We Can't Fix the Bike Network One Ward at a Time
The following is a Letter to the Editor of the Chicago Tribune in response to a call issued by ActiveTrans telling us that the Trib is looking for letters on bike lanes with a deadline of... you guessed it! Tomorrow!
Chicago needs a connected, city-wide network of bike lanes and safe pedestrian crossings, and we won't get one as long as every mile of it depends on a single alderman's mood.
Right now, aldermanic prerogative means each of the city's 50 wards decides on its own whether to build, expand, or block this infrastructure. Wealthier, whiter North Side wards are on their fourth or fifth round of bike lane upgrades. Much of the South and West Side remains a dangerous void, with arterial streets that have no safe way to cross town on foot or by bike at all. This matters for two reasons.
First, arterial infrastructure doesn't just serve the people who live in that neighborhood. It serves commuters, delivery workers, students, and visitors crossing the whole city, whether they're walking or biking. A bike lane or a safer crosswalk on Western or Archer is citywide infrastructure, not a neighborhood amenity, and treating it as one alderman's call guarantees a patchwork network that fails everyone trying to get across town safely.
Second, ward-by-ward control has turned bike lanes into a political weapon. As lanes finally arrive, slowly, in long-underinvested communities, opportunistic challengers are using them as a wedge issue against sitting aldermen. In the 12th Ward, a candidate using MAGA-style politics is campaigning against bike infrastructure to chip away at a popular progressive incumbent. Much of this opposition leans on small business owners worried about losing a handful of parking spots. I understand the anxiety, but it's a shame to see local businesses pitted against pedestrian and cyclist safety, especially when studies show they help local business thrive.
Also, the climate dimension is more urgent by the day. At a moment when the Trump administration is actively rolling back sustainability, cities have to pick up the slack. A real network for pedestrians and cyclists is one of the cheapest, fastest ways Chicago can cut emissions and car dependency, but only if we build it as a system rather than 50 disconnected fragments.
Past reform efforts made headway on permits and licensing, but stalled on zoning. I don't expect this Council to give up power over street infrastructure either. That's exactly why this needs saying: a real network requires a citywide plan, not 50 separate referendums on whether any alderman feels like building it.
Chicago can't walk or bike its way into the future one ward at a time.