Good news! The bike lane on N. Halsted St. from Grace St. to Buckingham Place will be reestablished by mid-August, thanks to the leadership of Alderman Tom Tunney, the persistence of the Chicago Department of Transportation (CDOT), and the organizing power of the Chicagoland Bicycle Federation.

Extra good news: the bike lane will be continued south to Diversey Ave. "This bike lane is a 1.2 mile addition to our Streets for Cycling Plan, to further establish a network of bikeways throughout Chicago," said CDOT Commissioner Miguel d'Escoto.

In November of 1998, CDOT was forced to "black out" its newly striped bike lane on N. Halsted by then-44th Ward Alderman Bernie Hansen. Hansen charged that the city had failed to adequately communicate its intention to stripe Halsted as part of a multi-million dollar streetscaping project to the Lakeview community.

The local merchants and residential associations seemed to back up his charge. Community activist and Chicagoland Bicycle Federation member David Sperling recalls subsequent struggles and attempts to restore the lane. "I always felt that there was a strong support base in Lakeview for bicycle infrastructure," Sperling says, "but there needed to be organization around transportation issues to get people involved. "

The bike lanes proved to be the perfect issue. The Chicagoland Bicycle Federation boasts more than 100 members in the 44th Ward alone, and many of them played an active role, contacting the alderman's office and reaching out to the many business and community assocations. Some even visited the area's merchants face-to-face. "[Federation Program Director] Randy Warren called me, asking for our help in reaching out to the North Halsted Area Merchants Association (NHAMA)," says Jefferson McCarley, president of the Windy City Cycle Club (WCCC), a bike club for gays and lesbians. "So we got a list of NHAMA members, and started talking to them.

"WCCC members are good patrons of these businesses, and we were able to reach business owners and talk about how important to us this bike lane is. And they were willing to listen."

The Federation's organizing efforts helped set the table for Ald. Hansen's successor, Tom Tunney, owner of Lakeview's Ann Sather Restaurant, to reverse the ward's opposition to the lanes. During Tunney's run in 2003, Federation members and community residents made it known that they were for the re-establishment of the Halsted bike lane. After his election, Alderman Tunney gave bike lanes his support.

"I am a huge supporter of bicycles because it reduces vehicular congestion and pollution," Ald. Tunney says. "Bike lanes reduce car accidents. Often there is a misperception that more bicycling increases accidents and causes congestion, but that is simply not the case."

Capitalizing on Tunney's win, CDOT called on national bicycle facilities expert John LaPlante of TY Lin International to represent CDOT in a series of meetings in the Lakeview community regarding the benefits of well-designed bike lanes. The approach and the timing proved effective. Jim Ludwig, Lakeview Citizen's Council President and owner of Roscoe's, a popular local watering hole, says, "The community was cautious from the beginning, but there was plenty of evidence at several meetings that it would be an improvement. The consultants were articulate and addressed concerns and the community responded positively and supportively."

David Sperling sums up the lesson taught by the N. Halsted bike lanes: "Wherever there are bicycle interests at stake, it is critical to work both at the grassroots level and at the top as well. Working with both the alderman and business owners to educate them about the positive impact that increased cycling will have on the community is key to the success of bicycle improvement projects." This is a lesson CDOT applies everyday as it races to establish Chicago's 100th mile of bike lanes.

Learning from Its Mistakes
By Steve Buchtel

T.C. O'Rourke in the February/March 1999 CBF News (Bike Traffic's predecessor) reported that Chicago Department of Transportation (CDOT) Bicycle Coordinator Ben Gomberg believed that the 44th Ward's rejection of bike lanes on N. Halsted would change CDOT's approach to developing the city's bike lane network for the better. This month, five-and-half years later, CDOT will stripe its 100th mile of Chicago bike lane. From one lemon, that's a lot of lemonade.

So what were the lessons learned? CDOT and Federation staff who worked on the N. Halsted lanes filled me in:

Reach out to and educate the community. Get buy-in from local elected officials by making them part of the planning process. Bring members of the community together to educate them how bike lanes will improve their quality of life. No more surprises.

Coordinate with other city departments. The original N. Halsted bike lanes were an "add-on" to the end of an elaborate street scaping renovation. Now, bike lanes are integrated from the beginning into larger transportation planning and construction projects.

Hold bike lane design and installation to exacting standards. The original N. Halsted lanes were sloppily installed, creating inconsistent widths in the adjacent travel lane, in spots varying up to eight inches. Now, all bike lane designs must pass a comprehensive review by engineers and planners, and CDOT bike program staff supervise their installation on-site.

Celebrate the bike lanes. Feature the alderman and other important community members at grand opening celebrations like ribbon cutting events.

