Great Lakes - Chicago to Tinley Park Route. Maybe some locals could help?

Bikeforums.net is a forum about nothing but bikes. Our community can help you find information about hard-to-find and localized information like bicycle tours, specialties like where in your area to have your recumbent bike serviced, or what are the best bicycle tires and seats for the activities you use your bike for.



PDA
emperorcezar
04-05-10, 11:24 AM
Maybe some people from the Chicago area could help out with this?

Yesterday I did the holiday ride from my apartment in Logan Square in Chicago to my inlaws in Tinley Park/Frankfort Square. This is the second time I've road down. This time I used the Google bicycle routing. It actually did quite well. My only issue was that it put me on Pulaski down in Blue Island, very busy street. I didn't have issue anywhere except for here. Two in almost a row, "Get on the sidewalk" while gesturing toward the sidewalk. So next time I'd like to avoid this section. Looking at the Chicagoland bicycle map, it has Western around this area marked as excellent for crossing the Calumet Sag Channel river.

Doing some work on the route I've come up with this map (http://tinyurl.com/ydwktua). Would anyone with some experience in this area mind giving me some feedback on the route?

nixternal
04-05-10, 11:45 AM
Cross on Francisco, Western isn't any better. Another way my brother and I have gone from Tinley Park to the city (he is at 167 and Oak Park, you rode right past his house actually), is Ridgeland. There are some spots I keep the water bottle in my hand in case someone gets close enough, I hit um with a bottle. Stay on 115th west to Ridgeland, you also get to bypass Robins, which is what I always try to do. There is also a bike trail somewhere that crosses the sag, but I think that is a bit further east.

With love honey :D
john_steed_uk
04-05-10, 12:21 PM
Well, I used to ride from Rogers Park (Clark & Devon) to the South Suburbs.
I found that taking a big street like Western Ave south to Ogden and then
that to Harlem or Cicero was a good way down.

Of course, my best strategy was to leave early in the morning to avoid much of the
traffic snarl.

I once knew a guy who commuted and took Halsted north every morning from
the south suburbs to downtown. He left very early every morning.

emperorcezar
04-05-10, 01:08 PM
Cross on Francisco, Western isn't any better. Another way my brother and I have gone from Tinley Park to the city (he is at 167 and Oak Park, you rode right past his house actually), is Ridgeland. There are some spots I keep the water bottle in my hand in case someone gets close enough, I hit um with a bottle. Stay on 115th west to Ridgeland, you also get to bypass Robins, which is what I always try to do. There is also a bike trail somewhere that crosses the sag, but I think that is a bit further east.

With love honey :D

Thanks. Taking that into account. I've come up with the following route. While it sadly misses out on Waverly or Oak Forest Ave (Both were great riding) it does cross on Ridgeland as advised.

http://tinyurl.com/ydhgrkp