Editor’s note: Here is a selection of letters from Tribune readers sharing thoughts on Chicago’s bike lanes. We will publish additional letters on Tuesday.
Since 2018, a bike has been my primary mode of transportation to get around Chicago. For this, I use one of two me-bikes (“me pedal, me go; me no pedal, me no go”), each more than 40 years old and showing rust. On average, I use bike lanes in Chicago about 20 days per month, every month of the year, so yes, I do support bike lanes.
I haul groceries, run other errands, keep appointments, make my way to visit family and friends, and commute to part-time jobs, all using my bike on designated city bike lanes.
Honestly, I feel safer riding my bike in Chicago than I do either driving a car or taking public transit.
Nevertheless, bike road safety is always a concern. I appreciate having bike lanes with at least one or two feet of extra space beyond lane borders that provide an overall wide safety margin separating me from parked cars on the right and motorized vehicle traffic on the left. Long stretches of bike lanes along Elston Avenue are configured this way.
Alternatively, bike lanes for some distances along Milwaukee Avenue, Kedzie Avenue and North Clark Street offer a different safety layout. Here, bike lanes are constructed so that street curbs plus a narrow space are to the right of lane borders, and parked cars plus a narrow space are to the left. In some of these cases, fixed barriers, usually concrete, are part of the safety margin between lane borders and parked cars.
There’s a safety trade-off between these two layouts. The former puts the bicyclist at risk when a driver unexpectedly opens a car door in front of an approaching bicyclist, and the latter puts the driver at risk when a driver opens a car door in front of an unexpected approaching motorized vehicle.
Advice to the city: There is a glaring absence of designated bike lanes running north and south through the midsection of Chicago. Please consider adding safe bike lanes, however configured, along a major north-south corridor, such as Pulaski Road.
Also, I don’t agree that all speed-class e-bikes and e-scooters should be allowed to share bike lanes originally intended for me-bikes. Often, I see riders of e-bikes and e-scooters recklessly weave between automobile lanes and bike lanes, potentially endangering me-bike riders, individuals entering or exiting parked cars, and even auto drivers.
— Mark Grenchik, Chicago
How we can make city safer
Have you seen the size of newer, full-size pickups? Cars and trucks are bigger and more agile than ever before. The Hummer electric vehicle, for example, weighs nearly 10,000 pounds and goes from zero to 60 in 3.5 seconds, and the top of the hood is the shoulder height of an average adult. That’s absolutely wild!
A recent study in The New York Times showed that the taller hoods on new SUVs and trucks cause hundreds, if not thousands, of unnecessary deaths per year. We let these vehicles drive on our roads without a second thought, and yet we collectively kvetch over cyclists and bicycle lanes.
Maybe we should reconsider how cars and trucks use our streets to keep cyclists, scooter riders and pedestrians safe from these larger and deadlier vehicles. Ideas such as pedestrianization (such as around the recent Logan Square refresh or Ald. Daniel La Spata’s experiment closing Milwaukee Avenue to cars last summer), higher taxes on larger vehicles, protected bike lanes, lower speed limits, automated speed cameras, active traffic enforcement and potentially even congestion pricing should be at the forefront of our thoughts.
I am a new father, and one of my biggest fears is a driver not being able to see me or the stroller over the hood of their large vehicle. It’s not a fear anyone should have to live with.
We control our built environment and can make it safer for everyone.
— Todd Garon, Chicago
Now is time to change course
I bicycle, drive a car and walk to get around the city and strongly encourage Chicago to build more bike lanes, especially protected ones such as those recently created on Clark Street north of Irving Park Road. I have no problem with reducing the amount of parking or moving parking spots to the left of a bike lane and potentially turning two lanes for cars into one. Increasing the number of miles of bike lanes that are protected and indicated with paint improves biking safety and encourages more people to rides bikes, reducing air pollution, and making riders physically and mentally healthier.
While electric vehicles don’t produce tailpipe emissions, using electricity nonetheless creates emissions somewhere else.
One issue I have with protected bike lanes, however, is that it can be difficult to pass another bicyclist, and e-bikes and scooter riders, many operating at carlike speeds, use them as well. Making the lanes wider doesn’t seem like it would fly as a solution, but it would be better to have as many miles of protected bike lanes as possible, with openings here and there to enable safe passing, which is the current design.
Chicago should also consider shutting down some roads to cars on certain days to allow them to be exclusively used for bicyclists and pedestrians. Bike the Drive is a great example, but it’s only one morning a year, and there’s a cost (for most) to participate. Way too much infrastructure was created to accommodate automobiles, and now is the time to change course and promote bicycling by creating more bike lanes throughout Chicago, its suburbs and across the nation.
More Top Picks Best Virtual Reality Headsets
And if car drivers complain? Tough.
— Alan Michael Richter, Chicago
Everyone should follow rules
Our family of five uses bikes as our primary mode of transportation, weather permitting. We have found, as we teach our kids how to safely bike in the city, that protected, green bike lanes with designated bike signals help them learn the rules of the road better than biking on roads in shared lanes.
We have watched the protected bike lanes get built on South Wabash over the last two years and are witnessing the difference they make for safety. Before the concrete barriers were installed, we couldn’t bike on Wabash because of the number of cyclists who were hit by car doors. We recognize the effort and cost that go into creating them and the inconvenience to everyone on the road during the build-out phase, but the increased safety for cyclists, pedestrians and motorists is visible.
Here are suggested bike lane improvements:
• Signage both on street signs and on the ground to remind motorists and pedestrians to look for cyclists. For example, the northbound bike lane on Dearborn through River North has a designated bike light with a protected left for motorists at most left turns. However, the streets that allow a free left turn need a sign next to the signal reminding drivers to look for bikes. We have nearly been hit on this road both times we’ve ridden north this summer.
• A clearly posted speed limit in bike lanes and enforced limitation on motorized vehicles in the bike lanes. For example, we use an e-bike, but our maximum speed is 17 mph, and we rarely go over 12 mph. This bike allows us to carry our children and cargo in a way that would be impossible with our road bikes. We’ve noticed an uptick in motorized scooters and even motorcycles in the bike lanes going far above 20 mph. This summer, we have already seen three motorcycles on the lakefront path in the designated bike lane.
We acknowledge that cyclists and bike lane users need to follow the rules of the road, exercise caution, and be considerate of pedestrians and cars. We teach our children cycling etiquette — when it is OK to ride on the sidewalk, when to use their bells, to always use lights, and how to communicate with other cyclists, pedestrians and motorists — but our children, visiting cyclists and motorists need to witness all Chicago cyclists obeying the rules.
— Katy McMillan, Chicago
Prevent more traffic deaths
Traffic fatalities inspire a lot of passion. I own a car. I do not own a bicycle. We need more bike safety infrastructure, and drivers needs to be forced to slow down. Bike lanes, pedestrian refuge islands, traffic diverters and curb bumpouts all need to be expanded throughout the entire street system.
Not doing so is direct support of more traffic fatalities.
— Benjamin Burton, Chicago
Take advice from these cities
For getting around on bikes, ask the people in these world cities — Amsterdam, Utrecht, Copenhagen, Paris and Montreal — and in these U.S. cities — Berkeley, California; Aurora; and Racine, Wisconsin.
— William King, McHenry
Submit a letter, of no more than 400 words, to the editor here or email [email protected].