ChiWhoBike #61
I love the pace of cycling. I love being able to see the city. I love the architecture and the character of Chicago. And I told you I’m 60, and so Chicago’s changed a whole lot since I was a teenager. Places that you wouldn’t think they have and yeah, it’s changed. Even Lincoln Park, which you know, is so fancy. I lived through the pre-gentrification of Wicker Park and Bucktown. And I just like being on the street.
I started biking in Chicago in 1992, and I use my bike for everything. I mean I don’t, because I still take the trains and I still take the buses and I still walk. And public transportation to me is the gateway to cycling in my mind. I mean, you think of all the strong healthy bike cities, they have strong and well used public transportation. And I think that there’s a relationship between that.
I don’t like the cars and how cars have changed. And this is nationally, how big they are, how aggressive they are. I think the size really reflects the embrace of the SUV. It’s an expression of how Americans feel about their life and how they move around in the world. It’s kind of negative, I will say, but why do they embrace it? They want to be in this hostile bubble. To me, that’s how I see it. And if you read the studies, big vehicles are more dangerous to pedestrians and cyclists. They’re very dangerous. I think that’s why the death toll for pedestrians and cyclists have skyrocketed.
I think generationally, as somebody who’s 60, I think that the way that younger people have embraced cycling is something that hopefully they’re going to use, and be a part of them, for the rest of their lives. That it inspires younger people to cycle and see that as a form of viable commuter transportation. Because I like to see it as not a form of exercise, although it’s fine that way, but I wish people used it as an everyday way of getting around the world.
