ChiWhoBike #18
Last summer my granddaughters were in town (they’re ten and eight) so my daughter and her husband put them on the back of their e-bikes, I took my e-bike, and my wife borrowed an e-bike. We all got on the Blue Line, got off downtown, and I was able to ride around with them. It was great fun, and you see things from a bike that you just don’t see from a car or walking. It’s hard to explain, but you just see things on a bike that you don’t see in any other way.
Now and then, I have an appointment downtown, and I’ll go downtown on Milwaukee. The bike lanes have gotten so much better than they once were, and some of them even have barricades, like cement barricades, or bollards, I think they call them.
Biking on protected lanes is a whole lot better, that’s for sure. I’ve ridden on some pretty dangerous city streets without protection, without bike lanes, and it’s no walk in the park. So the lanes are great, but you still have to be really careful.
If you’re just getting started biking, my advice is to explore! Be willing to explore and try the CTA. It has to be off hours, you can’t do it at rush hour, but they’re very welcoming. You put your bike on the train and save yourself the trouble of riding all the way downtown. And once you’re downtown, then the whole city is there to be seen and enjoyed. So I definitely recommend exploring the bike trails and exploring by way of CTA.
