Rosie Nolan began biking regularly when she moved to Chicago in 2021 because public transit was too inconvenient from her home in Ukrainian Village on the Near Northwest Side.
“It was just a little too out of the way from the Blue Line and buses,” she said. So she took up a friend’s recommendation to try the city’s Divvy bike-share program and hasn’t turned back since.
“It became my No. 1 mode of transportation,” said Nolan, 25. She’s among a growing number of new cyclists in Chicago.
Bicycling grew more in Chicago than in any other major American city in the last five years, according to an analysis sponsored by the Chicago Department of Transportation. But bike safety advocates say the city could be doing much more to protect cyclists and make biking even more attractive.
Biking is up 119% between the fall of 2019 and the spring of 2023, the study showed. That’s the largest jump in any of the country’s 10 largest cities.
Shorter, local trips
The study by data analysis company Replica also found that more people are turning to bikes for shorter, neighborhood-based trips. Neighborhood trips increased 113%, while cross-town trips across at least four neighborhoods increased 180%.
The study may prove politically useful to Mayor Brandon Johnson and his transportation department, which could use the study to justify the need for more bike lanes. The Chicago Department of Transportation said the growth in biking has been fueled by continued investments in bike lanes and greenways, which are low-stress residential streets that provide safe and comfortable connections for pedestrians and bikers.
But bike safety advocates said the city could do a lot more to make biking more attractive.
“Imagine how many more people would be biking if it was safer,” said Christina Whitehouse, founder of the bicycle safety advocacy group Bike Lane Uprising.
Although Nolan took up biking along with thousands of others, she said she still worries about the safety of biking on streets with cars and trucks. She often used the Augusta Boulevard bike lane before it was beefed up last year.
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