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Suburban Chicago Bicycling

Tour of suburbs' infrastructure, more plans in the works, and a road for a respite

Published 3 days ago • 1 min read

There in Bartlett is a two-way bike lane — almost unheard of in the suburbs.

My look at bicycle infrastructure around the ’burbs

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Last week I was invited to talk to the Suburban Advocacy Connect group, led by the Active Transportation Alliance and Ride Illinois, about my review of bicycling infrastructure around the suburbs. (Welcome to all the new subscribers resulting from that!) I started this review in April to compare my hometown, Schaumburg, to other towns. I have information on more than 80 suburbs compiled now.

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My general conclusions are the suburbs don't provide the protection for bicyclists on streets that Chicago does, except maybe suburbs that are cities themselves such as Evanston, Oak Park and Aurora; there's a wide mix of facilities because of varying space and obstacles; and there's a wide variety of bike route plans (and dedication to them) among the suburbs, if they have plans.

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You can watch the recording of the meeting with my presentation on YouTube.

Plans for more

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Bike plans do continue to be updated or even developed from scratch around the suburbs. Naperville is taking feedback through the end of the year to update its plan. Harvard is creating its "On the Mooooove" plan. And I got caught up on plans to rebuild Quentin Road through Cook County's Deer Grove Forest Preserve, with a path from the Lake County border. Could that connection happen in our lifetimes? That's the latest local news.​

This little road's a respite

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I took a break from the technical talk to finally write a post about another one of my favorite hidden roads, Indian Knoll Road in west DuPage County. Have a look.​

TAKE A HIKE AROUND THE WEBSITE

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Yes, even as winter has arrived, new local e-bike laws keep coming. Des Plaines, Buffalo Grove and Naperville all finalized theirs, and of course, their restrictions vary. See the latest in the e-bike law round-up.​

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Then don't forget to go to my site for bike clubs, bike trails, great roads and much more.

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Salute to you if you're still riding. I've taken to hiking. Outside is still good. — 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 and John S. Perry. They're helping support this work. You can, too. Buy me a cup of coffee, as they say?

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At top, those new Bartlett bike lanes are great, until people park cars in them. Bartlett is working on that.

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

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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