On Tuesday November 18, 2008 a meeting was held at the Alberto's Cycles store in Highland Park, IL for cycling club leaders, bike shop owners, local officials and other interested parties. About 30 people were in attendance to hear a presentation by Active Transportation Director Randy Neufeld (right) and West Suburban Coordinator Pamela Brookstein (second from right). Here Rob Hugi (second from left) president of the cycling club Velo Club Roubaix, presents a gift from the club of $1000 to Active Trans. Also pictured (left) is Daryl Kunz past president of VCR and instrumental in getting this meeting held. (Photo coutesy of Elliot Rossen)

At this time a project was begun headed up by Stu Holz and Gary Zaid to collect all the routes commonly used for road cycling in our area. Stu and Gary were instrumental in developing and mapping the 40 VCR routes found on the VCR web site. These routes have also now become popular with other clubs and riders in the area. Stu and Gary are among the high-milleage riders in the area and like other such riders can identify just about every pothole on their routes. Stu estimates he has almost half a million lifetime cycling miles, most right on these very roads. (Yes that is enough to go to the moon and back!) The next meeting was set for January 13, 2009 and thereafter each second Tuesday at the beginning of the quarter as needed.

Second Article Published on group's efforts

December 4, 2008
By JOHN ROSZKOWSKI
jroszkowski@pioneerlocal.com

Bicycle enthusiasts and bike shop owners from Lake County are joining forces to advocate for safer roadways for cyclists and pedestrians.

About 30 people, including representatives from different bicycle clubs and bike shop owners along the North Shore, attended a Nov. 18 meeting at Alberto's Cycles in Highland Park to push for more bicycle and pedestrian paths along roadways throughout the county.

Daryl Kunz of Deerfield, a member and former president of Velo Club Roubaix, which is spearheading the effort, said the meeting was attended by members of bike clubs from several North Shore communities including Deerfield, Highland Park, Lake Forest and Northbrook. He said another meeting is tentatively scheduled for Jan. 13 at Alberto's Cycles.

Goal to have a voice

"The goal is to get bicycle club members and shop owners involved with having a voice on how roads are improved and made more cycling friendly," said Kunz.

Velo Club Roubaix and other bicycle clubs organized the meeting because of concerns about bicycle safety after a number of cyclists were hit by cars.

Brendan George, owner of Alberto's Cycles and president of Alberto's Sport bicycle club in Highland Park, said providing safer areas for cyclists to ride is "a very important issue." George was injured when he was hit by a pickup truck while cycling on St. Mary's Road in August.
Work with planners

Bike club members' plan to work with local road planners to develop "complete streets" policies, which incorporate pedestrian and bike paths and shoulder areas when roads are rebuilt or new roads are constructed.

"There's been a lack of complete streets in our major roadway systems and that limits peoples' choices," said Randy Neufeld, chief strategy officer for the Active Transportation Alliance (formerly the Chicagoland Bicycle Federation), who attended the meeting.

Neufeld said members from the different clubs will meet with transportation officials from local municipalities to encourage them to develop complete streets policies that incorporate "bicycle, pedestrian and transit uses in addition to automobile uses."'
County meetings

He said the groups also plan to meet with officials from the Lake County Division of Transportation, which recently received a federal grant to develop a complete streets program for county highways.

Michelle Feldman, a former village Deerfield trustee and newly elected County Board member in District 22, has pledged to work with the bicycle clubs in their efforts to develop policies at the county level.

"I think their concern is how to make roads safer all around, and I'd like to offer direction in how we can go about it," she said.

Kunz said the clubs are seeking funds to expand bicycle advocacy efforts in Lake County. Persons interested in donating to the cause can visit the Active Transportation Alliance's Web site at www.biketraffic.org.

Copyright 2008, Deerfield Review, Pioneer Press. All rights reserved. REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED.

First Article Published on group's efforts

Suburban bicyclists to meet over safety fears
JOHN ROSZKOWSKI
jroszkowski@pioneerlocal.com

Published: October 30, 2008

Jay Fried suffered a severe break in the scapula bone of his shoulder when he was knocked off of his bicycle by a horse trailer during a bike ride on Bateman Road in Barrington Hills on Aug. 3.

It's the second time the Northbrook resident has been hit by a vehicle while riding his bike and he still suffers severe pain from the most recent accident.

"This time when it happened it was serious. I was in the emergency room," said Fried, showing an X-ray of the 29 staples that were placed in his shoulder to hold the incision. Another bicyclist on the ride with Fried also went down and was injured.

Only a few days later on Aug. 12, Brendan George of Deerfield was knocked to the ground by a pickup truck during a bike ride on St. Mary's Road north on Illinois Route 60.

"I went down and skidded down St. Mary's Road, sliding on my back in a fetal position," he said.

Fortunately, George was not seriously injured, but he still has scars from the accident.

"I have road rash that's still not healed and it's been three months," said George.

Accidents like these are a growing concern to cyclists in the northern suburbs, and two local bicycle clubs are spearheading new efforts to improve bicycle safety.

Clubs campaign

The effort is being headed by Velo Club Roubaix, which has more than 100 bicycle club members in Lake and northern Cook counties and rides out of Lake Forest and Deerfield.

Alberto's bicycle club in Highland Park is also championing the cause.

