Came in on a different route this morning - someone from the chicago_bike community on Livejournal had suggested it to me a few months ago, and this morning I thought I'd give it a shot. It's the same distance as my "street" commute (the lake path route adds a few miles), but it was much less harrowing. I still get to take diagonal streets, but the bike lanes are wider, and there's much less traffic.

I like it!