City needs more ‘bike highways’ free from cars, expert tells council

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Backups along the Kinzie Street as a result of new designated bike lanes. Wednesday, June 21, 2011. | Scott Stewart~Sun-Times

Updated: November 3, 2011 10:06AM

“Bicycle highways” that are completely closed to motor traffic. Downtown lanes that are for buses — only. Far more protected lanes in which bikers and walkers are completely separated from cars.

Those were some ideas mentioned on how to make Chicago more bike- and pedestrian-friendly during testimony Wednesday at a hearing of the City Council’s Pedestrian and Traffic Safety Committee.

Enrique Peñalosa, president of the New York-based Institute for Transportation and Development Policy, said the city needs more protected bike lanes where riders are truly safe. Currently, other than a recently opened half-mile, protected stretch on Kinzie in River North, most of Chicago’s bike lanes simply consist of lines painted on the street.

“A bicycle way which cannot be safely used by an 8-year-old is not a bike way,” said Peñalosa, the former mayor of Bogota, Colombia. “This is why I don’t think much of these bike lanes that are just painted. People need to feel safe.”

He said “bike highways” could connect major streets to the lakefront path and would “multiply bicycle use’’ in Chicago, as they have in cities around the world. “Today there is not a city in Europe where there are not miles of streets closed to cars that are bike and pedestrian only.”

Peñalosa even argued that creating special bike lanes is “a symbol of democracy. It shows that a citizen on a $30 bike is just as important as a person in a $30,000 car.”

Despite Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s pledge to build more bike lanes, aldermen had a mixed reaction to Peñalosa’s ideas.

Ald. Rey Colon (35th) echoed his sentiment and gave a photo presentation detailing his recent trip to Seville, Spain, which inspired him to come back to Chicago and attempt to implement some of the more bicycle- and pedestrian-friendly policies in that city.

But Ald. Richard Mell (33rd) noted that much of Chicago’s infrastructure is not new and questioned how the city might feasibly implement some of Peñalosa’s suggestions.

Ald. Ray Suarez (31st) called on city Department of Transportation Commissioner Gabe Klein to enforce traffic rules for bike messengers and for people who ride bikes on the sidewalk. However, he also agreed that “as we start building in the future, we should look into more protected bike lanes.”