With the azure lake on our right, my daughters and I delighted in biking down the middle of DuSable Lake Shore Drive in a Bike the Drive event organized by the Active Transportation Alliance a few years ago, biking one of the most beautiful urban thoroughfares in the world, a road so lovely that three guys sang a song about it.
The number of cyclists has grown more than in any other major American city in the last half decade, according to the Chicago Department of Transportation and the company Replica. Its report showed a 119% increase in biking between the fall of 2019 and spring of 2023.
But Chicago can be perilous to bike or walk. An average of five to six bicyclists a year were killed in Chicago
from 2012 to 2023, according to the Active Transportation Alliance. Last year, 30 pedestrians were struck and killed by drivers on the city’s streets.
With more people walking and riding, the city needs to reduce its minimum vehicle speed limit to save lives and make Chicago safer for all non-vehicular transportation. The Chicago City Council and Mayor Brandon Johnson can advocate for more aggressive people- and bike-friendly infrastructure improvements.
Chicago was rated 2,279 for bike safety of 2,579 U.S. cities by the advocacy group PeopleForBikes. There are some designated and signaled bike lanes, but the city is lacking in protections such as curb separations. Of Chicago’s nearly 450 miles of bikeways and off-street trails, about 100 miles are designated by the city as protected bike lanes or trails. The remaining 300 miles of bikeways share space with cars.
Creating bike grids — a network of bike-friendly streets — would be one way Chicago could be made safer for bike riders.
The Active Transportation Alliance’s Jim Merrell says lower speed limits and more protected bike lanes and pedestrian crossings would “transform the city and save lives.”
Besides asking the city to lower Chicago’s default speed limit from 30 mph to 25, the alliance wants a “more robust” bike route network with curb separations, greenways and “traffic-calming” improvements like making streets narrower. The city is considering lowering the speed limit.
To find a city that more fully embraces bike travel, look at Madison, Wisconsin. It has 133 miles of streets with bike lanes and was recognized by PeopleForBikes for its improvements.
Still, in a report last year, Chicago city planners called for “a vision for the next 150 miles of bikeways in the next couple of years.”
The city also needs to foster a more expansive non-vehicular street culture. For inspiration, consider Barcelona’s famed Las Ramblas, where you can walk from the middle of the city to the bustling waterfront without crossing a major highway or worrying about traffic.
Chicago already has natural thoroughfares that are heavily used by walkers, like the Riverwalk. Beyond that, the lakefront portion of the old U.S. Steel South Works from 79th Street to 95th Street could link to a trail extending into Indiana and southwest Michigan through Calumet Park. Though the mill’s footprint is being planned as the site of a quantum computing facility, planners also could incorporate a public trail.
Ramblas — connected neighborhood greenways — could be planned for nearly every pedestrian- and bike-dense neighborhood from Rogers Park to South Chicago. The city also could link Chicago’s boulevards, more than 600 parks and 18-mile lakefront trail.
Inspired by Daniel Burnham, green urban planning has connected some neighborhoods and parks to the lakefront. You can walk from the commuter train stations to the Museum District, River North, Navy Pier and downtown attractions. The Gold Coast, University Village and the South Loop also are relatively accessible.
But getting beyond the Loop and Magnificent Mile can be challenging. Ideally, trails, bike lanes and greenways would reconnect neighborhoods cleaved by expressways.
The larger goal is getting people out of cars. When you’re walking or biking, you’re discovering the beauty of the city. And you’re also connecting with people and improving your health.