Follow up. Mayor Daley's Bicycling Ambassadors visit communities with new bike lanes and educate drivers, bicyclists, and adjacent store owners on their use.

You can get a full listing of bike lanes installed as of September 2003 at chicagobikes.org, or get the free Chicago Bike Map/Summer 2004, which shows both existing bike lanes and planned lanes, from your local bike shop, public library or by calling 312/742-BIKE.

I rode across the Little Calumet River's bike and pedestrian bridge on the south end of the Major Taylor Trail with my hands held high in victory, for I had just become the second African-American athlete ever to be crowned world champion, and the first to be so crowned as a cyclist.

Anyone watching me--white, skinny, and slow--would have recognized nothing of my fantasy in what they were seeing. But I'll tell you: Marshall "Major" Taylor's spirit haunts that bridge, looking for joy rides in the souls of cyclists crossing this last piece of his namesake trail.

In the last days of the 19th century, Taylor was the fastest bicyclist on earth at the one mile distance and holder of seven world records at a time when bicycle track racing was the most popular spectator sport in the country. Despite American racing organizers' attempts to ban him from racing because of his skin color, his exploits made him the wealthiest black athlete in America. Tragically, Taylor squandered the fortune on bad business ventures after his retirement from racing. He died a pauper, estranged from his family, in a Chicago YMCA in 1932 while still hawking his autobiography, The Fastest Bicycle Rider in the World. America by then was firmly installed in body and imagination behind the wheel of the automobile, and left both the book and Taylor's legacy by the side of the road.

This bike route and its bridge are his legacy resurrected. Shepherded to completion by the Chicago Department of Transportation's (CDOT) Luanne Hamilton and Keith Privett, the Major Taylor Trail routes cyclists from Chicago's Dawes Park at 81st St. and Damen southeast to Cook County's Whistler Woods Forest Preserve at Halsted and Jackson along the Little Calumet in near-south suburban Riverdale. The finished span across the Little Calumet, cantilevered off the side of an existing railroad bridge, seems to hug the side of the much older, much-larger structure. Thick-gauge sheet metal on the bridge-side and chain-link on the open side arc over the concrete bridge deck, like giant robotic hands holding the span up from below. Rough-hewn fencing and perennials frame each end of the bridge. It is pleasant to look at and fun to ride across.

But I felt victorious riding across it. Disregarding my own belief as to why--possession by a dead bike racer--the reason could be this: development patterns and road building agencies have taken much away from bicycling and from our communities. The resulting highways and arterials--most built without consideration of bicyclists--form the organizing principal on which much of the region's segregation rests.

The Major Taylor Trail cuts across the pattern of arterials and highways, connecting neighborhoods that vary as much economically as they do racially. And this bridge connecting suburbia with the city represents hundreds of thousands of dollars spent in consideration of bicyclists. In spite of the odds, you feel like the path--and by association, Major Taylor--has emerged triumphant. And triumph is infectious.

An incongruous fence still blocks the path at 94th St.; the trail has been routed around it. At times, broken glass seems to pave the trail; it can be swept. The on-street connections still confuse new trail users; signage and maps can improve. Over all, CDOT has built both a moving tribute to the legacy of Major Taylor and a totem that channels his spirit as a champion cyclist and a pioneering black athlete.

A grand opening is being planned for late-summer/early fall; biketraffic.org will have details. But I say go now. Ride onto that bridge. And just savor it.

In Bronzeville, a group of cyclists meet weekly for a ride. They've never heard about the group that rides regularly together from South Shore and Chatham. In Morgan Park and Beverly, the cyclists who know each other there don't know about the cyclists across the way in West Pullman.

There's a ton of bicyclists on Chicago's South Side. But their routes parallel each other, instead of crossing. If the Chicagoland Bicycle Federation could bring them together on issues they all face--traffic, discovering good bike routes around the city and out of it, using their bikes more--the South Side could jump.

Introducing the Chicago Major Taylor Bike Society.

Surely blessed by its namesake, the Chicago Major Taylor Bike Society will work to expand awareness of bicycling throughout Chicago's South Side neighborhoods. Although this group will concentrate on South Side bicycling issues, it will also consider pedestrian concerns; many transportation and recreation issues impact both bicycling and walking. The Chicago Major Taylor Bicycling Society will also provide an opportunity for South Side bicyclists to connect with each other for recreation and utilitarian cycling.

The Society will be organized as a Bicycle Users Group (BUG), its agenda developed and driven by its volunteer participants. The Chicagoland Bicycle Federation offers its resources (which include me) and organizing power to get the group started and to provide support to tackle the issues its members face as cyclists.

An initial meeting will be held soon to allow south side bicyclists to express their concerns regarding bicycling in their neighborhoods; watch biketraffic.org or contact me at or 312/427-3325x244 for the latest update.

