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Originally Posted by ardecila
I was really hoping to get some more E-W connections to Larrabee. The intersection at Chicago (and really that whole stretch of Chicago through River North) is terribly congested because there are no good alternative streets. Not good for one of the city's busiest bus routes. Locust seems to be the best choice if the city can get Moody Bible to accept it.
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A bridge widening would help Chicago Avenue's congestion a lot. What are the prospects of that (seeing as so many other bridges in the immediate area are being widened or at least re-done)? I assume one of the Division Street bridges is still next in line?
Chicago Avenue actually gets congested during the evening rush (maybe morning as well) west of there too, as it approaches the frustrating Milwaukee-Ogden 6-way intersection. If only there were a way to reengineer that intersection so you could have a smooth E-W arterial, or at least smoother access onto the Kennedy to flush those cars out of the way. Not that just building more roads is a good solution, but I wonder if re-routing Elston substantially so that southwards from Division it runs between the river and the UP passenger tracks (along currently undeveloped land) and then terminates on Chicago near Halsted would help. Traffic now stopping at every light on the way to/from the Kennedy would instead access the Kennedy at Division via the new stoplight-free stretch. Or maybe the long-orphaned stretch of Ogden could be re-utilized productively somehow. It would be nice ultimately to see the Blue Line Chicago station evolve into residential TOD without the sometimes oppressive thru traffic and the odd geometry of that 6-way (actually 7-way or more if you consider Elston being an artery there) intersection.