Cars redirected onto bike path to get around traffic jam

When two vehicles collided on one of Chicago’s major routes last Thursday at around rush hour, police alarmingly diverted the traffic through a park onto a nearby bike path. Chicago’s Route 41 southbound lane was stopped while emergency and tow vehicles cleared and accident. Instead of having the drivers wait until the operation was over, police diverted the traffic onto a bike path according to the Chicago Transport Authority (CTA).

Here’s more of what we saw from #Skycam9 as drivers took to the bike path to avoid a crash SB LSD past 57th. @WGNMorningNews pic.twitter.com/QsSdB6onDj

— Sarah Jindra (@SarahJindra) February 1, 2018

In footage shared on social media by Chicago reporter Sarah Jindra, vehicles diverted onto the route proceeded to drive along the path at what appeared to be high speeds. Some vehicles even slow down to correct their course because the reckless speeds they were driving. The vehicles were also directed onto the grass in Hyde Park to navigate around the accident in an ill-conceived detour.

Not all the vehicles were able to easily navigate the narrow path which luckily did not appear to be in use by any cyclists or pedestrians at the time. A bendy bus attempting to get on the narrow paved path was forced onto the grass when it could not safely navigate the detour.

“The operator of the bus was ordered by police to exit Lake Shore Drive,” a CTA spokesperson told Streetsblog which first reported the incident. “S/he wouldn’t be subject to disciplinary action because S/he was following police orders.”

Chicago police did not commented on whether the dangerous detour was a police officers idea.