Bikes, Streets, And Better Cities

My hometown Chicago is experimenting with “bike boulevards” (sections of the street reserved only for bikes). Personally, I’m pessimistic about such boulevards even though I ride my bike all. the. time. When I’m in the street I always feel like I’m about to get hit by  Ford Explorer or something. That’s why I stick to the sidewalk which, I’m aware, you aren’t supposed to do. I’ve been talking with my friends about this a bit and they came up with a good counter argument: if a community (its people and its government) put enough effort into reducing sidewalk bike riders like me and also congestion, they could come up with a system that would work. Namely, infrastructure that gives enough room to cars, bikes, and pedestrians so that it’s completely safe to ride your bike in a street situation. That sounds crazier than it actually is, nevertheless, that it sounds crazy at all shows how far we have to go to achieving much more livable cities. Still, we’re moving in that direction, albeit slowly.

–Daniel Strauss

Photo by La Citta Vita used under a Creative Commons license.