To the editor:

I’m sure David Lepeska meant well when he wrote about Chicago’s new cycling initiatives [“City Bike Plan Is Accused of a Neighborhood Bias,” October 16]. But several misleading statements in the piece, starting with the headline, suggest Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s bike plan discriminates against poor neighborhoods and locals are angry about it. In reality there has been no significant class-based resistance to Emanuel’s $150 million proposal to install one hundred miles of car-protected bike lanes, create a large-scale bike share system and build the Bloomingdale Trail and Navy Pier Flyover.  

Mr. Lepeska writes, “Mr. Emanuel’s initial plan is drawing complaints about an inequitable distribution of the investment.” In fact, only one Chicagoan, Oboi Reed, is quoted as worrying that low-income communities might not get their fare share of facilities like protected lanes and bike share kiosks. Mr. Reed doesn’t actually accuse the plan of being biased, since the city hasn’t chosen locations for the vast majority of the lanes, or any of the kiosks yet. His concern is justified due to City’s Hall’s historic neglect of the South Side. It’s also true that under Mayor Richard M. Daley the city striped more bike lanes on the North Side than the South, mostly due to higher demand from residents and aldermen in wealthier wards, and less demand, or even opposition, from some low-income areas.

But the only other critical voice in the article is a professor in Saint Louis who seems unclear on the concept that Chicago’s bike projects are transportation projects, and they help low-income folks by providing a cheap alternative to driving. Lepeska accurately reports my GridChicago.com blogging partner Steven Vance questioned the first few protected bike lane locations, but not because of geographic inequity. Steven just thought the lanes might be more useful on streets with heavier car traffic and/or greater potential for increased bike traffic.

Mr. Lepeska’s statement that the protected lane on 18^th Street is the only facility slated for a poor neighborhood is inaccurate. Two out of the three initial protected lanes serve low-income areas, and the Bloomingdale Trail elevated greenway will run through the largely low-income Humboldt Park and Logan Square communities. Future locations for the hundred miles of protected lanes will be determined with input from community meetings, and many miles are likely to be built in South and West Side neighborhoods, especially if residents show up to the meetings and voice their support.

Lepeska says Emanuel may have a hard time justifying the price tag for the new bike facilities in a city that’s almost $640 million in debt. In reality, much of the money will come from state and federal grants, not city funds. For example, Chicago recently won a $36.5 million Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement grant to build the Bloomingdale, estimated to cost $40 to 50 million.

While there has been no major backlash to the bicycle plan yet, Lepeska’s article generates confusion that could create one. That would be an unfortunate speed bump on the road to a bike-friendly Chicago.

John Greenfield

GridChicago.com