ChiWhoBike #29
Biking means freedom. Freedom from having to wait for the bus, you know, not having to worry about having a car. Cars are too much maintenance for me. You can’t ruin a car messing around like you can with a bike. With a bike, you wreck it, cool, you learned your lesson, now you know how to fix it. With a car, you can’t really do that. You gotta go to a mechanic. It’s just another cost that’s added to your life that I can do without.
Riding alongside cars can be a bit hectic, but for the most part Chicago is pretty bike friendly. You know, a lot of the cars yield to bikers, but it’s hard sometimes. I notice that when you’re in a car, you’re only looking for another car. You’re not looking for a bike. So that’s how a lot of accidents happen, from not signaling and stuff like that. So I try to stay out off the main streets unless it’s like a double lane. But those cars, they just don’t see you. It’s not like in their peripheral vision to look out for a cyclist. But the buses are pretty cool, you just pass each other up at every stop, give a little wave, and go on your way.
I see a lot of bike lanes being built where there isn’t a lot of cycling traffic. You know, like out by the west side, I see them, and they’re beautiful. They’ve got the cement block between the cars and the cycling lane, but there’s not a lot of bike traffic out there, not that I’ve seen. So I think they should do some kind of organizational work with the community where they map out what needs to be done and what could wait a little, you know? Because there’s some roads that’ll hold up for another, five, ten years. There’s some roads that need work right now. And it gets worse in Chicago ‘cause of the cold weather, the snow, the salt ruins that asphalt and it can get rocky.
