ChiWhoBike #71
I’ve been biking on and off since around 2019. I was living in another town and started biking to work there in the summer, then crashed that bike, moved towns, got a used bike, and biked to work. And that was tough, because I was working outdoors on rooftops in the summer, wearing coveralls and cooking myself and then riding my bike back home uphill. Then, when I came back to the city, I brought that bike back here, and I came back with a pickup truck, which was an obnoxious thing to drive in the narrower streets we have. So I started riding the bike and seeing just how far I could get around on it, and it went from there.
Biking is a much nicer way to get around. Traffic is a concern, but not the same kind of concern. And it’s way nicer because you’re closer to everything around you. If I’m passing by somebody, I can make eye contact with them, and even almost chat with folks. On the way down here, I did a little ‘giddy-up’ and spooked somebody who was getting in their car, and just biking past them was able to have a little conversation like, ‘oh my bad’, ‘oh, don’t worry’. That’s a fun interaction you just can’t have when you’re behind a windshield, on the other side of a half-mile long hood. And today’s a beautiful day. It’s a little chilly, but the sun’s out, there’s a nice soft breeze, and the coolness is an invigorating kind of coolness. And if I were driving I wouldn’t feel any of that.
I live by Belmont Avenue, where they have the protected bike lanes in Avondale. For me, that’s great, but I know for everybody else in their car, it’s the worst thing ever. If you could just take a ride there and see how much safer you feel compared to when you’re riding where there’s just a line of paint separating you from the cars. Feel how much safer that is, feel how much easier it is to find an interesting spot along the way and just pull in. That’s what I would say to car drivers, is go for a ride along these bits and see, one, how much nicer it is for bikers, and why it is that we’re asking for these things. And then also two, hopefully you see how much fun riding your bike is even in the city streets.
