The Chicago Department of Transportation (CDOT) and the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) have announced they will be installing red bus-only lanes along Chicago Avenue between Sangamon Street and Larrabee Street.
The introduction of the new, 24 hour lanes is in addition to the completion of new bus priority lanes between Grand & Campbell Avenue, creating a continuous bus lane totalling just under 4 miles from Grand to Ashland and Milwaukee to Michigan Avenue.
With the completion of the project, roughly 40% of the #66 Chicago Avenue route will include a dedicated bus lane.
The newly implemented bus-only lane between Sangamon and Larrabee will be installed alongside CDOT’s upcoming project aiming to replace the existing temporary Chicago Avenue Bridge, as well as the Chicago-Halsted viaduct, with plans for the replacements nearing completion.
CTA President Dorval R. Carter, Jr, said:The 66 Chicago Avenue route is one of our most frequent and most heavily utilized, providing roughly 17,000 rides on an average weekday, and our ability to efficiently move riders along that corridor is critical to connecting communities on the east and west sides of the city.
This latest addition builds on years of improvements made to this route, cumulatively speeding up average travel times by several minutes.
Chicago Avenue was identified as part of a network of corridors in the Better Streets for Buses Plan devised by the CDOT and CTA in 2023, a scheme that provides new frameworks for the implementation of bus priority infrastructure. The introduction of the new lanes are just one aspect of a range of transit investments by the two companies.
CDOT Commissioner Tom Carney, said:Through the Better Streets for Buses Plan, CDOT and CTA are working together to improve every step of the transit experience – from building better bus stops, improving access to transit, and using infrastructure to achieve faster bus service.
The new bus lanes on Chicago Avenue will help improve bus efficiency on this busy and growing corridor.
