ChiWhoBike #36
When I first moved to Chicago, I lived in Avondale, so I’d bike through Humboldt Park on my way to work, and it was just a beautiful experience. I didn’t think that I’d find a park like this in Chicago, and it really is like a magical Snow White kind of experience. The nature here is fantastic, people say hi to you as you bike down the trails, and I really, really love that. It’s very peaceful. It brings me a lot of joy to bike on bike trails through parks.
The safety aspect of biking in Chicago is really terrible. When I first moved here, I thought I was going to bike everywhere, and my friend said I wouldn’t bike in Chicago at all. I decided to try. But I was very selective of where I went. Like I would never bike on Western, it’s way too busy. For the first year I didn’t have bike lights, so I would try not to bike at night. But after getting hit, which actually happened in a contraflow bike lane, I am doubly frightened of biking and way, way, way more cautious. Because even though I was doing everything right, with lights, not wearing headphones, helmet, and biking in the bike lane, it still did not work out. So just assuming that everyone’s going to hit you, it’s not fun and I don’t like that.
But I would say biking is not as scary as you’d think. You can go at your comfort level. So if you are a beginner biker and haven’t really biked a lot, try just biking around your neighborhood first, places that you’re familiar with. Definitely wear a helmet. Definitely have bike lights. Don’t wear your headphones. But honestly, you can customize your experience. My coworker was asking about this the other day and I said, you don’t have to bike at night if you don’t want to. It’s completely up to you and your comfort level. Even hardcore bikers have limits. I don’t bike on Western, and that’s okay. That doesn’t make me less of a biker. It’s just different.
