Bike the Drive a rare car-free ride on Lake Shore Drive

Lakefront sunrises, skyline photos and family adventures — just some recollections of Bike the Drive (BTD) veterans as Chicago’s DuSable Lake Shore Drive offers bikers 30 car-free miles starting at 6:30 a.m. Sunday, Aug. 31, near Grant Park’s band shell at Columbus Drive.

Marking its 40th anniversary, the Active Transportation Alliance (originally Chicagoland Bicycle Federation), has organized this event since 2001 in cooperation with the city of Chicago. Registration information/FAQs are online at bikethedrive.org/register.

For four hours, all motorized vehicles disappear. Bikers can loop south to the Museum of Science and Industry at 57th Street and north to Bryn Mawr Street’s underpass. Rest stops at either end, plus the main festival area in Butler Field, offer distance options to suit everyone.

Bikers span all lanes, faster on the left, slower toward the right, with shoulder huggers eagerly snapping hard-to-get cityscape and lakeside panoramas.

That’s where Wheaton’s Donnie Seals ended up in 2019 on his first BTD -held Memorial Day Sunday.

“We were continuously stopping for pictures along the way,” he recalled, impressed that he was simply riding on the drive.

Back then BTD opened at 5:30 a.m., no problem for early risers like Seals, initially “surprised at all the people, young and old who rode,” plus all the visitors and festival exhibitors. An Elmhurst Bicycle Club member, Seals recently joined the Ride Illinois board and is featured in Bike Vessel, documenting his four-day, 350-mile St. Louis-Chicago ride with son Eric.

‘It recharges me’

The right shoulder is also where volunteer course marshals like Palatine’s Dave Heckelsmiller may be fixing flats or adjusting brakes. Like other marshals, he patrols the drive equipped with lube, tubes, tools and his own “gearhead” skills.

“My mission is to serve,” he said, “to make Bike the Drive enjoyable for the riders.” Sometimes it’s just checking if stopped riders need help. Sometimes it’s phoning for special assistance.

Heckelsmiller first volunteered in 2010, guessing he has helped “eight of the last 15 years.” A bike mechanic in his youth and now an industrial engineer, he relishes the fusion of cycling, service and city beauty.

“The city is absolutely stunning. There’s a joy in cycling. To do it on a beautiful boulevard with no cars, with the scenic lakefront — that’s a gift I’d encourage everyone to try. It recharges me.”

Double duty

During her first time biking the drive in 2011, Elmhurst’s Kim Messina had two assignments: captaining the tandem bike with her younger brother and narrating a visual commentary — sunrise, lakefront and Chicago’s skyline — for her blind sibling.

She recalled the experience as if it were yesterday.

“We headed south to the museum. It was early morning. The air was crisp, the ride quiet and peaceful, the drive uncrowded. Amazing.”

Since then, Messina and a tandem friend have marshaled several events.

Terry Witt of Bartlett also shared BTD family memories.

“2008 was my first year. I went with our first granddaughter, Grace, who rode a connector bike with me when she was 6. Grandma waited at the start. When we finished, we all ate pancakes.”

His favorite part: “Riding south to the museum, then coming back downtown. The view is just spectacular.”

Steve Sanders, a Niles Bicycle and Pedestrian Plan Advisory Group member, first rode it about 15 years ago, finding the event “fun that the city allowed this huge highway to be open to cyclists.” It’s become the highlight of his summer cycling.

Sanders has pedaled lately as BTD’s volunteer accommodations manager. Equipped with panniers or bike trailers, he and others ferry supplies to various stations — snacks/water for volunteers, extra tubes for course marshals — deliveries that equate to cycling half the drive.

Bike the Drive origins

Started as a new revenue stream, CBF’s Boulevard Lakefront Tours expanded from about 200 riders in 1989 to 1,200 in 1997, according to Randy Neufeld, the young organization’s first executive director.

“In 1998, when we added a short Lake Shore Drive section (Hyde Park to 31st Street), we went over 2,000 riders.” Tours in 1999 and 2000 also included that section closure, generating an ambitious idea.

Despite “a lot of hesitancy to get approval,” discussions with Chicago officials close to Mayor Daley led to 2001’s Bike the Drive. Major entities — McCormick Place, Soldier Field, the Chicago Park District — needed to be considered, per Neufeld, not just motorists. Plus, the museum campus construction was problematic, closing off parts of the drive. Fortunately, some traffic had already found alternate routes.

“We didn’t get approval for the June event until February,” Neufeld recalled.

Despite that, 12,000 riders participated, extending upward of 20,000 in subsequent years prior to the 2021 switch from Memorial Day to Labor Day weekend.

“It’s so much more than just a bike experience. You’re in touch with the heat, the wind, the lake, the sunrise,” Neufeld said. “What makes it so different than a roadway full of cars are the people interacting with each other. It’s the human scale that really defines the public space.”

Cycling shorts

Christopher B. Burke Engineering Ltd. (CBBEL) in Rosemont and Northwestern University in Evanston earned top honors in Active Transportation Alliance’s annual Bike Commuter Challenge, sponsored by Keating Law Offices.

Chicagoland organizations competed in June, earning points through various bike commuter activities. CBBEL placed first among for-profit companies (100-499 employees) and Northwestern among educational institutions employing over 5,000. Both are certified as a “Bike Friendly” business and university, respectively, by the League of American Bicyclists.

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