Riding Chicago's New Berwyn Neighborhood Greenway!!!

by Clive Benedict Mendoza (EEC Intern)

The Berwyn Neighborhood Greenway is more than paint on pavement. It is an example of what thoughtful transportation planning can accomplish when streets are designed for everyone.

The Edgewater Environmental Coalition wants to express our sincere thanks to the Chicago Department of Transportation, Alderman Andre Vasquez (40th Ward), and Alderwoman Leni Manaa-Hoppenworth (48th Ward) for their incredible work on the Berwyn Neighborhood Greenway. We wanted to experience the route ourselves, not merely just as a piece of transportation infrastructure, but truly as something that people can use to move through their neighborhoods, reach parks and businesses, connect with transit, and spend time outside.

Summary Highlights:

• I had a genuinely fun time riding the Berwyn Neighborhood Greenway

• Contraflow bike lanes make it possible to ride agaisnt automobile traffic on this one-way street, effectively making it a two-way bike street

• The green pavement markings make the routre much easier to follow

• Several intersections use pedestrian bump-outs and permeable surfaces

• The route connects Budlong Woods, Lincoln Square, Bowmanville, Andersonebille, and Edgewater

• The ride connects to the North Branch of the Chicago River at River Park/North Shore Channel Trail, all the way to the Lakefront Trail at Foster Beach/Kathy Osterman Beach

• Divvy and Lime provide additional ways to make short trips without owning a car or bicycle yourself

• The ride is a good example of how transportation, climate, public space, and neighborhood life can reinforce one another

Keep reading for the full experience...

I decided to begin the ride at the western end of the Berwyn Neighborhood Greenway near Wester Berwyn Avenue and North Virginia Avenue in Budlong Woods because I wanted to experience the contraflow bike lane in the direction it was designed to serve...also because it felt the most comfortable to be in. Moreover, a contraflow bike lane allows people on bicycles to travel opposite the direction of automobile traffic on a one-way street, giving cyclists a direct route instead of forcing them to follow a longer automobile-oriented route around the neighborhood.

That design immediately gives the route a different character. I was able to ride east toward Edgewater while staying within a clearly designated bicycle space, rather than treating the street as somewhere I simply happened to be allowed to ride. The green pavement markings also make the route easier to understand, particularly at intersections where people walking, biking, and driving are all making decisions about how to move through the same space.

Some intersections along Berwyn also include bump-outs near crosswalks, including areas with permeable surfaces. These features shorten pedestrian crossings while giving rainwater somewhere to go besides directly into the sewer system. They are relatively modest changes, but they show how a street can address more than one problem at a time.

From Budlong Woods, we ride toward Lincoln Avenue and then Damen Avenue, near Amundsen High School. From there, the route continues toward Ravenswood Avenue and the Bowmanville Community Garden before passing beneath the Union Pacific North Metra tracks through a particularly tight tunnel. Head up, you will probably need to get off your bike and walk through such tunnel to get to the other side, which is a quite the minor inconvenience. It would be nice if eventually there was more space to breeze by with ease.

The route then moves toward Clark Street and into Edgewater, where the character of the ride changes again. Andersonville is one of the reasons I enjoy this part of Chicago so much. It is a neighborhood with a strong LGBTQ+ community, a distinct local identity, and a commercial corridor that feels built for people rather than simply for moving cars through it.

There are plenty of places worth stopping along Clark Street. Lady Gregory's has long been part of Andersonville's restaurant scene and describes itself as a welcoming space that is proud to be part of the LGBTQ+ community. Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams offers a very different reason to stop, while AlleyCat Comics has the kind of neighborhood character that makes Andersonville feel distinctly local. The Swedish American Museum adds another important cultural institution to the corridor, with exhibits and programming that connect Chicago's Swedish American history to the wider community.

The point is not that a bike route needs to be surrounded by destinations in order to justify itself. It is that provide a superior alternative to what "good transportation" can look like gives people more opportunities to actually use the places that already exist. When a neighborhood is comfortable to walk and bike through, stopping at a restaurant, visiting a museum, getting ice cream, or browsing a local shop becomes part of the trip rather than something that requires getting back into a car.

Near Glenwood Avenue, the traffic circle was another feature that stood out to me. Its design encourages drivers to slow down through the physical shape of the intersection rather than relying entirely on a sign telling people to do so. That kind of traffic calming makes sense since on a neighborhood street where people are walking and biking alongside homes, businesses, and community destinations.

The route eventually reaches the newly renovated Berwyn Red Line station. The station reopened in July 2025 as part of the CTA's Red and Purple Modernization project, which rebuilt the Berwyn, Argyle, Lawrence, and Bryn Mawr stations with elevators, escalators, wider platforms, improved lighting, and other accessibility improvements.

That connection is important because a bike route is considerably more useful when it intersects with reliable public transportation. I see the opportunity for it to become part of a larger trip that begins on a bicycle, continues by train, and ends with a walk or another bicycle ride. CTA's broader RPM project is also intended to improve reliability and capacity on the North Side, which makes investments in the surrounding bicycle and pedestrian network even more valuable.

