{"id":992421,"date":"2026-08-10T05:41:27","date_gmt":"2026-08-10T05:41:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/992421\/"},"modified":"2026-08-10T05:41:27","modified_gmt":"2026-08-10T05:41:27","slug":"dozens-braved-the-rain-to-learn-what-chicago-bike-grid-now-has-done-in-the-past-year-and-their-goals-for-2027","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/992421\/","title":{"rendered":"Dozens braved the rain to learn what Chicago, Bike Grid Now! has done in the past year, and their goals for 2027"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"This<\/a>This post is sponsored by\u00a0Boulevard Bikes.<\/a><\/p>\n

Last Wednesday evening, rainy weather didn\u2019t stop dozens of people, many of them on bikes, from showing up to the annual Chicago, Bike Grid Now!<\/a> event Getting the Grid. The purpose of the meeting was \u201cto update coalition members on steps taken this year and how new volunteers can get involved.\u201d It took place at Beermiscuous<\/a> beer cafe, 2812 N. Lincoln Ave. in Lakeview.<\/p>\n

\n

Want to get involved? Want to get re-engaged? Come to our State of the Grid to learn what we got up to this past year, where we’re headed, and how you get involved (whether you have an hour to give or ten)!\ud83d\udccd Beermiscuous (2812 N Lincoln) or online at bit.ly\/bike-grid-zoom\u23f0 August 5-8:30ish<\/p>\n

\u2014 Chicago, Bike Grid Now! (@bikegridnow.org)<\/a> 2026-07-17T22:20:26.140Z<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(Fun fact: Beermiscuous co-owner and cicerone Austin Harvey<\/a>, met his wife almost 20 years ago on the now-defunct Wicker Park Critical Mass<\/a> bike ride.)<\/p>\n

The crowd gathered in the cafe\u2019s basement for a presentation by Bike Grid steering committee members, starting with Chris Buie-Gentry. \u201cI joined Bike Grid Now about three months after it started, mostly because I got mad at the city\u2019s bike infrastructure and the pace it\u2019s growing,\u201d he said. \u201cOne of the big frustrations for me has been, at the current speed we\u2019re going at, we\u2019re going to have meaningful bike infrastructure by the time I die. And that sucks, and that\u2019s just unrealistic for the world we\u2019re trying to build\u2026 Bike Grid exists because we know there\u2019s an answer to Chicago\u2019s lack of Safe Streets infrastructure. We just need our electeds and our City officials to make it happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"A brief history of Chicago, Bike, Grid Now! from the presentation.<\/p>\n

Buie-Gentry added that CBGN\u2019s goal is to create a citywide network of bike-and-pedestrian-priority routes on 10 percent of Chicago Streets. \u201cAt its core, the Grid means speed softened Neighborhood Greenways,<\/a> because we know that a lot of cyclists are scared,\u201d he said. \u201cEven if we put protected infrastructure on a major road, it\u2019s still scary. There are lots of cars. Those cars are moving fast. We want the least amount of conflict points with drivers possible, and that\u2019s why our preference is for speed softened neighborhood greenways.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Buie-Gentry addresses the room. Photo: John Greenfield<\/p>\n

\u201cThat being said, sometimes you can\u2019t do that,\u201d Buie-Gentry acknowledged. \u201cThere\u2019s places I want to go where you can\u2019t do that. There\u2019s bridges I need to cross. So in cases like that\u2026 that\u2019s where we want to have protected arterials.\u201d<\/p>\n

Next, Nik Hunder (who has written<\/a> for Streetsblog Chicago) talked about Bike Grid\u2019s legislative efforts. He said the group started working at at the City level by him writing a municipal ordinance to mandate completing the Bike Grid by 2033. However, they realized \u201cit\u2019s a bad time to do anything bike-oriented,\u201d he noted. \u201cUnfortunately, the Archer [Avenue traffic safety project <\/a>has] kind of scared alders, even though it\u2019s not only about bike lanes, it was also about a major water [and sewer] upgrade.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"How many alders are likely to vote for the municipal ordinance, according to CBGN.<\/p>\n

Hunder discussed the likelihood of passing the City ordinance. He said 17 City Council members are likely to vote for it, which is less than the 26 needed to make it law. \u201cThere are 23 that are \u2018Need to convince\u2019 and \u2018Worth talking to,’\u201d he noted, since these politicians have allowed bike lanes to be installed in their wards. \u201cWe think there\u2019s somewhere between six and 10 people who will never vote for that. Think of your [Ald.] Ray Lopezes [15th] of the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"A meme Streetsblog Chicago created after Lopez gave a nearly 10-minute speech <\/a>against the Archer project, and Complete Streets<\/a> in general, at a City Council committee meeting last February.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo realizing that it was a bad time, we went to the State because the State loves to dunk on the City, and we got a much better reception in the statehouse,\u201d Hunder added. \u201cIt also allowed us to expand the scope, so rather than focus only on the city, we were able to incorporate communities on the border, like your Oak Park, and your Evanston, because you notice a lot of those bike networks don\u2019t actually line up.\u201d State Senator Mike Simmons has been championing the bill in Springfield.<\/p>\n

