On the morning of Saturday, July 13, Southwest Collective, "a collective of neighborhoods in the Midway [Airport] area, joining forces to improve the Southwest Side of Chicago," held one of its monthly community bike rides. It began and ended at Nottingham Park, 7101 W. 63rd St. in the Clearing community. Neither Robin Hood and his Merry Men, nor anyone from the Cook County Sheriff's Department, made an appearance. But several people did show up for a pleasant 3.9 miles, half-hour bike ride around the neighborhood in nice weather.
Southwest Collective was launched in early 2019. Cofounder Dixon Galvez-Searle currently serves as the transit advocacy steward. "I've lived in the city my whole life, and I've always rode my bike in the city," he said. "I've always wanted for the city to be more bike-friendly, and the Southwest Side is particularly bike-unfriendly in a lot of respects." The group started out focusing on biking before branching out to include transit advocacy.
According to Galvez-Searle, the organization has been doing these community bike rides since fall of 2020. "The goal is to get people out on their bikes and give them a space to come out, especially if they're not comfortable riding in the street, or if they would prefer to ride in a group," he said "We design these routes to be as accessible as possible. We plan the routes so they stick to the side streets exclusively, and we don't cross major streets like Archer [Avenue, a southwest-northeast diagonal street] or Pulaski [Road, 4000 W.] unless we have a traffic light or a [four-way] stop sign."
The rides are usually between three and five miles. According to Galvez-Searle, there isn’t any formal advocacy message for these bike trips. However, when people get together like this, they do start to talk about all the barriers and impediments that should be addressed to make the Southwest Side more bike/walk/transit-friendly.
"It was a good route," said rider Rolando Favela. "It shows how quickly people can come together for a nice recreational event. We did find some streets that came in various states of repair, and so it highlights the need for bike infrastructure, but also what the local aldermen are doing to protect the streets and make them more bike-friendly. We have seen some improvements."
Ron Rodriguez rides with several different cycling groups, like We Keep You Rollin' and the Major Taylor Cycling Club of Chicago. He also used to work in the area several years ago. He said the neighborhood has become more bikeable lately.
Rodriguez said his favorite part of Saturday's ride was when it crossed 63rd Street and went down some residential streets. As a resident of southwest suburban Oak Lawn, Rodriguez usually bikes on the South Side, like when he travels to Pullman National Historical Park on the Southeast to volunteer.
The ride from Oak Lawn to Pullman "is a different experience," Rodriguez said. "You're going through Oak Lawn, Evergreen Park, Morgan Park, Beverly, West Pullman. You're going through probably seven or eight different neighborhoods with different demographics." He added that bicycling may be more common in some of these communities than others.
After the ride, multiple people hung out at Nottingham Park and discussed some sustainable transportation-related topics. "Ace Mann," who helps run the Twitter account for Chicago Critical Mass, the monthly bike parade/protest/party from Daley Plaza, handed out information about the app for Bike Lane Uprising, which fights bike lane obstructions.
While Critical Mass draws exponentially more people, "Mann" said he appreciates that the Southwest Collective rides also happen monthly, helping to foster a cycling community far from the Loop. "Some people on this ride I've seen on past rides, so we're getting to know each other and building a little camaraderie."
Galvez-Searle said the next Southwest Collective bike ride will be on Saturday, August 3rd at Valley Forge Park, 7001 W. 59th Street in Clearing. "Our goal at the outset was to have routes that originated at every single park on the southwest side, and we are almost there," he said. "We will be mostly done by the end of the year."
It's great that the Southwest Collective is helping to spread the good word about cycling on the Southwest Side.
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