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Suburban Chicago Bicycling

The perfect national park for Chicago-area bicyclists?

Published about 2 months ago • 1 min read

Hey, that isn't a Chicago-area bike trail. Those are mountains again.

Just in time for National Parks Week

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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 park for Chicago-area bicyclists, because you can see incredible mountains but not have to ride in them, or really on any hills at all. Here's my recap of my ride there, with video.​

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This ran counter to my skepticism about riding in national parks. The popular ones that have roads were designed for cars, after all, not really bicycles. But in reality, each national park has its own character and infrastructure (if there must be such a thing among nature), so bike-friendliness varies. I reviewed the 15 I've visited.​

Meanwhile, back in Schaumburg

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I completed my look at why some neighborhood road projects in bike-friendly Schaumburg include plans to ditch the bike lanes in favor of off-road paths in the form of wider sidewalks on one side of the street. While residents were divided on the matter when they were surveyed, village leaders had a preference, even overriding a staff suggestion at one point. See my report.​

That calls for a follow-up

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My Schaumburg report generated more debate among residents leaving comments online. Other suburbs' practices — bike lanes? off-road paths? anything? — were even brought up. It got me thinking of what I've seen in Arlington Heights, Hoffman Estates, Carol Stream, Libertyville, Elgin, Naperville and other neighborhoods. Reviewing other suburbs' bicycle infrastructure is in my plans for next week.

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ALWAYS AVAILABLE ON THE WEBSITE

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​Top suburban Chicago bike trails​

​List of local bike clubs​

​Invitational and charity ride calendar​

​The rules on e-bikes in the suburbs​

​When should you call out "on your left"?​

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Earth Day comes next weekend. That brings some trail clean-ups, like on the Illinois Prairie Path and Great Western Trails. Those are topping my news briefs at the moment. Happy riding. — Neil

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* At top, Teton County and Jackson, Wy., outline bike routes around the Tetons. Don't mind snow in April.

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.

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