Editor’s note: We asked readers who are cyclists to tell us about their experiences on city streets and to share their thoughts about Chicago’s bike infrastructure. Here is a selection of those letters. We will publish more next week.
My perspective as a competitive cyclist and a personal injury attorney has me supporting bike infrastructure in theory. However, my travels and anecdotal experiences lead me to believe that they are one part of a larger answer to a complicated question.
In most of Chicagoland, motorists drive aggressively and angrily, frustrated by the horrible traffic, and either not looking for, or actively hostile to, bicyclists.
Compare and contrast this with my experience traveling to places such as the Netherlands, where bicycle infrastructure is coupled with an attitude from motorists who don’t just tolerate cyclists but also actively expect them, look for them and abide by the rules deferring to them. Despite a place like Amsterdam having dangers such as cobblestone streets, humpback bridges, trolley tracks and narrow roads, cyclists and motorists coexist peacefully and safely.
In fact, I have been hit in protected bike lanes here more often than elsewhere. In all instances, the driver who hit me said, “I didn’t see you!” My response, always with some expletives, is: “You weren’t looking for me!”
My point is that without driver education and awareness, all the infrastructure in the world won’t move the needle. We need to be taught to “look for bikes” as a routine part of our driving.
This can be accomplished only with driver education, government reinforcement, legal enforcement and understandable infrastructure.
And yes, in anticipation of those who will claim cyclists need to follow the roadway rules, I agree; we cyclists need to do our part as well.
Let’s try to be mindful of all people on the roadway!
— Stephen Hoffman, Chicago
Infrastructure not enough
I rode my bike for the first time in Chicago with my family when I was 14 years old during Bike the Drive. It was a glorious, car-free, 30-mile ride. Now, as an adult, I don’t own a car, and cycling is my primary mode of transportation. I commuted to the Loop daily for work via bicycle for a few years. Unlike Bike the Drive, it was an extremely stressful part of my day. I knew where the bike lanes randomly ended, where cars would speed by on Wells Street as I rode over painted sharrows and where drivers would nearly run me over while turning.
Some days, I skipped going to restaurants or shopping locally because I didn’t have the energy to search for a low-stress, safe way to get there by bike.
My sister was riding a bicycle in a bike lane when she got hit by a driver pulling out of Dunkin’ Donuts on Lawrence Avenue. She lost four front teeth and was lucky to recover. Many people have a similar story. Riding in bike lanes, as carefully as possible, does not protect cyclists from inattentive and reckless drivers.
So, when I got a new job this past year at Northwestern University, I moved from Chicago to Evanston. The default speed limit on residential streets is 25 mph, as opposed to 30 mph in Chicago. Lower speed limits, speed humps and more protected bike lanes make me feel safer, and I don’t show up to work stressed out by near-death experiences as often.
I appreciate that the city of Chicago is installing more protected bike lanes and planning neighborhood greenways across the city, albeit unevenly across the South and West sides. But as long as drivers continue to drive recklessly, violate the speed limit and drive and park in bike lanes, I’m not convinced that the infrastructure improvements will be enough to reduce the number of cyclists getting hit and killed by vehicles each year in Chicago.
No one should have to die or get hit by a vehicle for there to be greater urgency in implementing traffic-calming infrastructure that prioritizes nonmotorists.
— Kelley Sarussi, Evanston
First test out new bike lanes
For 40 years, I have been driving and biking in Chicago’s north lakefront and Northwest Side neighborhoods, though I am happy to report that I do roughly 10 times more biking than driving. For the most part, I have encountered very few problems.
I have also spent increasing amounts of time in numerous European cities, many of which have become bicycling wonderlands, where cyclists probably outnumber cars 50 to 1 or more. These include Berlin, Amsterdam, Brussels, and increasingly London and Paris. The reliance on bicycles has always been stronger in these places, as car ownership has always been a fraction of that in the U.S. I wish Chicago was more like these cities, but alas, we have a long way to go.