\"\"Bike lanes on streets like Dodge and Chicago avenues in Evanston disappear when you cross the Howard Street border to California Avenue and Clark Street in Chicago. Image: Google Maps<\/p>\n

After that, steering committee member Sahal Ansari discussed politicking strategies.
\u201cThe whole goal of our organization is to get the bike grid that we deserve, and in order for us to do that, we have some political goals for 2027,\u201d he said. \u201cObviously to get the grid, we need to support the Safe Streets movement in the 2027 municipal elections; engage the candidates and electeds around bike and bike safety; and build the coalition of elected, community organizations, and partners.\u201d While CBGN doesn\u2019t endorse candidates, they do encourage and publicize politicians who support their goals. They\u2019re also allying with organizations that do more direct candidate support and engagement, such Chicago Bike PAC<\/a>, which is putting together a questionnaire for politicos.<\/p>\n

\"\"Saha Ansari. Photo: John Greenfield<\/p>\n

Alyssa Edes discussed Bike Grid\u2019s efforts to help launch Safe Streets Unions<\/a> in various communities. \u201cAs you can see from the name, these are more pedestrian-forward,\u201d she said. \u201cThat\u2019s politically helpful since it can be politically unpopular to be talking about bike lanes all the time. Also, pedestrians are very much part of the same goal, same vision, and it\u2019s important to keep that front and center, especially at a hyper-local level.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"GreatIn February 2024, a CBGN Bike Jam gathered<\/a> at the traffic diverter plaza at Dickens Avenue and Stockton Drive in Lincoln Park to protest its planned removal. Image: Chicago, Bike Grid Now!<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy have state streets unions if we already have Bike Grid Now?\u201d Edes continued. \u201cThe biggest difference is that these are neighborhood-led. So having community members lead these groups, people who already have relationships with alders, other neighbors, and other coalitions in the neighborhood, helps to kind of further that sustainability in the long term. For example, our Bike Jams will go to a place that we\u2019re really mad and do a protest there, and talk to the alder about it, and rile people up, but then leave and do a Bike Jam somewhere else. The Safe Streets Unions stay. So these are folks that keep that fight going in the long term.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Alyssa Edes displays photos of dueling rallies for and against the Grand Avenue traffic safety project <\/a>in West Town, taken by, and credited to, SBC contributing writer James Porter. Sustainable transportation advocacy groups are welcome to use our images, with a credit and link when possible. Photo: John Greenfield<\/p>\n

Finally, steering committee member Charna Albert talked about \u201cComms\u201d (communications). \u201cYou can tell from this long and informational presentation that we do many different things with Bike Grid Now, and we need a way to get this information out, and also just to refocus it a little bit,\u201d she said. \u201cThe purpose in doing this big information session is that we want to impose some more order on our organization, and recruit more volunteers and future leaders.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"\"Charna Albert addresses the room. To the right is Viktor K\u00f6ves from Chicagoans Who Bike<\/a> and Find the Right Bike,<\/a> one of Chicago\u2019s leading cycling documentarians (and an SBC sponsor.) Photo: John Greenfield<\/p>\n

\u201cOne way we\u2019re planning to do that is by breaking into formal committees,\u201d Albert added. \u201cRides will be one of them. Comms will be another. We help with so many different things. Graphic design for social media posts. We\u2019re exploring our pivot to short video\u2026 We need to restart outr organizational newsletter or action network. Imagine some anti-bike legislation comes up, and we need to get the word out quickly to oppose it.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Obviously, this was a very information-dense presentation, and this writeup just scratches the surface. So I\u2019d encourage you to set aside an hour to watch and listen to the above video, perhaps with your favorite libation.<\/p>\n

\"donate<\/a><\/p>\n

If you appreciate Streetsblog Chicago\u2019s livable streets reporting and advocacy,\u00a0please consider\u00a0making a tax-deductible donation<\/a>\u00a0to support our work. Thank you!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This post is sponsored by\u00a0Boulevard Bikes. Last Wednesday evening, rainy weather didn\u2019t stop dozens of people, many of…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":992422,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5124],"tags":[397889,397890,397891,960,397892,397893,16734,5386,1818,12353,397894,31668,397895],"class_list":["post-992421","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-chicago","tag-alyssa-edes","tag-beermiscuous","tag-charna-albert","tag-chicago","tag-chicago-bike-grid-now","tag-chris-buie-gentry","tag-complete-streets","tag-il","tag-illinois","tag-lakeview","tag-nik-hunder","tag-promoted","tag-sahal-ansari"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117069618972982584","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/992421","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=992421"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/992421\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/992422"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=992421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=992421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=992421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}