Biking popularity surges with infrastructure improvements, events, clubs

Riding 100 or writing 100 — I’m not sure what’s harder.

This 100th column looks back at Chicagoland biking since its pandemic birth.

Sadly, Illinois biking averaged 35 fatalities annually over the past five years, ranging from 28 (2020) to 41 (2023). While 2024’s total (35) represents a hopeful 14.6% decline from 2023, more focus on safety is needed, and both state and counties have responded.

Safety smarts

In October 2023, the Illinois Department of Transportation completed its Vulnerable Road User Safety Assessment. Mandated by the 2021 federal Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, it identified safety trends, policies and procedures, plus safe travel improvements for all.

Currently, six northeast Illinois counties are developing safety action plans in response to an alarming trend of heightened traffic fatalities and injuries since 2014. These plans are guided by a regional framework coordinated by the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning.

Illinois climbed from 16th Bike Friendly State in 2019 to 11th in the 2024 League of American Bicyclists rankings. Since 2020 several Illinois businesses earned LAB’s Bicycle Friendly status, including Elgin Community Bikes, Endiro Coffee (Aurora), and Maple Leaf Coffee House (St. Charles).

Since 2020, over 248,000 Illinois students — elementary, high school, and drivers ed — have completed age-level Bike Safety Quizzes developed by Ride Illinois. Over 65,000 have passed the last two years. Ride Illinois Executive Director Dave Simmons said, “We'll likely exceed 65,000 students again this year.”

Participating schools receive $2 for each quiz completion, funded through a federal transportation safety program via the Illinois Department of Transportation and administered by Ride Illinois. Available online, Bike Safety Quizzes are free to all.

Bike the Drive

A perennial biking favorite, Bike the Drive recovered from its 2020 pandemic cancellation, switching weekends in 2021 from Memorial Day weekend Sunday to Labor Day Sunday. This year bikers will cruise the lakefront Aug. 31 as ride organizer Active Transportation Alliance celebrates its 40th anniversary.

Metra facilitated “biking” to events like this by revising its bikes on trains policy. Effective February 2024, Metra made permanent its COVID-era program allowing bikes and scooters, e-versions too, on all trains, either in priority seating areas of ADA-accessible railcars or those with new bike racks. Pre-pandemic, bikes were allowed in ADA priority areas only on non-rush hour trains.

By August 2024, Metra had retrofitted 88 rail cars on five of its 11 rail lines, replacing facing bench seats with diagonal racks holding four bikes/scooters.

“There are now racks on 131 cars,” Metra Communications Director Michael Gillis recently reported, covering all 11 lines. In 2024, 338,000 riders took advantage of this amenity, the highest ever.

Biking shorts

Pre-pandemic, forest preserve signs prohibited motorized vehicles of any kind on trails, e-bikes included. Since 2021 every Chicago metro forest preserve district has adopted an e-bike policy allowing their use. E-bikes have shed their “cheater” stigma for the respectability of work commuting, delivery service and eco-friendliness.

Biking/pedestrian plans, not just biking plans, have become the norm. That includes Cook County’s first plan adopted in 2023, DuPage County Trails plan (2024), Kane County Bicycle and Pedestrian Plan (2023), and McHenry County Connection Pedestrian, Bicycle and Trails Master Plan (2022).

Numerous municipalities also adopted bike/ped plans since the pandemic, either as updates or new, including Batavia, Bartlett/Streamwood, Elmhurst, Glenview, Libertyville, Northbrook, and Round Lake Beach, among others. More are in process.

Besides plans, several communities have launched regularly scheduled casual rides, some just recently like Bike Glen Ellyn, Ride Riverside and Streamwood Biking.

Biking longs

If casual rides aren’t your thing and 100-milers aren’t challenging enough, try “randonneuring.” This endurance discipline, with myriad French terms, originated in France over a century ago when the boldest cyclists demonstrated their audacity before multi-gearing was common.

Racing isn’t the point. Instead, camaraderie and self-sufficiency are emphasized. Riders are responsible for their own nutrition, hydration and mechanics while achieving set distances in specified time frames.

“We don’t celebrate the fastest times of riders. We celebrate their personal longs,” Sarah Rice, Chicago Randonneurs co-founder, said.

The 2025 ride schedule offers distances of 200, 300, 400 and 600 kilometers — think 125 miles, 187, 250 and 375 — to be completed within 13.5, 20, 27 and 40 hours, respectively. The club also offers routes under 200K, aka “populaires,” to familiarize newer randonneurs.

With over 130 club members evenly split between Chicagoans and suburbanites, ride starting points reflect regional diversity: Aurora (May 31), Chicago (June 7, plus others), Evanston (Oct. 4), Maple Park (June 21-22) and Woodstock (June 28-29). Started in 2024, the club became the first to originate officially sanctioned rides from Chicago proper.

As Regional Brevet Administrator, Rice schedules rides and records official rider finishes and times with Randonneurs USA (RUSA), the national organization. “Brevet” refers to a randonnée (long ramble) with a specified control time.

Official times submitted to RUSA are then certified by the Audax Club Parisien, a cycle touring club organized in 1904 that registers/records results of brevet riders throughout the world.

ACP initiated the most famous brevet, Paris-Brest-Paris in 1891, a 1200K (nearly 750 miles) with a 90-hour limit. To qualify, riders complete the 200-600K brevets all in the same year. Rice completed Paris-Brest-Paris in 2023.

By offering rides under 200K, plus the 200-600K brevets, Chicago Randonneurs club enables local riders to ramp up to longer distances in preparation for Paris-Brest-Paris.

By accomplishing different distance challenges, riders may earn awards bestowed by RUSA and ACP. Highly regarded, these awards are the equivalent of wins in this noncompetitive sport.

• Join the ride. Contact Ralph Banasiak at alongfortheridemail@gmail.com.