Home / Blog / Bicycling

Tag Archives: Bicycling

Safe walking and biking during COVID-19

Apr 20, 2020 | by Maggie Melin Czerwinski

The COVID-19 public health crisis and the current stay at home order are directly impacting the way most of us move on a daily basis. Many questions have arisen over what this means for walking and biking and how to safely navigate sidewalks, streets, and trails. During this time, it is important to follow public health guidelines. Although it seems to conflict with our mission as a transportation advocacy group to say, please stay home as much as you can. We're confident it will help save lives and prioritize our streets for essential workers who are on the frontlines serving all of us. If you do need to go outside for an essential walking or biking trip, or a brief...

Tags: Bicycling, covid-19, Walking

Lessons in walking and biking safety

Apr 15, 2020 | by Maya Norris

Did you know that Active Trans has an assortment of resources that advocates, teachers, and parents can use to educate children about walking and biking safety both inside and outside the classroom? With parents and teachers looking for walking and biking education ideas for their kids during the “stay-at-home” order, we wanted to share some of our resources. Last year Active Trans worked with other advocates to pass the Illinois Bike Walk Education in Schools Act, legislation requiring that K-8 public schools teach biking and walking safety to students. To encourage districts to comply with the new law, Active Trans helped develop complete lesson plans that cover bicycle and pedestrian safety. The lesson books include best practices for walking and...

Tags: Bicycling, Education, Walking

John LaPlante’s Complete Streets legacy

Apr 8, 2020 | by Active Trans

It was a great loss to the world of sustainable transportation when John LaPlante died in March of COVID-19. As someone who worked with John over a number of years, I wanted to provide a more detailed account of his impact locally and nationally. You might not realize it, but you’ve likely benefited from John's efforts to improve street design and safety for pedestrians, bicyclists, and transit users. And the effects of his work can be felt not just in Chicago. After earning transportation engineering degrees from IIT and Northwestern, John started out as a summer intern in the Chicago Department of Public Works Bureau of Street Traffic in the early 1960s. He was a multimodal planner before it was...

Tags: Bicycling, Chicago, transit, Walking

Supporting the transportation needs of essential workers

Apr 7, 2020 | by Lynda Lopez

As an organization that advocates for walking, biking, and public transit to create healthy, sustainable, and equitable communities, this moment necessitates rethinking and adapting to changing needs. This means not necessarily supporting policies or ideas that we embrace in the non-COVID-19 world. We believe in the ability for people to travel freely, but we know this moment requires taking a step back and adjusting that lens we normally use for viewing these issues. We want to see policies that enhance safety for essential workers but do not have the potential to worsen the public health crisis. It is at that intersection that we must view our decisions as mobility and transit advocates. This week, we learned that 70 percent of...

Tags: Bicycling, Lakefront Trail, transit, Walking

Essential travel must take priority during COVID-19 crisis

Mar 26, 2020 | by Kyle Whitehead

As we're all now facing new anxieties and disruptions to our daily lives as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, taking a break outdoors may serve as a needed relief. We remind people to be thoughtful of others when choosing to spend time in public spaces. On Thursday Mayor Lightfoot announced the closure of the Lakefront Trail, 606, Riverwalk, and associated parks. This is part of a broader "Stay Home, Save Lives" campaign to prevent the spread of COVID-19. The movement of people who are essential workers and others doing necessary travel must take priority during this unprecedented time. We understand the Mayor’s decision to close the Lakefront, 606, and Riverwalk to protect our public health. Chicagoans should stay home...

Tags: Bicycling, Lakefront Trail, Walking

Local walking and biking champion dies of COVID-19

Mar 23, 2020 | by Ted Villaire

People in the sustainable transportation world were saddened by the recent loss of John LaPlante, who died as a result of COVID-19. LaPlante, who served as the first Chicago Department of Transportation Commissioner, was dedicated to creating better conditions for people walking and biking in Chicago and throughout the nation. Mayor Lori Lightfoot issued the following statement on Sunday: “John LaPlante’s passing reminds us all of a turning point in the transportation life of our city. He was a passionate public servant who helped bring CDOT to life nearly three decades ago. In the next phase of his career, he worked to extend Chicago’s transportation legacy into the 21st century. While John may be gone, his impact in moving Chicago...

Tags: Bicycling, Walking

Bike shops to stay open during “stay at home” order

Mar 20, 2020 | by Ted Villaire

When Governor Pritzker announced a “stay at home” order today, we were glad that his office followed our recommendation to allow bike shops to stay open. In the executive order, bike shops are considered “essential businesses” during this widespread shutdown, along with pharmacies, banks, gas stations, and other businesses people need to have access to (see number 12, part E of the executive order). The order will be in effect until April 7. When we started contacting bike shops around the state to sign on to a letter that would be delivered to state and local officials, we were pleased with the resounding response we received. Signing on were more than 70 bike shops — in addition to a handful...

Tags: Advocacy, Bicycling

Bike shops must stay open during possible “shelter in place” order

Mar 19, 2020 | by Julia Gerasimenko

The next important step in the response to the growing threat of the coronavirus will likely involve a “shelter in place” order. This order, which could be enacted by local and state officials, would likely require all but “essential businesses” to close. These essential businesses could include gas stations, pharmacies, grocery stores, convenience stores, take-out and delivery restaurants, hardware stores, banks, and a few other types of businesses. We want to ensure that bike shops are among the essential businesses allowed to stay open in the event of a shelter in place order. The letter below, which is being delivered to state and local lawmakers, has 79 signatories — primarily bike shops, but also advocacy organizations and a few local...

Tags: Bicycling, bike shops

Continuing to push for safe, just, and livable streets

Mar 19, 2020 | by Melody Geraci

We hope you and your loved ones are staying healthy during these deeply unsettling times. Like countless other organizations, the coronavirus pandemic will undoubtedly have a major effect on the work we do over the coming weeks and months. For starters, we have postponed all of our in-person meetings, our trainings, and other events planned for coming weeks. Our staff is working from home and we’re encouraging them to take the steps necessary to protect themselves and their loved ones for the foreseeable future. While Fifth Third Bike the Drive remains set for Sunday, May 24, we’re looking at contingency plans if it needs to be rescheduled. Like every nonprofit organization right now, we’re reflecting on the value of our...

Tags: Advocacy, Bicycling, transit, Walking

Make Illinois state roads safer and more accessible for all

Mar 10, 2020 | by Kyle Whitehead

Legislation currently moving through Springfield provides a rare opportunity to make walking and biking safety improvements to state roads in Illinois. Tell your state legislators you support safer state roads. State roads are often major streets that provide sole access to retail and service industry jobs, grocery stores, doctors’ offices, pharmacies, and other important destinations. For many people, sidewalks provide the only option for safely accessing these key places. And this is especially true for older adults and people with disabilities. Currently, the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) requires that local communities cover 20 percent of the cost when IDOT includes infrastructure for people walking and bicycling to construction projects on state roads. Yet the state typically covers 100 percent...

Tags: Advocacy, Bicycling, biking, Chicago, Chicago Central, chicago north, Chicago North Side, chicago south, Chicago South Side, Chicago West & Southwest Side, Chicago West Side, legislation, North Suburbs, South Suburbs, Walking, West Suburbs

‹ prev9 of 29next ›