The Active Transportation Alliance’s recent Movers and Shakers Ball brought together a vibrant community of advocates, planners, and partners to celebrate a remarkable milestone: forty years of championing people-centered mobility in Chicagoland.
The energy in the room was palpable as attendees explored a series of inspiring exhibits — each one a testament to the bold ideas and creative vision that have shaped our city’s transportation landscape.
Executive Director Amy Rynell offered an enthusiastic welcome to attendees: “I am so grateful to be surrounded by fellow changemakers in the fight for a vibrant, climate-resilient region with high-quality public transportation, abundant pedestrian-friendly spaces, and safe, connected bike trails and networks.”
A LEGACY OF TRANSFORMATION
The evening’s celebration provided an opportunity to recognize the organization’s remarkable history. Forty years ago a passionate, all-volunteer crew founded the Chicagoland Bicycle Federation with a simple but powerful mission: to make biking safer and more accessible in Chicago.
At the time, the city had no formal bike lanes, few bike racks, and no dedicated funding for bicycle infrastructure. But that didn’t deter the founders.
Their early achievements laid the groundwork for what is now a vibrant movement to foster safe streets and sustainable transportation throughout the region. Here are a few of those early successes:
- The organization created a booklet on safe cycling that the city began reproducing.
- Volunteers mapped thousands of miles of roads to produce a regional bike map.
- The organization secured funding for nearly 5,000 bike racks by 1997.
- We started one of the best big bike rides in the nation — on Chicago’s iconic lakefront.
VICTORIES AND CHALLENGES
The Chicagoland Bicycle Federation experienced a pivotal moment in the late 2000s when it broadened its mission to include walking and transit advocacy, becoming the Active Transportation Alliance. “We knew that to truly transform how people move, we needed to think bigger,” Rynell told the audience.
Since then, the Alliance’s impact has only grown. In recent years, the organization helped pass a landmark Illinois law requiring $50 million annually for walking, biking, and transit projects.
We also won a commitment for the state to cover 100% of the cost for walking and biking infrastructure on state roads.
And our “Protected Bike Lanes Now” campaign led to a citywide rollout of concrete-protected bike lanes, making streets tangibly safer for everyone.
Yet, as Rynell explained, the struggle for active transportation is ongoing. “Even in the best of times, we’re swimming upstream against profoundly car-centric policies and funding priorities,” she said.
RISING TO THE MOMENT
Rynell emphasized resolve and unity in the face of current headwinds. “The threats are only making us stronger and adding fuel to our fire,” she said. “We have to continue building bigger and stronger coalitions, and doubling down on our core campaigns — Safe Streets for All, Clean & Equitable Transportation, and Transit that Works.”
The urgency is real, she said. Headlines from just the past week underscore the stakes: rising roadway injuries and fatalities, worsening air quality, record traffic congestion, and the looming threat of devastating transit cuts if new funding isn’t secured by the end of May.
“If every single one of us does just a little bit,” she said “It may be the tipping point to secure the $1.5 billion and the transformative reforms we need by the end of May.”
“We won’t settle for a system that’s inequitable, polluting, and unsafe,” Rynell said.
“Let’s dream big and act boldly — ensuring that Chicago remains a global leader in people-centered mobility for the next 40 years and beyond,” she concluded. “Our goal is to build a region where everyone can move safely, affordably, and sustainably. This is our collective call to action — to reimagine what’s possible and to lead the way forward.”
Non-photo booth images courtesy of Steven Gross. See all the photo booth images.