Chapter 2
Bicycle-Friendly Streets

While bicycling is permitted on all streets in Chicago (except expressways) many factors discourage bicycle use, including narrow travel lanes, congested roads, and uneven pavement. This chapter identifies ways to make Chicago’s streets more bicycle-friendly.

Accommodating bicycling in roadway projects (Objective 1) helps ensure that bikeways are incorporated as part of the roadway engineering design and construction, expanding the bikeway network at minimal additional cost. Special attention should be given to bicycling whenever bridges, underpasses, intersections, and expressways are constructed or improved so that these facilities do not become significant barriers to bicycling.

All streets, including streets outside the bikeway network, should be safe and comfortable for bicycling (Objective 2). Popular streets for bicycling are recommended to be improved. Many people are afraid to bicycle on Chicago’s streets due to intimidating car traffic. Installing special signage and changing the design of a street can force cars to drive slower and create conditions which will encourage more people to bicycle more often.