in the Chicago Loop at around 8:45 a.m. on March 1, 2021

This morning at around 8:45 a.m. I was biking south in the Dearborn Bike Lane. As the photograph above depicts, at least two Meade Construction trucks were stopped in the bike lane. It appeared to me that Meade was working in the roadway nearby. Unfortunately, no obvious plan was implemented to devert bicycle traffic using the Dearborn Bike Lane safely around the construction area. This meant either biking onto the sidewalk or going around the Meade trucks by entering one of the northbound lanes. Sidewalk riding is illegal in Chicago. Riding south in one of Dearborn’s one-way northbound lanes was the other possibility; the one I and most other bikers I saw took. Riding the wrong way against traffic in downtown Chicago, even if briefly, is a bad option, to put it bluntly.

It should not be this way. When a company has been hired to perform work on one of the roadways in Chicago it must submit a plan for traffic control to the Chicago Department of Transportation. This requirement exists to ensure that a safe plan has been provided for all users of the public way, pedestrians, drivers, bicyclists, etc., to navigate through the work zone. This requirement exists in the 2019 version of the Chicago Department of Transportation Rules and Regulations For Construction In the Public Way. Specifically, Section 4.4 states:

Prior to any work or activities within the Public Way, the Permittee must submit a Traffic Control Plan (TCP) and if necessary, a Detour Plan to CDOT DOIM for review and approval.

Section 4.4.1 adds:

The TCP and Detour Plan shall provide safe and convenient accommodations for people walking and riding a bike through the work zone. Whenever possible, work should not disrupt the accessibility and mobility of existing pedestrian and bicycle facilities. However, when such disruption is necessary, CDOT DOIM requires pedestrian and bicycle Traffic Control Plans and if necessary, Detour Plans. Pedestrians and bicyclists should not be led or directed into conflict with vehicles, equipment, or operations around the work site. Further, the alternate paths or routes shall be detectable and will include accessibility features (i.e., ramps) consistent with the features present in the existing facility.

While I do not know if Meade submitted a Traffic Control Plan or a Detour Plan to CDOT, it was clear to me that no such plans were implemented while I was there. Instead, cyclists traveling in the bike lane were left only with unsafe and impractical options. As noted, in obvious violation of Section 4.4, at least one of those options lead bicyclists into conflict with other vehicles, oncoming traffic. No alternate path or route was detectable, at least not by me though I was looking for one.

This was not an isolated incident. Anyone used to biking frequently in Chicago can attest that it is very rare to see bicycle traffic diverted in a safe and reasonable manner during roadway construction. The City of Chicago loves to boast about the bike lanes it has installed to facilitate city cycling. However, when it comes to enforcement of its own rules for how those lanes are to be kept safe it frequently falls short. If the city is serious about encouraging safe cycling then it should enforce its own rules against construction companies working in the public way.