The clubs have invited about two dozen bicycle clubs and bike shops throughout Lake County to attend a meeting at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Alberto's Cycles, 1770 First St. in Highland Park, to discuss ways to improve safety for cyclists. Representatives of the Chicagoland Bicycle Federation and Lake County Division of Transportation also have been invited to attend.

Daryl Kunz of Deerfield, a member of Velo Club Roubaix and the club's former president, said the goal of the meeting is to "network to make the area suburbs better for cycling through advocacy, education, enforcement and other efforts."

Kunz said part of the effort is to educate motorists about the rules of the road when it comes to sharing the road with cyclists. He said a new state law requires motorists give at least three-foot clearance when passing a bicyclist on the road.

Fried is a member of Velo Club Roubaix and George is a member of Alberto's bike club and owner of Alberto's Cycles in Highland Park. Both say the drivers of the vehicles who hit them and caused them to fall never stopped. They believe it's important that motorists be educated about the law and the three-foot rule.

Kunz said the clubs also hope to raise funds for increased advocacy in Lake County through the Chicagoland Bicycle Federation and for lobbying county transportation officials to incorporate more bicycle/pedestrian paths when new roads are built, or existing ones are improved.

"It's not just the hard-core bicyclists like us that it will benefit. It will also benefit the casual riders," he said. "There's so much reconstruction planned in the next four to five years and this is an opportunity for the Chicagoland Bicycle Federation to influence how those (roads) are rebuilt."

Resources needed

Pamela Brookstein of the Chicagoland Bicycle Federation said the federation currently has a coordinator for the northern suburbs but that person only works a few hours a month because resources are limited.

Brookstein said clubs such as Velo Club Roubaix are trying to raise funds to expand the Chicagoland Bicycle Federation's advocacy efforts in Lake County as well as northern Cook and McHenry counties. Clubs interested in donating to the cause are encouraged to visit the federation's Web site at www.biketraffic.org.

"There is a lot of energy in the north suburbs, people that would really like to see some bicycle improvements happen," she said. "We'd love to be a part of that."

Bruce Christiansen, transportation coordinator for the Lake County Division of Transportation, said that department recently received approval for nearly $190,000 in federal funds to do a "complete streets study" of county roads.

Christensen said the study, which will start in January, will include a complete inventory of county highways and will develop a policy for future highway improvements to better accommodate bicyclists and pedestrians. He said the county will seek input from bike clubs and bicycle advocacy groups as it plans.

"Generally speaking, pedestrian and bicycle travel isn't as safe as it could be in most parts of the region, and the study is hopefully going to help us come up with recommendations to improve safety for all users of the highway system," he said.

Copyright 2008, Deerfield Review, Pioneer Press. All rights reserved. REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED.

Getting Started

The idea for this group was formed by Bruce Rosenzweig and Jay Fried after their Aug 3, 2008 accident which was on a typical and pleasant Sunday Velo Club Roubaix (VCR) ride that wound its way around Northern Cook and Southern Lake County when in Barrington Hills they were struck by a hit-and-run driver in a pickup truck pulling a horse trailer. Though badly injured, and some surgeries later, they are fortunately both still with us. It could have been much worse and has been worse for many folks cycling lately. Also fortunately this was the first time since VCR was formed in 1981 that there were a vehicle/bicycle contact accident on a club ride. So we are very grateful for that. But no doubt it is getting tougher out there with more and more people on the same roads every year and national newspapers reported lots of bike/car incidents summer and fall of 2008. For example, locally the discussion heated up in the Daily Herald a follow-up column about Barrington Hills, ironically both before the accident.

Bruce called a meeting a few days later on August 12 at his house while he was still pretty doped up from the crash and not walking much, so take note if you want to start something like this it probably helps to be a bit off your rocker. Ironically that same night we got a call during the meeting of a crash that had just occurred. On the Tuesday night Alberto’s ride Brendan and some others had gone done on St. Mary’s Road from a collision by a hit and run driver.

The next a meeting was held at Jay Fried’s house and folks from Chicago Bicycle Federation (now called Active Transportation Alliance) were invited to talk about how they do bicycle advocacy. We got excited when we heard about what those folks have accomplished over the years and especially what they have done recently in the west and south suburbs. So we decided to enlist their help for advocacy in our area here in the Northern Suburbs and Lake County. Some folks mostly VCR’s past-president Daryl Kunz, went about putting an invite list together and contacting all the other clubs and the bike shops and any other interested parties to come together and join forces and get behind the Chicagoland Bike Federation to get some advocacy done around here.

Way back I did some cycling around Oregon and you could tell things were better there. In 1971 Oregon implemented a roadway policy that took into consideration cycling and already by the late 70’s it was way more bike-friendly there then it still is around here. We learned from the experts at Active Trans that if we could get public policy improved for cycling we could make lasting changes that would make cycling safer and more enjoyable for all of us, whether you are out for a fast recreational ride with VCR or another racing type club, or commuting to the work, or for your kids riding around town or school. This is the idea behind the national Complete Streets movement. A Complete Streets policy requires that in all stages from planning though construction and maintenance, all users of the road must be considered, and that includes cyclists, pedestrians and transit users. This helps level the playing field among all roadway users. And now thanks to Illinois cycling advocates, in 2007 Illinois adopted a Complete Street policy which applies to state routes (not county or local). Please join us and participate to help improve cycling in our area!