Are these e-bikes or e-motos? It's hard to tell, but whatever they are, these two riders in Schaumburg were riding quite responsibly. They were in e-bike speed range (under 28 mph and probably even under 20 mph), they were wearing helmets, and they stopped at intersections. But if they weren't 16, they were not allowed to ride. Arlington Heights makes a unique e-bike law The Arlington Heights village board was ready to also impose a minimum age of 16 to ride all classes of e-bikes, the legal...
13 days ago • 2 min read
Wow! That's not in a forest. That's in a suburban neighborhood, in South Barrington. Finding the fall colors This bush was burning in west Hoffman Estates. It took a while for the fall colors to show, but Morton Arboretum experts say they really weren't so late. Yet plenty of people argue they were muted this year, at least in the forest preserves. Who knew that the trees and bushes right by our homes would provide the best scenery as November came around? It all really started in September...
25 days ago • 1 min read
What will you find riding your bike around suburban neighborhoods in October? Thrilling Halloween scenes! Like this one in Hoffman Estates. My nephew loves Halloween, particularly scary animatronics and gory creatures. So when I'm riding around, I'm on the lookout for good pictures to take and text to him. Unfortunately I'm riding during the day, so the scenes' best effects may not show. But it seems like more residents are decorating their front yards with creepy figures, some quite large....
about 1 month ago • 2 min read
Mmmm, new asphalt. In Lake County As I follow road, trail and bridge projects around the suburbs and spread the word, sometimes advocates spread word of projects back to me. That happened after my last newsletter, when Scott Eisner told me that Checker Road in Long Grove was being repaved. It certainly piqued my interest, because I've enjoyed that seemingly secret road for more than two decades. So I decided to ride out that way and also check on a couple of other road projects within one of...
about 2 months ago • 2 min read
How in past years had I not noticed all the sunflowers and goldenrods that come out in the early fall? Maybe it's because they're not where we expect. These are not from one of our forest preserves but from the Craig Stettner Prairie, maintained by the biology department at Harper College in Palatine. There's a path through the campus that runs into Palatine — the only way from Hoffman Estates and Schaumburg to safely ride into Palatine, really — and that's how I found all this bright yellow....
2 months ago • 1 min read
Hey, that bridge wasn't there a week ago! Actually, it was late Thursday or overnight Friday morning last week that the final trusses of the Streamwood bridge over Route 59 were put in place. The village posted about it, and then last weekend I rode out there to get a better look. It's a connection that west Streamwood residents have been waiting for all year. Check out my pictures of the progress and area trails. And that started a crazy-busy week of news in our bicycling world. To wit:...
3 months ago • 1 min read
There it is, my first fall color of the year. I caught it Tuesday on Klein Road, west of DuPage County's West Branch Forest Preserve. (It's a favorite road of mine.) We were coming off a cool several days — but now this week it seems to be summer again. Well, so, about the end of summer ... This suburban Chicagoan, and I'm sure hundreds if not thousands of others, took to a DuSable Lake Shore Drive free of cars on Aug. 31 for Bike the Drive in Chicago. The weather was fantastic — summerish...
3 months ago • 2 min read
Happy Labor Day weekend! Surely Busse Woods and its trails between Schaumburg, Elk Grove Village and Arlington Heights will be busy. That means it'll be better for more casual bicyclists, not the faster cyclists. Busse Woods' bumps: But all of us who ride the Cook County preserve already might have a tough time with all the cracks and potholes. As I'm enjoying the few new asphalt patches like in the picture above, I got updates on repair work still to come. E-bike back and forth: In other...
3 months ago • 1 min read
Hey, is that a painted bike lane on a neighborhood street? In Elgin: I finally rode through a different part of Elgin than I usually ride and discovered more of the city's bike facilities. Like, bike lanes painted green, sharrows, "Bike Route" signs and off-road paths all are used. I had to update the Elgin listing in my compilation of bicycling infrastructure suburb by suburb. In Schaumburg: My trip came on top of a little bike path controversy in Schaumburg, where a lane reduction and...
4 months ago • 1 min read