ChiWhoBike #50
This is my bike, and it’s an Authier, which was a Swiss skiing company that wanted to diversify, and so they came out with a line of mountain bikes in 1991, and for whatever reason they went with a New York City taxi cab theme. I found it when I was living out in Seattle for $40 for the frame, and I fixed it up some, threw some more decals on it, but the actual frame, that’s the original.
In Chicago, we’re in a situation where because wards have to approve bike lanes, each alderman has to approve any bike lane, and we’re left with this patchwork system of bike infrastructure where some of them are protected, some of them are not. And then the State Supreme Court just upheld this definition that bicyclists are permitted, but not intended, users of roadways, and that’s a huge blow. So it could be a lot better. In terms of safety, I’d love to see more protected bike lanes or just elevated bike lanes, because that’s more difficult for it to get rid of, if the political will changes. So it could be significantly, significantly, better, but I’m also aware that, unfortunately, this is some of the better bike infrastructure that the country has to offer.
I used to own a car in Seattle, but I realized I’m very stressed when I’m around cars or driving a car, so I ended up selling it. And you don’t really realize the built environment much when you’re really in it, when you’re enmeshed in it, but then you just start to realize how horrible car dependency is in general. I feel like it’s just a total waste of resources. And it includes the history of the creation of highways and the demolition of old city downtowns throughout the country, and it’s pretty brutal. And I think it really dehumanizes people. When you’re in a car and you see another car, you don’t really think of them as human. You think of them as some other entity and you, yourself, are a different entity. But also, individually, it’s a lot easier to get around here using bikes, buses, and trains than being in gridlock traffic all the time.