The success of BUGs is always dependent on the energy of volunteers. We look forward to the positive impact on the south side of Chicago that the Chicago Major Taylor Bicycling Society will have.

PLATEAU DE BEILLE, France, July 17 - "Winning a record-setting sixth Tour and humbling all cyclists worldwide is not the important thing," Lance Armstrong said today in the wake of his Stage 13 victory in the 2004 Tour de France. "The important thing is to recognize the odds I've beaten to reach this pinnacle of superhuman achievement and deification.

"As I told Ivan Basso yesterday, shortly before it delighted me to let him win a stage, we must always remember the mortals, people like his mother, whose cancer I may be able to cure when the Tour is over.

"And then there are the semimortals like Tyler Hamilton, those who surmount enormous obstacles in quasi-superhuman fashion only to confront still larger obstacles, on and on, till either the end of time or till they rejoin my team as ball bearings in the crankset of my inevitable victory. By the way, my superhuman heart goes out to Tyler, who keeps riding despite many injuries, and whose dog suffers from cancer that I may be able to cure when the Tour is over."

Told that Hamilton had dropped out of the Tour, and that his dog had died, Armstrong nodded and said, "Yes, I remember, and it will please me to let him win a stage next year when he comes back strong, and to grant him another dog soon.

"It will likewise please me to let many other riders participate in next year's Tour, and in many future Tours.

"And, though I ask the media not to trumpet it to my children and ex-wife, it will also please me tonight when Sheryl Crow massages my conquering body."

At the office of the Chicagoland Bicycle Federation, Bike Traffic editor Steve Buchtel smiled over the two boxes of Dove Bars he won from the hapless Jeff Balch, who bet against Armstrong this year and last. "Though I'm a little uneasy about Lance's overwhelming hubris, I do worship him," Buchtel said. "He and his bike are 'Deus et Machina.' I will gladly wager all my possessions, because if Lance were to lose I could not enjoy them anyway."

"Umm, I admire Lance too," said Balch with what sounded like slight ambivalence, a moment before he was struck and killed by a meteorite.

Biking: it's good for the body, but is it good for the soul? Members of Oak Park Temple (OPT) found out that it's good for both when they were encouraged to ride their bikes or walk to the Family Shabbat Service on June 11. And the many that did likened the event to a religious experience. Or at least admitted it was a really good time.

Ellen Gorin, who hadn't been on a bike in five years, was motivated to borrow a bike and ride to services with her six-year-old daughter Hannah. "We had such a great time on the ride together. It was a perfect night and we arrived at the synagogue relaxed and ready for Shabbat. Hannah was extremely excited about leaving the car behind and riding with me. I'd forgotten how much fun it is to ride a bike and didn't realize how quickly we'd get to temple. We plan to do this more often!"

"The idea to get people to walk and bike to synagogue is a great one on so many levels," said Matt Tushman, OPT President who walked to services with his six-year-old daughter Anna. "First of all, there is no better way to welcome the Sabbath then by doing so in such a peaceful way. Second, it's wonderful that OPT is encouraging and reminding its members to build physical activity into their daily routine. With Americans the most sedentary people on the planet and asthma rates skyrocketing, we all need to take responsibility for improving the health of our population and the quality of our environment. It's a very Jewish thing to do, keeping with the tradition of Tikkun Olam - the idea we should work to repair the world. Third, it's just a heck of a lot of fun!"

Most walkers and riders talked about how surprisingly easy it was to leave the car at home and how difficult they thought it would be. While they did have to do a little extra planning to get out of the house 10 or 15 minutes earlier than normal, it was nothing that caused too much trouble. Essentially, it was, well, as easy as riding a bike. They were also happy about being able to eat an extra cookie at the Oneg Shabbat (dessert after services) while not worrying about the additional calories that would be burned off on the way home.

I asked four-year-old Talia Burke, the youngest person who participated in this event (and who just happens to be this author's daughter) why she liked going to synagogue, and other places, in the bike trailer. Her response, "I like to wave and yell 'Hello' at the people walking by. It makes them happy. And it's good exercise for you, Mom."

I could not have put it better myself.

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Safe Routes to School

When you drive, you're still a bicycle advocate. Or you could be. Click the sign above to take the pledge. Or read about the Driver's Pledge in the December 2002/January 2003 Bike Traffic.

Millennium Park Bicycle Station Open!
(Click photo to enlarge)
Mayor Richard M. Daley, along with Chicago Department of Transportation Commissioner Miguel d'Escoto, Chicago's Bicycle Coordinator Ben Gomberg, Chicagoland Bicycle Federation Executive Director Rob Sadowsky, and a pannier-load of Mayor Daley's Bicycling Ambassadors, cut the ribbon on the Millennium Park Bicycle Station July 19, opening the facility for operation.

