Literally anyone who has biked in Chicago already knows this, but getting around by bike is a huge PITA. Don't get me wrong, some of the trails are top notch (Lakeshore, Wolf Lake, North Branch, Prairie Path, 606, etc), but nothing is connected and bike lane infrastructure is minimal. Gotta improve this https://cityratings.peopleforbikes.org/cities/chicago-il
by harlequin137
4 Comments
Ooof, the one that hurts the most is that its in 59th place in Illinois.
This score doesn’t make sense. I plugged in my extremely car-dependent hometown and it spit out a 36. DC, where I live now, is a 46. Chicago is not nearly as bikable as DC, but this map seems pretty much to indiscriminately rate Chicago streets as high stress event when they are side streets without much traffic.
Not saying Chicago doesn’t have room to improve…but these rankings are bullshit.
The methodology is severely flawed.
This was talked about heavily in the chibike subreddit.
The tl;dr was:
– Cycling in Chicago needs improvement and that is no doubt.
– The methodology used for this ranking doesn’t make a ton of sense.
– Don’t take this list as an accurate representation of the actual experience you will have biking. Jacksonville, Atlanta and Phoenix are ranked higher than Chicago and I can confidently say that biking in any of those places is massively worse.
The biggest glaring issue is the idea that if Chicago lowered it’s default speed limit from 30mph to 25mph it would somehow jump the city’s ranking to ~15-20th overall in the nation. Changing a single variable like that should not result in such a massive increase in placement when said variable does not inherently change the cycling experience.
> [Rebecca Davis said that if Chicago was to lower our speed limit to 25 – which we’re trying to do – that would raise our ranking with People for Bikes to be one of the best large U.S. cities for biking.](https://chi.streetsblog.org/2024/06/17/people-for-bikes-explains-why-chicago-is-likely-getting-another-dismal-ranking-in-its-2024-city-ratings)
I biked 13 miles through Chicago today to get to work and do so regularly for my commute. I ride on multiple roads where the limit is 25mph. Nobody drives that slow. I ride on roads where it’s 30mph (most roads) people are going 40mph+. On the roads where it’s 25mph, people are still going 40mph+. What actually impacts speeds is driving infrastructure that slows people down. The greenway streets and neighborhood streets are comfortable to ride on even with 30mph limits because the infrastructure slows people down. Narrow lanes, speed bumps and more tree lined streets.
The idea that putting up 25mph signs that will be ignored just like the 30mph signs somehow justifies Chicago being a top 20 city for cycling doesn’t make sense. It just feels like their methodology is one that cares more about perception and not actual lived experience.