ChiWhoBike #35
I think people think biking is harder than it is. They’re scared and think they have to make major investments to get into it and they don’t! People think, if I’m gonna become a biker, I have to buy a bike and I have to bike everywhere, ‘cause they see people like me, and I really don’t think that’s the case. First of all, I don’t bike everywhere. I don’t have a car, but I am driven other places by people. I do use public transportation. When I’m in the suburbs, I borrow my parents’ car. And so it’s really possible to integrate biking as one of many forms of transportation, and that is what most bikers do.
I definitely have pet peeves with certain bike lanes. On Clark Street by Wrigleyville, there’s a lot of cars and Ubers parking in the bike lanes. And that really makes me mad. It’s very unsafe, to bikers, to pedestrians and to the motorists. So I get very upset when I feel like bike lanes are poorly planned or when people aren’t respecting the bike lanes. And honestly it might be kind of controversial, but I don’t love maybe some of the cultural battles around bikes where it’s like bicyclists versus everyone else. I feel like most people are in favor of cleaner cities, healthier cities, cities with less congestion, and bikes are part of the solution to that. And I think more people should get on board with solutions that make streets safer for cyclists because those same solutions make streets safer for pedestrians and motorists as well.
The City of Chicago has many programs to help people with bikes. There’s something called the Safe Ambassadors program, which over the summer has free learn-to-ride classes for children and adults, and they also have a program called Bike Chicago that raffles free bikes, if you meet certain requirements. There are also free and reduced Divvy memberships for low income Chicago residents. So if you’re a person of limited means, or if you’re just a person who wants to bike but doesn’t know how, there are free resources provided by the city and other institutions that are here to help get you on a bike.
