A bitter battle over bike lanes blazes in Barrington Hills, Ill.
Just yesterday, we sent to press the October issue of Silent Sports. It should arrive in mailboxes and on newsstands in a couple weeks.
The issue includes a column by Bruce Steinberg, titled “The battle in Barrington Hills: Residents of Chicago suburb fight bike lanes, malign cycling.”
Steinberg starts the piece this way:
“For folks unfamiliar with Barrington Hills, Illinois, it’s a town of a little over 4,000 people where a 4,000-square-foot house on a five-acre lot is considered quaint. The area, in a word, is gorgeous. The downtown area stands picture-book picturesque. The greenery is extra green.
But there’s a war against cyclists being waged there.
“’No bike lanes in Barrington Hills!’ demands the website dontchangebarringtonhills.com. “We have no obligation to a professional biking community, clad in spandex, who are regularly abusive to our residents and drivers, and urinate on our property.’
“Now, making fun of how people clothe themselves is the sort of sophomoric, name-calling comment parents hope their kindergarteners outgrow by first grade. The assumption that dressing appropriately, for comfort and safety required for long cycling rides, defines people as ‘professional’ cyclists proves the ignorance of the authors of the website more than anything else.”
Steinberg informed me that the war of words over bike lanes in Barrington Hills has spilled onto the letters pages of The Daily Herald, the third-largest daily newspaper by circulation in the Chicago area. (The newspaper’s August 27 report on the controversy can be found here.)
In a letter that appeared in the paper September 1 (but not online), Walt Zlotow of Glen Ellyn argues that bicyclists shouldn’t be allowed to use city streets because they “are not required to buy state license tags, carry insurance or have a bicycle driver’s license. They contribute nothing to the maintenance of roadways, and fail to obey many traffic laws.”
But Barrington Hills is, according to The Daily Herald Editorial Board, “a cautionary tale on what will happen when differing groups fail to respect the
rights and interests of others with whom they would share the roads.”
The editorial board states “we have been strong supporters of efforts in suburbs such as Batavia, Des Plaines, Elk Grove Village, Hoffman Estates, Naperville and many others that have acted assertively to make bicycling on public streets safer and more accessible. So, it was with some dismay that we followed Barrington Hills village leaders’ dismissal of proposals that would add bike lanes on some thoroughfares in town.”
The editorial notes that “a key feature of the dispute is the behavior of some bicyclists, whom local residents at times have found to be rude, disrespectful and even downright crude.” Nevertheless, the “orchestrated anti-bicycling campaign and claims of harassment, interference and even objects thrown at bicyclists – has not been productive, either.”
Unfortunately, “the mood in Barrington Hills has been more of confrontation than accommodation, and the result is an atmosphere where adaptations are clearly needed but appear unlikely any time soon,” the newspapers’ editors conclude.
Joel Patenaude is the editor of Silent Sports magazine.