October Grid
Granville Bike Jam | Bike Bus Fall/Winter Plan | Politiking | In the News | ICYMI |Bikeable Walkable Schools | Sustainable Transportation Summit | OktoberTest
Jam with us Tuesday!
October 15th we’ll be jamming in support of a new greenway on Granville crossing the 40th and 48th Wards. Meet at 5:15pm at Winnemac Park. Roll at 5:30pm. We’ll end at the Granville Traffic Safety meeting at 6300 N Ridge Ave.
THE BACKGROUND PLOT:
In a traffic study, CDOT found that drivers speed excessively along Granville and that the width of the road encourages risky driving. The study also found that Granville is one of the few roads that could serve as an East-West connector for cyclists and the CTA. So CDOT proposed a Granville greenway from Sheridan to the river. But a small group of neighbors is trying to block it.
We need to help educate neighbors on how the excessive traffic is making the neighborhood less safe, increasing pollution, and point out that bike lanes increase property values. We’re showing out to support the development of a Granville Greenway and demand city officials to prioritize cyclists’ safety over drivers’ perceived convenience. Come out and jam!
CALL FOR MARSHALS
If you want to help keep our rides safe, find a rider in a stylish safety vest at the next ride and ask if you can pair up with them to learn the ropes of marshaling. You can also hit us up by replying to this email if you’re interested or posting in our Slack. We’ll get you paired up with an experienced marshal ahead of time.
BIKE BUSES GO THRU HALLOWEEN, THEN HIT PAUSE IN NOVEMBER
Come in your spookiest Halloween ensemble for our last Wednesday bike bus of the month on October 30th. Whimsy required.
Bike buses will be on PAUSE for the month of November. We’ll be taking some time to hone our bus strategy; then we’ll be back to haunt the roads once more.
POLITICKING FOR A BIKE GRID
We’re whipping up strategic plans to tackle bike grid legislation and funding at the city, state, and community levels. And we need YOU!
Join us if you’re into politics, have graphic design experience, can help gather data, or want to find out what you can contribute. Reply to this email and we’ll get you plugged in.
VOTE FOR BIKEABLE WALKABLE SCHOOLS
You can vote (and volunteer!) for candidates that prioritize safe biking and walking conditions for Chicago’s 600+ schools. Find your district and see which candidates have signed on. Anyone who lives in Chicago can - and should- vote! To get involved, contact grassroots@bikegridnow.org.
SUSTAINABLE TRANSPORTATION SUMMIT
CBGN is part of the host committee for the Chicago Sustainable Transportation Summit, a convening on October 15 of Alderpeople, State Legislators, advocates, and organizers to discuss a shared roadmap for achieving world-class connectivity. The hope is that this leads to a sense of shared vision and collaboration between our State and City governments.
BIKE GRID MAKES FRONT PAGE NEWS
The Chicago Sun-Times ran a front page article on cyclists’ safety last month featuring Bike Grid Now organizers Alyssa Edes and Rony Islam. The choice to focus on bike safety in the press shows how far we've come in pushing this issue to the forefront of conversation in Chicago and that is well worth celebrating.
However, the framing of the article in part suggests that the City’s progress in creating new bike infrastructure successfully approaches the urgent need for safer streets. It also suggests that the City is close to achieving Vision Zero Chicago, a plan that promises to eliminate all traffic fatalities and serious injuries by 2026.
The statistic the Sun-Times relies on to emphasize the extent of the City’s progress is one that became outdated just days after printing: that only one Chicago cyclist died in a traffic crash in 2024, according to CPD data.
Such a narrow statistic misses the point that death is not the only – or even most accurate – measure of cyclists’ safety. What it doesn’t count:
The more than 1,200 cyclists reported hit by vehicles so far this year.
The 8 percent of those who suffered incapacitating injuries at the scene.
The cyclists who later died in the hospital.
Those who never called the police.
Untold numbers of near-misses.
The stress cyclists carry of being on constant high alert.
The terror, pain, and trauma of nearly being killed by a car.
Yes, the protected bike lane on Kedzie Ave on the short stretch between Elston to Diversey in Avondale does make a meaningful difference in moving through a nerve-wracking, car-dense area. We did not have almost any infrastructure like that 11 years ago, so even the small changes from then to now are a relief.
But they’re not enough in a city ranked number two for worst traffic in the country. Protected bike lanes still spit cyclists out onto dangerous roads with no protection once they end, and the City’s implementation of bike safety measures is slow.
Chicago needs to invest in affordable, quick-build solutions like placing planters, jersey barriers, traffic barrels, or even small boulders in strategic places to help to calm traffic on residential streets. It needs to install more flexible post bump outs to keep drivers out of crosswalks and intersections, and bollards at park entrances to keep cars off pedestrian paths. Meanwhile, the City needs to push harder on permanent solutions – like concrete curb extensions, roundabouts, bus islands, raised crosswalks, bike-and-pedestrian plazas, and narrower high-traffic roads. We need a connected network – a grid – of streets that slow cars down and prioritize cyclists and pedestrians.
We told all this and more to the Sun-Times. It’s not the story they ran.
ICYMI
BRIDGEPORT JAM: We brought neighborhood folks out to jam from Bridgeport to neighboring McKinley Park last month to highlight the lack of safe streets connecting the neighborhoods across Bubbly Creek. Cyclists are forced to take either Archer Ave or ride down Halsted and 35th St. These are all high traffic lanes with no protection in a crucial area for folks who have to commute by bike along these dangerous routes every day. We want to work with Alders Nicole Lee and Julia Ramirez to increase safety across Ward lines.
DICKENS GREENWAY JAM: We jammed the Dickens Greenway and Landing for the THIRD TIME last month after news that Alder Timmy Knudsen and CDOT are – as Streetsblog put it – “caving to motorheads by giving Dickens bike-ped plaza back to dangerous cut-through traffic.” The move comes less than a year after the City completed the project, funded by $1 million in profits from Divvy riders. How much will it cost to undo it and make the space for vulnerable road users? Sign our petition to rebuke this misuse of taxpayer dollars and shared road space.
OCTOBERTEST (*NOT FEST)
OktoberTest is a challenge put on by the organization GoodForUs.Org to help folks drive less and use more active mobility. Participants are tracking their progress this October and the results will help show policy-makers they should invest in infrastructure that supports public health and mitigates fossil fuel emissions. It’s not a competition buuuuut Bike Grid Now organizers participating in the challenge are in the lead. If you want to jump in late but not too late, sign up here.