When Josh Samos, manager of the Buckingham Bike Shop, read the city’s new report on cycling strategy in the 90s, it made him happy. “I loved the thought that they are really trying to accommodate bicycles in Chicago. I like the fact that the city has recognized the difficulty of bicycling in Chicago and made a decision to do something about it–to make bicycle parking widely available and to open up a lot of new routes and paths.”
Statistics quoted by the “Bike 2000 Plan” bear him out. Cycling is up 20 percent nationally in just five years. Ninety percent of the country’s 93 million cyclists are recreational users, but commuting by bike is up and bicycle delivery services “are a significant business in Chicago.” In Davis, California, the percentage of all work trips under five miles made by bicycle is 25 percent; in Madison, Wisconsin, its 10 percent–and Madison’s winter weather is no better than Chicago’s.
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“One of the cycling projects that we can do without federal or state money is the education process–teaching cyclists and motorists how to better coexist, safe bicycle-riding techniques, and the like,” says the city’s director of administration, Paul Toback, a recreational cyclist. The city also plans to encourage people to ride by creating incentives for workers to commute by bicycle (last May when the “Bike 2000 Plan” was made public the city promoted a Bike to Work Week); by closing selected park roadways on weekends for bike use; by promoting and publicizing bicycle parking at city special events; by encouraging the bicycle industry to develop commuter products; and by pushing the use of work bikes by city workers, including the police, some of whom now pedal the lakefront path in spiffy black helmets and have already made some felony arrests.
“The signage, though, is a sort of last choice. What you really want is some sort of improvements on the roadway. Those fall into three categories. One is off-street paths, such as abandoned rail corridors. Another is painted bike lanes–there are limited opportunities for them in Chicago, but some. And the third is wide curb lanes. We’re in a very built-up environment, so what we’re talking about with ‘Bike 2000’ is not tearing down things to make way for bicycles. Some parking may be lost in a few instances, but that is really a tough sell politically. So what we’re talking about mostly is existing rights-of-way–where is it wide enough to put a bike lane in? We want to try it out in a few places, maybe Elston or Lincoln avenues, to see how it works. In other places, we’re talking about restriping the lanes to accommodate a car and a bike.”
Neufeld points to the federal Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA), part of which funds various alternative transportation modes as a way to reduce air pollution. The city is attempting to tap some of this money for new bike paths and bike racks and has already received $750,000 for racks. “I think that ISTEA will pay off big for the city,” he says. “That $750,000 for parking is a perfect example of money that wouldn’t normally come to the city, but would wind up in the suburbs.”
Neufeld also says that the city has other sources of funding. “There is the enhancement program–a pool of $143 million over the life of the program for nonhighway projects–air-quality money, and regular transportation and highway money. All of this money can be used for bike projects. I think you’re going to see more going to bicycling, though I can’t predict how much.”
Samos makes good time on the side streets by fudging the rules at stop signs and lights. “The law only tries to control and contain cyclists instead of trying to accommodate them. They don’t take into account the natural law of bicycling, so to speak, which is to try to maintain momentum.”
