Cruise the Creek

A while ago I participated in Cruise the Creek. A great bicycle ride and festival near my home. The day was a little brisk, but nice. The ride was short by my standards, but unknowingly full of adventure.

My home was on the opposite side of the forest preserve where the ride started. So I had to make my way against traffic to the beginning. This was a bit of a challenge considering the number of small children on the trail, but I made it.

First off. after starting the ride I ran across the couple pictured. They had earlier been down to the local grocery store raising money to fight breast cancer. They had moved up to the Mokena Food and Wine festival, which the ride passed.

Next we made our way though the forest preserve. The rolling hills and deep woods made me feel at home as it reminded me of where I grew up in West Virginia.

We came out of the woods to Frankfort Township's community building. There I talked with someone from the Forrest Preserve and found that the building is LEED certified and has a green roof.

Frankfort Township Center

Soon after this began the adventure. The police who were directing the bike traffic across Wolf road sent us in the wrong direction. Instead of ending up back on the path, we went down a sidewalk along Route 30 until it ended at a subdivision. There we were directed by some of the residents that we could cross their yard and follow a dirt path through the woods to the Hickory Creek Bike Path.

The "path" through the woods

After trudging through the woods, across the creek and through a field we made it back. After this the ride wasn't any more eventful.

After the ride I enjoyed the carnival. There were Smores, food trucks, and pumpkin carving. The highlight was a BMX tricks show.

All in all it was a fun day.

Balloon Biker and Indiana Dunes

A friend of mine has started her trek across the United States. Her first post was about the camping trip I accompanied her on to Indiana Dunes.

Where would you put bicycle lanes in the suburbs?

A discussion was started today over at The Chainlink asking, "Where should protected bike lanes get installed in the suburbs?"

I weighed in myself. In my opinion, if cycling is ever to be a viable day to day utility for people in the suburbs, decision makers must identify the connector streets. The roads that people must use. In Mokena, this is Route 30, Saint Francis road, Wolf, and a few others. Once these are identified, then a lane or separated path can be built.

Many roads in the suburbs are fine for cycling on, but if that 10% of the route is dangerous, then someone will just take their car.

If I had business on the other side of interstate 80, I have little or no safe options to cross the interstate. If just one of the roads crossing it had a shoulder, the issue would be moot.

If you build the infrastructure, what has been shown again and again.

Go on over and tell us your opinion.

Google maps and craft beer

Last week I attended the BOSS (Brewers of South Suburbia) meeting. It was my first meeting, and what excited me even more. I could ride to it!

So I plug my addresses into Google maps and get a route. Mostly along a bike path. Along the way I discover something interesting. More bike paths! There were not on the map.

Earlier I had discovered Google maps now provided a map maker. This wonderful tool allows you to make edit to the map. After review and approval, then get pushed to the map for everyone to use.

I knew about one "path". The sidewalk near my street is signed as a bike route, and it's used a good bit, so Google should know about it.

At first, I bring up the satellite images, trace out these paved sidewalk paths and submit them. Come to find later that Google considers a side path marked as a bicycle route, that doesn't diverge from the street marks the street as having a bike lane.

This is one of the things that I've learned differ in the suburbs. Here, as opposed to the city, they will rip out a sidewalk, pave it, put a dividing line on and it sign it as a bike route. In a way it is a separated bike lane.

They almost never show up on a bike map, but now that Google allows edits, they can. Google also allows you to mark sidewalks and the cycling suitability of a road.

I urge everyone to check your local routes and mark any missing information with Google. It helps us all out. Find a road is really bad for cycling, mark that. A short path, mark that too.

Now, if you look at my neighborhood. You'll see many more "bike lanes" then before. Hopefully helping out other cyclists. I just hope these paths are taken care of in the winter.

Can this be feasible?

That is the question I wondered to myself for a couple years. As my move came closer, I had no idea if I would be able to survive what other people love, the suburbs.

Some backstory first. I grew up in the middle of no where. In the hills of West Virginia. It was the situation where going out for bread, or ice, was a hour round trip by car. While nature is wonderful, that kind of life wasn't for me.

Then came college. Afterwords I stuck around the city of Chicago for almost a decade. There I work, there I met my wife. One of the things my wife insisted upon, and which I eventually agreed to, was living near her family. Her family, was in the suburbs. So far that some people would consider them exurbs.

We had one car, still have one car. In the city, I sold my car and used my bike as transportation almost exclusively. I was for the move from an environmental standpoint. By moving the weekend trips to my in-laws would be cut to a few miles, and my wife could work very close to home.

Chicago has a wonderful commuter train system. Since my type of work is almost always going to be downtown or by telecommute, I could use the train.

So, I've lived in Mokena for over a month, is it feasible? I think it is, if you choose the right suburb. Someone from Active Transit once told me that they considered all suburbs the same, till they started working with them. They soon found that there was a wide variety.

I think suburbs supported by good rail systems can be quite green. If they are built around strong downtowns. This, in my experience, tends to be the older suburbs. Ones establish before the idea of strip malls, large shopping centers. Before it was required to drive everywhere. This towns tend to have small streets emanating from a downtown where you can get 99% of the things you need.

It's not as easy as the city. In Chicago, I could get to every place I needed, comfortably, by bike. Down here, I will choose one grocery store over the others, based very much on where it is at. Luckily, my downtown has a nice grocer. There are benefits to the suburbs though. There is much more green space, and there is much less bike theft. I won't call it safer, cause I know the traffic fatalities even out any benefit from the lack of violent crime. It is a good feeling though knowing that with my city quality locks, it is very unlikely my bike will get stolen.

We will see what happens in the long run. I see other commuters and utility cyclists in my suburb. I think the area is ripe for a bicycle culture to spring up. Many people ride, but they don't know of others, or don't care. I know not which.

In the city advocacy is reaching diminishing returns. Out in the suburbs is the new frontier. As gas prices rise, as they are prone to do, the political will may materialize. When that occurs, we advocates must be there to promote the correct direction.