EVANSTON, IL—It may be time to retire the car keys and gas card in favor of a tire pump and chain lubricant. With the issues of exhaust and oil fracking becoming more harmful, citizens becoming more environmentally conscious, and cities building more bike-friendly infrastructure, many have opted to hop on the seat of a bike instead of fastening a seatbelt.

 

Biking is on the rise. According to a study by U.S. Census Bureau, biking to work has increased 60 percent in the last decade. To both support and encourage this trend, local governments have created plans to increase biking infrastructure. By the end of 2014, 200 cities had plans in place for bike lanes; almost quadruple the number of cities by the summer of the same year, according to the Green Lane Project. Chicago, ranked as the tenth friendliest city for biking in the nation, currently has about 200 miles of both protected and unprotected bike lanes and plans to build 445 more by 2020, according to the Chicago Streets for Cycling Plan 2020.

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For many metropolitan citizens, this change has made the choice to bike much easier. Northwestern student Catherine Ton, a soon-to-be graduate, has decided to bike the commute to her new tech job in Madison, Wisconsin.

 

“It’s really convenient,” Ton said. “For example in Madison with traffic it takes about 45 minutes to get to work from downtown Madison, whereas if you go on one of the designated bike trails it takes about 45 minutes the same way. They make it really easy for you, and that’s what I like about biking, it’s even easier than driving sometimes.”

 

Chicago’s suburban communities have not been far behind when it comes to supporting biking. Evanston, Illinois, for example, launched an extensive bike project in 2001 and currently has many available lanes for use by bikers.

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The following map shows bike lanes and routes throughout the city, as well as common stops for bicyclists.

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