In recent years, the Chicago Department of Transportation has invested heavily in dedicated bike lanes while drastically reducing car lanes. But this is being done without comprehensively looking at the larger impacts. A classic case is on North Clark Street between Ridge and Devon avenues. There, new bike lanes have cut car lanes by half throughout the corridor. The result has been not fewer cars but many motorists now cutting through previously lightly trafficked residential streets to avoid the bottlenecks. That these side streets also contain very large elementary schools whose young students now have to contend with more and faster traffic doesn’t seem to have entered into the equation of the traffic planners.
These roadway changes were ushered through during the dark days of the COVID-19 lockdown by local aldermen without any input — or indeed notification — to local residents, who now have to suffer the consequences. But the costly bike lane separators are now in place, so there’s now no going back.
It would make more sense to first use temporary lane dividers, such as modified Jersey barriers, to create test bike lanes, so that larger impacts on overall traffic can be studied before permanent changes are made. This is a common-sense solution.
But perhaps, these is no longer room for common sense in city government
— John Holden, Chicago
Perspective of a firefighter
I am a retired Chicago firefighter and for a period of time worked at a firehouse along Milwaukee Avenue, what’s known as the Hipster Highway. At any given time, we would have two to five damaged bikes in our basement. When we would respond to a bike versus auto accident, after rendering medical care and before the ambulance took the cyclist to the hospital, we would write down the address to the firehouse and give it to the cyclist so that their bike could be retrieved.
My thoughts on riding a bike on Chicago streets? Very dangerous. And I am a cyclist.
As most riders know, there are bikes painted white and chained to poles at places where a cyclist was killed. Friends, family and other riders leave artificial flowers around these bikes. It is a kind sentiment and also a grim reminder of how dangerous it can be for a cyclist to share the road with so many drivers. The bikes become weathered and deteriorate.
What if at the site of each of these deadly accidents the city could mount one of those bike racks that takes the shape of a bicycle? And on each of these racks could be a simple emblem inscribed with the name of the cyclist and date of the accident.
A functional memorial of the importance of caution when sharing the road.
— Frank Ruscello, Chicago
Improve law enforcement
I find bicycle commuting significantly easier, and probably safer, than it was 21 years ago. I would get honked at, yelled at and close-called several times a week when I started; this almost never happens now. This is for two reasons: The motoring public has become more accustomed to the presence of bikes in traffic, and bicycling infrastructure has improved considerably, particularly bike lanes.
Bike lanes are generally good, though in some respects, they cause their own problems. Part of my commute is on Polk Street, which has protected bike lanes on both sides of the street. The lanes are great for bikes, but Polk is a narrow street, and this can be a problem if a car stops to let someone out or if a first response vehicle stops there. In the winter, the bike lane is occasionally not plowed; this forces cyclists into the traffic lane, leaving little or no opportunity for cars to pass. This also happens when a driver parks at the end of a protected lane or even backs into the protected area.
At the other end of the spectrum is the protected lane on Jackson Boulevard, which is excellent. There’s a row of bollards and a lane of parked cars between the bike lane and the traffic. Apart from the possibility of snow blocking the lane in winter, I’ve found this lane well marked, safe and efficient.
Riding on streets without bike lanes is generally safe and uneventful as long as basic safety principles are followed by both motorists and cyclists.
One area I feel is not adequately covered is law enforcement. I have never seen a car ticketed or towed for blocking a bike lane; neither have I ever seen a cyclist stopped, reprimanded or ticketed for running a red light or riding the wrong way on a street or in a bike lane or for any other unsafe behavior. There is room for improvement here.
Overall, commuting by bicycle in Chicago has been a mostly pleasant experience and undoubtedly has been good for me physically, as well as keeping one more car off city streets.
— Dr. Steve Weeks, College of Dentistry, University of Illinois at Chicago
Submit a letter, of no more than 400 words, to the editor here or email letters@chicagotribune.com.