“No one bikes in Chicago during the winter!” Nice turnout for the Churros and Chill Ride on the Dickens Greenway

Streetsblog Chicago readers have heard a lot about the new Dickens Avenue Neighborhood Greenway in Lincoln Park, currently Chicago's most controversial bike and pedestrian safety project. If you're not already up to speed, check out our recent "A Tale of Two News Outlets" series, Part One and Part Two, critiquing recent coverage of the bikeway brouhaha by NBC Chicago and the Chicago Tribune.

But I wanted to provide a quick "Eyes on the Street"-style gallery of today's very fun Churros and Chill bike ride, which celebrated the completion of the low-stress bike-ped routes. The first half of the title of this post, "No one bikes in Chicago during the winter!," is tongue-in-cheek, since around 20 people pedaled in the ride altogether.

But that's a common, easily disproven, refrain from anti-bicycle commenters on Streetsblog Chicago Facebook posts about new bikeways, who argue our city shouldn't be investing in these facilities. And in the case of the Dickens Greenway, cyclists are literally paying for the bicycle lanes that serve them, since the $910,000, 1.4-mile project was funded by revenue from the Divvy bike-share system.

I hope you enjoy the following photos I took.

Kudos to the organizers for putting together this event. It showcased the fact that, if you dress for the weather and have fenders, getting around Chicago by bicycle can be a lot of fun, even on a cold late January day.

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