Active Trans needs your support for our new Neighborhood Bikeways Campaign, which seeks a 100-mile network of protected bikeways by 2015.
Everyone should feel safe on our streets, whether you’re an 8-year-old child, an 80-year-old grandmother or any age in between. To make biking safe and easy for everyone, Chicago needs a bicycle network designed with all kinds of people in mind.
A comprehensive network of protected bikeways has the potential to significantly reduce crashes for drivers, pedestrians and cyclists alike while increasing the number of people who would choose bicycling for transportation. Protected bikeways use barriers or buffers between automobile traffic and people riding bikes as well as traffic calming techniques to help riders feel more comfortable on the street.
We need to seize a unique opportunity in Chicago. Mayor Rahm Emanuel and new Chicago Department of Transportation Commissioner Gabe Klein already share our goals for safer bikeways, and we look forward to working with them.
As you may have read earlier this week, the city has started work on the first protected bike lane on Kinzie St. and Mayor Emanuel repeated his commitment to the 100-mile goal.
But the mayor and CDOT acting alone won’t be enough! Chicagoans and our City Council need to step up to the plate if we want to make this happen. Across the city, we are organizing residents in neighborhoods and building aldermanic support to move bikeway projects forward. We need support in your community to get the first 100 miles built.
Please sign on in support of the campaign and donate toward this important work today at www.activetrans.org/bikeways.