ChiWhoBike #51
So I’ve been biking as an adult since about 2016, when I first moved to the city proper. I grew up in the suburbs of Chicago and, you know, it was pretty car dependent for a long time. But then moved to the city and obviously having a car here is wildly impractical. So I was taking transit, and then a friend introduced me to biking, and I realized how much faster it is than pretty much any other mode of transportation in the city. I think the peak of that was when I was living in Humboldt Park and commuting to Streeterville every day, and taking the bus would take me close to an hour, but I could bike to work in less than a half hour. Like a wild difference there. And I find that that’s true about a lot of different errands, commutes, et cetera. It’s just so much faster to bike, and it’s more reliable - you know when you’re gonna get there, you’re not gonna be stuck in traffic. It’s reliable, it’s fast and starting your day with a bike ride is also awesome, it just puts you in such a good mood.
I think that drivers are my number one complaint about biking in Chicago. There’s just a lot of selfish behavior that I see on a regular basis, like people parking in bike lanes without regard for the safety of other people who are trying to use them. It’s not just adults there, kids are trying to use bike lanes too, and drivers behave very selfishly in that regard. There’s also the close passes, and it feels like people in cars just don’t have empathy or patience for others. So that can be really frustrating.
I use this bike for everything, and I think that in some regards it’s even more versatile than a car. I’ve carried an eight foot pallet on this, like starting from here and extending probably a few feet off the front. At one point I had a minivan I’m sure I could have done that with, but most cars probably cannot accommodate an eight foot pallet in them. With some ratchet straps, bungee cords, you can haul a lot of stuff with this. I’ve picked up exercise equipment, I haul my kid, I sometimes haul my boyfriend on date nights, I’ve had various friends in here, donated things to Goodwill. You name it, I’ve probably done it.
