ChiWhoBike #94
For me, cars, or even the sound of traffic, stress me out. But I feel there’s a stigma against bicycling in the city, or even taking public transportation. Like if you’re bicycling or if you’re taking public transportation, you’re not as successful or you don’t have a lot of money. That’s not true. I think to be successful is to have assets, and not expenses. If you truly want to be financially independent, have more assets than expenses, and owning a car in the city costs a person at least 10,000 a year. So imagine putting that towards owning a house, and paying off that mortgage and then not having all those expenses, that would be amazing! Then you’ll have so much more money to spend on other things that matter.
I personally love bicycling in Chicago because I love being outside, especially in weather like this. Like I can smell the lilacs, It’s beautiful, it’s so serene, it de-stresses me. I do sometimes drive, but only if I have to. And when I do, when I rent a car, I immediately regret it, because of the stress that it inflicts on me because of all the traffic and congestion. So, basically for me biking is freedom -I feel free when I bike.
I lead the Ride for Palestine, which is a social justice and humanitarian group. We advocate for justice, from settler colonialism, from forced displacement, from genocide, really. Our government, unfortunately, is supporting, the settler colonial state that’s committing a genocide. And we can be using those tax dollars to improve our lives here.
And I love biking with Ride for Palestine. We go as groups, like a bike bus around the city, and we get so much love and support from Chicagoans. I’m so elated riding around and people just chanting ‘Free Palestine’ and sending us so much love. I know that we live in a city that loves humanity. We have a lot of humanitarians in the city that also advocate for social justice. And we have some really great people. Chicago is the best city in the world, really, I personally believe that. I just believe we can get better - but the people in Chicago are amazing.
