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Permalink Reply by Julie Aberman (Hochstadter) on September 22, 2010 at 4:26am

This is a great idea! My roommate was talking about this as well.

If you ever need someone to bike buddy from Ravenswood to downtown, LP, Wicker Park, I'd love to help out. I myself am able to commute because of all the great people who helped me.

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Permalink Reply by Active Transportation Alliance on September 22, 2010 at 5:08am

Thanks you two, much appreciated. This is currently a one-time pilot right now but if our board wanted shift resources to a bike buddy program, then we would compile a big list.

I think it is something we are organizationally interested in but we're currently pretty maxed out in terms of resources to launch a new program.

Honestly what would help us out is about 3,000 new members. Membership income is unrestricted (meaning not tied to a grant or contract) and we can put unrestricted income towards new advocacy efforts.

And we focus our advocacy efforts on what we hear from our members. That's how crash support got going and we have plans for Lakefront Trail outreach in the works for 2011 because of how often we hear about LFT issues.

Thanks so much, Ethan, with Active Trans

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Permalink Reply by Kevin C Dormant on September 22, 2010 at 5:51am

It's a little early for me, but as long as it's not a regular thing, I can impart my peculiar brand of bike commuting expertise on a new commuter at a mutually agreeable time(s).

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Permalink Reply by Far'arned Retrogrumpalunkus #63 on September 22, 2010 at 3:29pm

Great idea to help out. That's a really nice/easy commute to do too. That last leg on Kinzie is a bit hairy -but it isn't too bad. Even for a slower cyclist and obeying all the stops/lights it shouldn't take more than 30 minutes.

The other nice thing about that route is that the Blue Line is a very good backup. I suspect this person may already be taking it as it is a great almost straight shot with no transfers and only a 5 or 6 block walk to Kinzie & Dearborn. If the weather turns bad and there is a safe place to leave the bike at work it could be a viable back-up plan. My wife is a regular L commuter when she isn't riding as she can fall out the front door of our place in Logan Square onto the train and work is at the top of the stairs at the other end. She has no excuse not to ride as she has that excellent back-up plan if it is too yucky for her on the way home. It's not like taking the train is evil or anything like driving ;)

Good luck to the new commuter and I hope that he or she enjoys riding to work once they get their feet wet. Maybe it'll be fun enough to do more than once or twice a week!

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