Lower Wacker
A bike messenger I recognize from ten years ago passed me on Lower Wacker Drive, and I was briefly amazed at the longevity.
As the name implies, Lower Wacker runs beneath Upper Wacker, which runs right along the Chicago River all the way to Lake Shore Drive. Lower Wacker is part of a small network of catacomb streets, sub streets where all the loading docks are hidden away from the busier world above. The portion of Lower Wacker where the bike messenger and I are is the access lane to the loading docks, and it's one-way pointing ahead for car--well, mostly truck--traffic. Just the other side of that wall are four narrow lanes for speeding cars. You don't want to be over there on a bike. Or on foot, for that matter.
Lower Wacker can be a gloomy, smelly, scary place. There are two reasons why you might want to take it if you're walking or riding. One, it gets you out of the rain, at least for a little while. Two, you avoid a lot of the stoplights and cross-traffic you'd otherwise have to deal with crossing the Loop. If you need to get from someplace on the west side of the Loop to someplace on the east side really fast, Lower Wacker's the way to go.
In that respect, it's good for cars, too, if you know where you're going. Sometimes on Saturday mornings, I give Robin a ride from the Village of Oak Park to a place just off Lake Shore Drive at Fullerton. It's early enough to take the Eisenhower in, but getting from the Eisenhower to Lake Shore is kind of a pain. But there's an exit right off the Eisenhower onto Lower Wacker that bypasses all that mess and takes you right to Lake Shore at the river. Robin doesn't like to go that way because the tunnel effect of Lower Wacker messes with her depth perception. I always pretend I'm making a trench run on the Death Star.
Lower Wacker
A bike messenger I recognize from ten years ago passed me on Lower Wacker Drive, and I was briefly amazed at the longevity.
As the name implies, Lower Wacker runs beneath Upper Wacker, which runs right along the Chicago River all the way to Lake Shore Drive. Lower Wacker is part of a small network of catacomb streets, sub streets where all the loading docks are hidden away from the busier world above. The portion of Lower Wacker where the bike messenger and I are is the access lane to the loading docks, and it's one-way pointing ahead for car--well, mostly truck--traffic. Just the other side of that wall are four narrow lanes for speeding cars. You don't want to be over there on a bike. Or on foot, for that matter.
Lower Wacker can be a gloomy, smelly, scary place. There are two reasons why you might want to take it if you're walking or riding. One, it gets you out of the rain, at least for a little while. Two, you avoid a lot of the stoplights and cross-traffic you'd otherwise have to deal with crossing the Loop. If you need to get from someplace on the west side of the Loop to someplace on the east side really fast, Lower Wacker's the way to go.
In that respect, it's good for cars, too, if you know where you're going. Sometimes on Saturday mornings, I give Robin a ride from the Village of Oak Park to a place just off Lake Shore Drive at Fullerton. It's early enough to take the Eisenhower in, but getting from the Eisenhower to Lake Shore is kind of a pain. But there's an exit right off the Eisenhower onto Lower Wacker that bypasses all that mess and takes you right to Lake Shore at the river. Robin doesn't like to go that way because the tunnel effect of Lower Wacker messes with her depth perception. I always pretend I'm making a trench run on the Death Star.