| June
2005 |
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Afternoon in the Intersection of Equality and Safety School and Ped Safety Bills Passed Taking It To the (Healthy) Streets DuPage County Observes Bike Day |
The Double Life of Abby Ryan
With just a hint of empathy, her voice intones a litany of travel times between Chicago’s Loop and points beyond, conveying the impression that the reporter is all too familiar with this daily choreography of gridlock and congestion. But Abby Ryan has a secret: she rode to work on a bicycle. Known to thousands of WBEZ and WIND listeners as the weekday traffic reporter, Ryan used to commute by car from the suburbs. When she moved to Old Town, she rode the bus to the Loop office of Shadow Traffic, from which her broadcasts are transmitted. But it was a CTA fare hike that compelled her to get her first commuter bike three summers ago. “Basically I’m protesting the CTA. They keep raising their prices, and I commute four times a day,” said Ryan, who divides her workday into morning and evening portions, with a six-hour break in-between. (EDITOR'S NOTE: Chicagoland Bicycle Federation supports improved funding for CTA, and all transit, to provide affordable service that accomodates the needs of multi-modal commuters) Sometimes, she walks the two miles to her office. “We don’t move enough as Americans,” she observed. Adding to her double-identity, the cycling/walking traffic reporter also is the voice of the rush hour for six stations in Indiana and Illinois. “I’m on six stations, so I can be six different people.” she said. “In the afternoon, I’m on a country station in Indiana and the guy has everyone convinced that I drive a Harley. So it’s just crazy, and that’s what I like about it.” Indeed, minutes after filing her report on WBEZ’s sober morning
newscast (“I use my sexy librarian voice for that one”),
Ryan is chatting about “American Idol” with the wacky
morning guys on Indiana’s Z-107 FM. On-air adaptability is a valuable asset of the former theater student. Ryan notes that, among other gigs, she once hosted a Christian children’s radio show .
But, like many bike commuters, Ryan wasn’t always adaptable in the way she got around. “I kind of had that attitude like, ‘Where’s the parking lot? Let me park my car.’ But after a while, it gets expensive, and I’d rather get my exercise,” she said. “Hopefully, if and when I move back to the suburbs and get married and have children one day, I’ll still have that mentality that, “Hey, two miles is not that far. Go walk it or ride a bike.”
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