profile

Suburban Chicago Bicycling

Neil Holdway

A source for the great trails and roads to ride a bicycle in Chicago's suburbs, and to learn about efforts to make bicycling easier there.

PostsLinks
Two cyclists ride the shoulder of a two-lane road through a hilly scene of lawns and trees.
Featured Post

I like to bike in June. How about yooouuu ...

Nothing beats a Sunday bike ride in June, right? Rollin' roads up north The Bicycle Club of Lake County's Ramble Ride took cyclists just over the Wisconsin border last Sunday to ride up to five routes. The area surrounding Twin Lakes offered views of prairies, farms, forests and small towns. It also presented hills that enhanced the scenery as well as the challenge. Here's what the ride was like. Nice construction surprises What? New asphalt? I wasn't even sure this really had been part of...

4 days ago • 1 min read
Looking down a road lined with cars and surrounded by tall new buildings in a suburban downtown

Do you think this spot needs funding help? 38 bike-ped projects getting state funding A section of downtown Arlington Heights is among the 38 bicycle-pedestrian projects awarded funding in the 2025 Illinois Transportation Enhancement Program. The work there is "installation of sustainable streetscape, pedestrian, and bicycle infrastructure"; it was awarded $3 million. That always sounds good, but my post of the news in the Arlington Heights community raised the question of whether other parts...

11 days ago • 2 min read
Looking down a paved trail curving left between grasslands with a tall tree on the left and more trees in the far right background.

I spent a lot of time this National Bike Month doing things like looking at infrastructure plans and learning about ticks. Especially over the long weekend, it was time to get back out and explore roads and trails. That produced a lot of website updates. First I wrote about what I called a secret scenic road: Callahan Road in Lake County. I had ridden it the week before and found footage I shot of it last year. Sometimes you ride miles to find a magical road, and Callahan is one of them. Then...

18 days ago • 2 min read
Looking down a paved striped trail alongside a strip of grass, then a big patch of dirt smoothed out by a plow in the background, amid a few tall trees.

Hey, what's going on there in Busse Woods? Three bridges and an underpass One of the first posts I wrote for Suburban Chicago Bicycling talked about how multi-million-dollar price tags can make bike-pedestrian bridges difficult to build despite so much need for them. Well, this cold and rainy week gave me time to learn more about three such bridges, plus an underpass, that are coming to fruition: Streamwood's bridge over Route 59: It was the subject of that January post, and now some pictures...

25 days ago • 1 min read
Looking down a bike lane on a paved road through an industrial area

In what direction is bicycle infrastructure headed in the Chicago suburbs? I got some clues in the past week. Seen and heard at the bike summit I went to the Illinois Bike & Walk Summit in Springfield on Wednesday, and I saw some presentations by Chicago-area planners and advocates. I learned that Richmond, the town at the north end of McHenry County's Prairie Path and just south of the Wisconsin border, is implementing a bike route system that favors sidepaths, while Mount Prospect is...

about 1 month ago • 2 min read
Two cyclists ride a thin paved road through a forest.

It's the merry month of May, which the League of American Bicyclists has declared National Bike Month since 1956. So this is just a quick note to tell you all that's happening in the Chicago's suburbs for the month. To put it simply, a lot. Sunday is National Ride a Bike Day. May 7 is National Bike & Roll to School Day. May 12-18 is National Bike to Work Week (or May 16 if you prefer just Bike to Work Day). The Active Transportation Alliance runs a Bicycling Commuting Challenge starting May...

about 2 months ago • 1 min read
"Schaumburg Progress at Work," two One Way signs pointing in opposite directions, and a Do Not Enter sign appear alongside a paved suburban neighborhood road with a bike lane.

Get ready for some detours Road construction season is here — for us bicyclists, too. Inspired by Marni Pyke's annual road construction article in the Daily Herald (and her list of local projects), I started compiling the projects (also on trails) affecting bicyclists. Highlights: Arlington Bridge off Greenbrook Blvd. in Hanover Park Old McHenry Road from Cuba Road to south of Quentin Road Riverside Avenue (Route 25) over the 7th Avenue Creek in St. Charles, affecting Fox River Trail riders...

about 2 months ago • 1 min read
Looking down a paved trail through open prairie with trail signage up front to the right and snow-capped mountains in the left background, under blue skies.

Hey, that isn't a Chicago-area bike trail. Those are mountains again. Just in time for National Parks Week Former colleague, now fellow blogger and "Unshakable Hiker" Colleen Thomas informs us that National Park Week is coming up (April 19-27). So I was apparently ahead of the game with my late spring-break road trip that took me to the Grand Teton and Badlands national parks. (Unfortunately most of Yellowstone was closed.) I discovered that Grand Teton is quite possibly the perfect national...

about 2 months ago • 1 min read
A view of snow-capped mountains with a city in the foreground

Greetings from mountain country — Salt Lake City at the moment. Above is the view out of my hotel; that's something we just don't get in the Chicago area. I wanted to say hello again to all the new subscribers who joined after Ralph Banasiak's nice shoutout in the Daily Herald. Thank you for being here! There's been a little bit of important news while I've been away. Bike & Walk Summit has a new venue The venue for Ride Illinois’ 2025 Illinois Bike & Walk Summit next month in Springfield was...

2 months ago • 1 min read
Two cyclists are seen up close, one behind the other, riding road bikes on the shoulder of a road.

Happy spring! It's not always as warm as maybe we'd like it to be, and of course it's often windy, but club rides are starting. So are road projects. Or future road projects are being discussed. Bicyclists have a vested interest in how they go. Speaking of how they go, where exactly did father and son ride in the documentary "Bike Vessel"? Two more roundabouts on Darrell Road The Lake County Division of Transportation is reminding us that the next phase of the Darrell Road construction...

3 months ago • 1 min read