After finishing a three-decade career at the Daily Herald, I decided to combine my work and play by creating the website Suburban Chicago Bicycling.
My job at the newspaper — which covers the northwest and west suburbs of Chicago — involved editing and presenting the top news of the day, but once or twice a year, I was asked to write about bicycling in the suburbs. That would usually entail a compilation of the biggest bike trails, or related topics like the best places to ride a bike to see fall colors.
In my final years at the newspaper, when I also contributed to the paper’s editorials, I also wrote about bicycling issues. Like connectivity among suburbs (if not also within them). The need for the East Branch DuPage River Trail and other ways to move north and south through the county (because, for example, there’s not a safe way to ride a bike to the bike-friendly Morton Arboretum in Lisle). Or the community effort to add safety measures at the Great Western Trail’s intersection with County Farm Road in Carol Stream (a refuge island ultimately was built).
In the course of writing the editorials for the paper, I learned about all the studies that go into improving bicycling infrastructure in the Chicago area. Hundreds and hundreds of pages, incredibly thoughtful and illuminating, in just the Chicago area alone. So many great ideas. How many people know about them?
I also learned about all the local agencies that work to improve biking — to say nothing of local bike commissions and clubs.
In January 2025, I started building my website. By February, I began promoting it.
SHARING INFORMATION FOR BIKING BETTER
I’m based in Schaumburg, which has long had a reputation as a bike-friendly community. But the infrastructure in the village isn’t perfect, and residents and leaders keep tweaking it. Notably, they’re shifting neighborhood bike lanes to off-road paths.
That had me checking out the infrastructure in other suburbs — about 80 of them. I looked at bike plans online, if they existed, or have checked out the options myself.
Now I have a compilation about suburbs’ infrastructure on Suburban Chicago Bicycling. There you’ll find a wide range of facilities. Some towns prefer off-road paths. Some prefer bike lanes. Some have only signage. Some have better signage (“wayfinding”). Some have nothing except maybe wide roads. There are bridges, too.
It’s difficult to find in the suburbs the level of “protected” bicycling infrastructure found in Chicago. Most suburbs that do make an effort to accommodate bicyclists have a mix of facilities, often dictated by varying space even within towns. But that provides a variety of ideas that towns could steal from each other to boost their bicycling spaces.
With infrastructure and other matters, the overall aim of Suburban Chicago Bicycling is to reveal and share information so that we can improve the region and bring all the benefits of bicycling to more people.
ONE-STOP SHOP FOR SUBURBAN BIKING INFORMATION
This site focuses on suburban bicycling, filling a gap left by outlets that mainly cover Chicago itself. Content is organized into four main categories:
- Trails and Roads highlight great places to ride, with photos, maps, and links, and track new or improved paths and bikeable roads.
- Advocacy covers the work to improve bicycling infrastructure and funding, including “missing links” and local projects.
- Rides features organized events and recommended routes.
- Tips and Thoughts offers general advice and reflections, from gear and skills to seasonal and travel-related topics.
Each category is tagged for casual riders, serious cyclists, and families, though I’m still working on finding family-friendly roads.
A sidebar on every page serves as a one-stop resource, listing clubs, trails, rides, construction updates, standout routes, key news, videos, and links to advocacy and government groups, plus timely items like e-bike law explainers.
After perusing the website, be sure to check out the Suburban Chicago Bicycling Facebook group and YouTube channel.
And of course, I’m always eager to hear from readers with ideas and suggestions. Please get in touch at [email protected].
This blog post was written by Neil Holdway, creator of Suburban Chicago Bicycling.
Photos of Neil courtesy of him.