The top bicycling news of 2025, and what's coming in 2026


Another year-end newsletter? Yes, I'm doing it, too, after quite a first year of news and material for my Suburban Chicago Bicycling website. I've started looking ahead to the new year, too.

Look back

E-bike laws, roundabouts, a new bridge, bike lanes becoming bike paths, towns' infrastructure reviewed and great rides.

Look how e-bikes rolled

Regulating e-bikes and what became known as e-motos brought debate and resulted in a patchwork of local laws.

Look at what's coming

Three bike-pedestrian bridges will be completed, and new bike paths or bike lanes will be installed elsewhere.

Look forward to rides

Dates are already set for many of the big organized and charity rides that happen in warmer months each year.

I had more to write about in this first year than I had even imagined.
Thank you for subscribing and reading, and Happy New Year! — Neil


THANK YOU to donors Alan White, John Heer, Terry Witt, Mitchell C. Jones, T L Szensy, Douglas H. Hoffman, James Krause, Melynda Findlay Shamie, Eric Slagter, Jeffery Norman, Kathleen Hays, Andrew L. Campbell, Mark Rathe, Robert M. Yedinak, John S. Perry, David Waycie and David Michels. They've helped support this work provided for free. You can, too.
Buy me a cup of coffee, as they say?

Read old newsletters. And please forward this to anyone interested.

600 1st Ave, Ste 330 PMB 92768, Seattle, WA 98104-2246
Unsubscribe · Preferences

Suburban Chicago Bicycling

Your one-stop source for the great trails and roads to ride a bicycle in Chicago's suburbs, and to learn about efforts to make bicycling and bicycling infrastructure better there.

Read more from Suburban Chicago Bicycling
A bike trail with a very faded strip down the middle extends into and curves in a forest preserve with leaves on the ground, not the trees, and a big sign and map on the side.

Crossing the county to check out Thorn Creek When I asked Cook County about the bumpy conditions of the Busse Woods Trail out in the northwest by me, I heard the Thorn Creek system was being evaluated first. So I trekked southeast across Cook County (by car!) to check out the trail (by bike!) for myself. Well, the county has gotten it in largely good shape, all the way to the Burnham and Pennsy greenways. Take a look. St. Charles to check out its downtown path Also a little south of me, St....

Looking down a curved, striped forest preserve bike trail with bike route signage and bare trees in winter

Cook County bike trails yesterday and today The Forest Preserves of Cook County has touted a new Wellness Center at Caldwell Woods off the Northwest Side of Chicago, but it also talked about the new path it built to the stalwart North Branch Trail. The more gradual path replaced the steep ramp that was there for 50 years. That had me reminiscing of my childhood in the 1970s and early '80s. How the trail has grown. Read. I also scoured the forest preserve district's updated 5-year capital...

Looking down a newly paved road divided by a big median with a garden, stone signage and streetlamps by an icy lake on the left and colored brick parking spaces on the right

Lake Zurich's rebuilt Main Street is here ... ... but bike lanes or paths are not. The road and the Promenade area on the east side of the lake were reimagined to be even better for pedestrians who gather especially for sunsets, but bicycling infrastructure seemed never to be in the schematics. It isn't that the village isn't thinking about it. Bicyclists are all over Lake Zurich's latest comprehensive plan and park plans. Read more. The great Gulf Blvd. in Florida Just when the worst of...