People for Bikes recently released its 2023 City Rankings that lists the best cities for biking based on a variety of measures. Once again, Chicago ranked near the bottom of the list of bike-friendly big cities in the US, a dismal 161 out of 163 cities evaluated.
This echoes a similar result from a previous edition of the ranking.
Chicago is actually a wonderful place to ride a bike and it gets better every year. But we still face serious challenges.
It’s important to understand precisely why our city fared so poorly in the People for Bike’s rankings, because the shortcomings revealed by this analysis have big implications for Chicago’s health, sustainability, and equity.
Our city is at the bottom of the barrel when it comes to the particular factors that People for Bikes evaluates in its rankings. And unfortunately, these challenges — high speed limits and a lack of a safe bike network — will come as no surprise to anyone who spends time biking around our city.
Our 30 mph default speed limit means cars are legally allowed to drive at unsafe speeds on almost every street. When cars travel 30 mph or more, the odds of serious or fatal crashes increase significantly, especially for people outside the vehicle who are walking or biking.
Like so many public health issues in Chicago, the impact of fatal and serious crashes is felt most acutely by communities on the South and West Sides of the city.
While the city has invested millions of dollars building dozens of miles of protected bike lanes over the past 10 years, the lack of seamless connections among these safe and comfortable bikeways is a barrier for many people who would otherwise use bikes as everyday transportation.
Fortunately, Mayor Brandon Johnson’s recently released transition report includes recommendations to both lower the speed limit and create a citywide network of protected bike lanes and neighborhood slow streets.
Lowering speed limits has an immediate impact. An Institute of Highway Safety study showed that when Boston lowered its default speed limit from 30 mph to 25 mph in 2017, the most dangerous speeding — cars traveling more than 35 mph — was reduced by nearly 30%.
Lower speeds also create more opportunities for engineers to add safety improvements to our streets, like narrower lanes for cars and more space for people on foot, transit, and bike.
Redesigning roadways around a slower speed limit to force drivers to slow down would also enable Chicago to address harmful and ineffective traffic stops and reduce the need for speed cameras.
We’re glad to report that some of the work to address our lack of a connected network of bike lanes is already underway. The Chicago Department of Transportation has identified 150 miles of new bikeways to improve our network.
Now we need to ensure the projects are delivered in a timely manner as we work with communities to identify the next 150 miles of better bikeways.
Lower speed limits and a connected bike network would go a long way toward moving Chicago up the People for Bikes ranking. It also would create a more equitable city and make biking a viable option for everyday trips for more people.
As the mayor and City Council get further into their new terms, Active Transportation Alliance will continue to mobilize support for lower speed limits and a connected and protected bike network.
Together, we can make Chicago the safest and best city for biking in the country.
Jim Merrell is managing director of advocacy for the Active Transportation Alliance.
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