ChiWhoBike #45
Biking is not just for a bunch of 25 year olds who look good in Lycra. You know I’m 56 years old, I took it up again when I was 53. It’s something really for all ages, and if you’re a little older, like I am, don’t be frightened by it. It’s very good, it’s great exercise, it’s low impact. Since I’ve been biking, my doctors notice that my blood pressure’s come down, heart rate’s come down, so just get out there and do it.
Chicago should be a great biking city. I mean, it’s flat, we have a nice grid pattern, we have the lakefront trail right here, and there are other trails that are being laid out. But biking in the city, what I like about it is you get to really see neighborhoods better than you do in a car, or if you’re on the bus or on the L. There are a lot of places, like stores, restaurants, and pubs where I passed by on my bike and said, oh, that looks like a great place, and try it out sometime later. It’s just a great city for biking. Both the layout of the city and, frankly, it’s flat. The biggest hill I have to climb on my daily commute is the flyover over Navy Pier and getting over the river, and that’s it.
My wife doesn’t feel comfortable biking on streets, and well I’m, I’m about six two, she’s about five one, so she can’t quite see over sometimes some of these big, huge, SUVs that you have out there. And the people may not necessarily see her, and she just doesn’t feel comfortable on those painted bike lanes because there is no protection. She much prefers being down someplace like down here on the lakefront where there’s a separation from traffic. As for why I feel comfortable, I don’t know, I just do.