This station ROCKS: the facilities offer 300 free indoor parking spaces and access to showers and lockers for a dollar a day or you can join as a member for $15/month or $99/year. Plus you have access to bike repair service. A bike wash service. Free loaner bikes for short trips (less than two hours) and rental bikes. A snack and coffee bar. Even car sharing via I-Go (i-go.com). We're wondering how many commuters will never make it to work. Get more information and a membership at the bike station's website, or call 800/BIKEWAY.

Bikes of the Roundtable. On July 8, representatives from 10 city and suburban bike clubs and Chicagoland Bicycle Federation staff kicked off a series of quarterly roundtable discussions on regional bicycling issues. The lively discussion ranged from the need for and benefits of joint advocacy to getting more women on bikes.

The roundtable will foster dialogue between the region's bike clubs, and will help discover ways the Federation and clubs can work together on improving bicycling in Chicagoland. The Oak Park Cycle Club hosts the next meeting on Thursday, October 14, 6 p.m. at Molly Malone's Irish Pub, 7652 Madison St., in near west suburban Forest Park. For more information, contact , 312/427-3325 x224.


NOTHING wicks like fishnet.
Getting Bicycling Ambassador Brian Kafel into fishnets for Chicago's Pride Parade June 27 was, as you can imagine, difficult. But once his girlfriend gave the okay, he and the other Bicycling Ambassadors displayed the sexy legs bicycling has given them. The parade attracted a crowd of 250,000, and some of the loudest cheers erupted as the Ambassadors rolled by. But none of the other Ambassadors (all female) got as much attention as Brian.


(Click photo to enlarge)
No pain, no gain. The July 24 Veggie Bike & Dine, a 9-mile progressive dinner-style bike tour sponsored by EarthSave Chicago and the Chicagoland Bicycle Federation, combined animal-free eating with a fun calorie-burning urban bike ride. Thirty cyclists visited four vegan-friendly restaurants on Chicago's north side: Karyn's Fresh Corner, Chicago Diner, Lula Cafe and the Handlebar Bar & Grill. At the Chicago Diner, Windy City Cycle Club president Jefferson McCarley (second from right) complimented restaurant owners Mickey Hornick and Jo Kaucheron (third and fourth from left) for working to bring back the N. Halsted St. bike lane (see cover story). Also pictured are Rob Hadley (from the left), Lara Akerele of Chicago Diner and Chris Brunn of EarthSave Chicago. The event sold out, prompting organizers to schedule more rides in the future. To get on the waiting list, please Chicago EarthSave's Chris Brunn.

Construction detours. Pavement problems. Big crowds causing congestion. Chicagoland bicyclists have the same rights as drivers on the street, and at times on the Lakefront Trail, some of the same headaches. Before your next lakefront tour, dump the aspirin and look up the Lakefront Trail Report at biketraffic.org. Program Director Randy Warren is providing weekly updates and observations of trail conditions, construction work, and city events that will bring out big crowds. You can help: e-mail or call him at 312/427-3325x221 if you want to be a spotter.


Cub fans are avid bike riders. They have to be! Valet bike parking is free at the Chicago Cubs Bike Corral, just off Waveland next to Wrigley Field in the old car wash, two hours before until one hour after a home game. The corral has parked as many as 135 bikes for one night game. Cubs Exterior Operations reports that the neighborhood seems to enjoy a few less cars on its streets. Could use a few more wins on the field, though.

Draws them in like bikers to a discount.
Supporting bike shops and a growing list of not-bike shops (Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum, Oak Park Festival Theater, I-Go Car Sharing, Chicago Architecture Foundation, etc) will get this window sticker, It's saturated with the pheromones of bicyclists looking for a good deal, a scent other bicyclists can detect in minute quantities over miles of varied terrain. Great at clearing the critters away from your competitors! Get one by contacting , 312/427-3325x224. See the full list of discount members at biketraffic.org.




Bike Traffic is published by the Chicagoland Bicycle Federation, a nonprofit, volunteer advocacy organization that is improving the quality of life in Northeastern Illinois by making cycling safer, more convenient, and more fun. All material that isn't copyrighted may be reprinted. Advertising rates available on request.

Managing Editor


Editors
Robert Sadowsky
Dan Korman
David Callahan
Hedy Helfand

Layout
Steve Buchtel

Copyright 2004, Chicagoland Bicycle Federation
650 S. Clark, Ste. 300, Chicago, Ill. 60605
Ph: 312/427-3325  Fax: 312/427-4907 E-mail: cbf@biketraffic.org