The route technically ends near the Divvy station at West Berwyn Avenue and North Sheridan Road, but that is not where I would end the trip. From there, it is possible to continue toward the Lakefront Trail and Foster Beach, then continue north toward Kathy Osterman Beach.

Foster Beach sits directly along Lake Michigan and includes an accessible beach walk, restrooms, concessions, and bike rentals. From there, the lakefront continues north into Edgewater. Kathy Osterman Beach, sits at the northern end of Lincoln Park and includes an accessible path to the shoreline and a nearby natural area that attracts migratory birds. EEC does it's own volunteers days at Osterman Beach, so definitely check it out!

That is one of the things I appreciate most about this part of Chicago. You can start on an ordinary neighborhood street and, without getting into a car, end up beside Lake Michigan.

The other half of this experience began farther west, at the Ronan Park Sculpture Park and Healing Garden and the Albany Park Community Garden along West Lawrence Avenue. Ronan Park sits along the North Branch of the Chicago River and includes naturalized river-edge habitat, a wooded path, community gardens, and the multicultural sculpture and healing garden. Ronan Park and its Multicultural Sculpture Park & Healing Garden

From there, I followed the North Branch north toward River Park on West Argyle Street.

This section of the ride is particularly meaningful to me because I attended Northside College Prep. I have fond memories of going down along the river path during free time from class, during lunch, and after school. Coming back through the area on a bicycle brought those memories back in a way that I did not expect. The river path was not some grand destination when I was a student. It was simply somewhere I could go for a little while, and that ordinary access to nature mattered.

River Park truly is beautiful. It sits at the fork of the North Branch of the Chicago River, with the river continuing west toward the Edgebrook Woods Nature Preserve while the North Shore Channel continues north toward Evanston. The surrounding trail system makes it possible to experience a part of Chicago that feels remarkably removed from the surrounding streets.

There are also Divvy stations on both ends of the park, which makes the space easier to reach for people who do not own a bicycle. Divvy Bikes describes its system as a way to explore Chicago by classic bike, e-bike, or scooter, with stations throughout the city. Lime provides another shared micromobility option for shorter trips. These services are not substitutes for good public transit or safe bicycle infrastructure, but they can be useful pieces of the network when they connect people to the places they need to reach.

I do think this part of the route could be better.

There is a quieter path closer to the river that feels somewhat hidden and separate from the main path. It is not as clearly connected or represented on Google Maps as the primary trail, and I would like to see better wayfinding and a more intentional connection between these pieces of the trail system. There is something special about being that close to the river, and people should not have to already know the area to find it.

I also wish the pedestrian crossing at the Argyle bridge were better. I appreciated having properly painted and marked shared bicycle lanes, but the pedestrian experience could be more comfortable. If we want people to actually choose walking and biking, the difficult parts of the journey cannot simply be left as the price of entry.

Even with those shortcomings, I loved riding along the North Shore Channel Trail. It is one of those parts of Chicago that can feel almost hidden in plain sight. The city has an extraordinary amount of natural space woven into its neighborhoods, and riding these trails makes it much easier to understand why protecting that space matters.

That is ultimately what I took away from this ride.

The Berwyn Neighborhood Greenway is useful because it is not an isolated bicycle project. It becomes more valuable when it connects to the places around it. The route reaches schools, gardens, businesses, the Red Line, Metra, the North Branch, the North Shore Channel, Divvy stations, the Lakefront Trail, and the beaches. Each connection gives the next one more value.

That is the kind of transportation system I want Chicago to keep building.

I do not think the answer to climate change is to tell people that they personally need to drive less while leaving them with streets that make driving the obvious choice. If Chicago wants people to walk, bike, and take transit, then those options have to work. They have to be safe, convenient, affordable, and connected to the places people actually need to go.

The same principle applies to our parks and natural areas. Protecting the river, the lakefront, community gardens, trees, and natural habitat is not separate from transportation policy. These are public resources that make life in Chicago better, and people should be able to reach them without needing a private vehicle.

I am glad the Berwyn Neighborhood Greenway exists, and I am glad I got to experience it as a rider rather than simply reading about it. I had fun. I enjoyed seeing the green pavement markings and the way the route connected neighborhoods that I already knew in completely different ways. I appreciated being able to move from the river to Andersonville and eventually toward the lakefront without having to make a car the center of the trip.

There is still work to do, and I hope we keep doing it. The Argyle crossing can be better. The riverside trail connection can be clearer. Other neighborhoods deserve the same level of investment. Bicycle infrastructure should connect to itself instead of appearing as isolated stretches of paint, and public transit should be designed as part of the same network.

But this is a good step.

As Chicago continues working toward its climate goals, investments in micromobility, public transit, pedestrian infrastructure, and neighborhood greenways must remain a priority. Every resident deserves the opportunity to safely bike to school, ride to work, visit a local business, access a park, or simply enjoy an afternoon outdoors without feeling that a car is the only practical option.

The Berwyn Neighborhood Greenway is already helping make Chicago a safer, greener, and more connected city, and I hope it serves as inspiration for many more neighborhood greenways across every corner of Chicago.