Ride Riverside is a cycling and livable streets organization in the eponymous near-western suburb. In 2024, the group hosted nine family-friendly social rides that drew as many as 100 participants. That's roughly one percent of the village's population of 9,298.
Recently, the group has been calling for Riverside to enact a Vision Zero strategy to eliminate serious and fatal traffic crashes. That's not just wishful thinking, even for a Chicago suburb. North-suburban Evanston implemented Vision Zero and essentially achieved that goal, going nearly five years without crash fatalities.
Ride Riverside collected 170 signatures from locals in support of a Vision Zero plan. They presented it to the village trustees at a May 1 meeting.
Streetsblog recently caught up with organization founder Valerie Kramer to talk about the work they do, and what it would take to achieve zero crash deaths in Riverside. Also joining us for the discussion was Charles Wiegand, another leader of Ride Riverside. This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
Cameron Bolton: What kind of rides do you usually do?
Valerie Kramer: Our rides are slow. Then we go about six to seven mph, and we go about four to five miles in total, and we stay within Riverside borders. We do that every second Friday, 6 p.m. at the train station, and we welcome anybody of any ability to ride with us. And so we get older folks, we get little kids. It's a ride for everybody.
Charles Wiegand: The thing about the Slow Rolls is that Valerie does a great job of connecting it to the community. Like the past one, it was family-oriented, and we passed by all the playgrounds within the area. Previously, around Halloween or Christmas, she designed the route to go by students that had great decorations. She likes to have a community-based theme to kind of drive home the point that bikes belong in the community, and it makes it more common to see bikes present in the streets.
CB: What does Vision Zero mean for each of you?
CW: Vision Zero is a commitment to eliminate traffic fatalities and serious injuries by prioritizing safety and street design, not just managing crashes after they happen. We don't accept that traffic deaths and serious injuries are just a part of life. We feel that infrastructure should be designed, should be planned to eliminate that from the get-go, and that the needs of all road users, pedestrians, cyclists, drivers, should be included in that design.
CB: Riverside is very famously is a planned community. How do you think that will impact the sort of change you want to see?
VK: I've thought a lot about that. We can make our village even more charming and more in line with [architect Frederick Law] Olmsted's vision by calming our streets. If there are cars zooming by at 50 mph our curving roads, that's not what Olmsted envisioned. There were no cars built into the plan of Riverside. It was built for horse-drawn carriages and people walking and the train. So it's more in line with calming the driver. It's just important to slow drivers down so that other people can use the road safely.
CW: Another way to put it is the infrastructure should be designed so that the safer behaviors are intuitive.
CB: Have you gotten any sort of opposition from people who don’t want Riverside to change?
VK: Personally, no, I think the village has been as supportive as they can be, but they're not going to say at the moment, you know, we're going to do X, Y and Z. It does take time to make changes, and I think they understand what we're asking. We're not asking for flashing lights and all sorts of ugly things put in our town because we live here, and we moved here because of how beautiful it is. And I think that's probably the only worry, maybe that people might have, is that we could change it and make it less Riverside. But I think changing it will make it even more Riverside.
CW: Whenever changes in the infrastructure are brought up, there's those that oppose it due to cost. But I think if changes are implemented on a rolling basis as new infrastructure projects are considered, those incremental costs should be minimized.
CB: Is there anything else, either of you, that you would like to add?
VK: I see what we're doing as really personal to me. I'm a mom. I have a child who's going to be riding his bike to school one day by himself, and I want him to not get hit by a driver. I've had some close calls. I've seen the aftermath of a crash with a mangled bike, and Riverside is not immune to traffic crashes. We're a very safe community in terms of crime. Crime has gone down 50 percent in ten years, but our traffic fatalities, our traffic injuries, have stayed the same. So, a lot of families choose to move to Riverside for the safety. And when they think safety, they think from crime. But I'm also thinking about safety from getting hit by a driver.
And I'm also a physical therapist, I think about injuries a lot. I think about how people need to move their bodies more, so it's a natural fit for me. And I also just love Riverside. It's a beautiful town. I'm really proud that Riverside has preserved its charm. It hasn't widened its roads to accommodate more traffic, and therefore it's naturally a beautiful place to bike, with our winding roads and our tree lined streets. And I'd like us to be a little bit more intentional in how we slow down traffic. It can be a biking paradise here, and we're already halfway there
CW: I'd just like to add a call to action to residents that feel strongly about this cause or some other cause within the community, to just get involved in local politics. From my experience working with this, the village trustees are really receptive to hearing what you want to see for this town. And they really do want input from residents, when they build out their agendas. And it's at a local level, your voice really does carry a lot of weight. So whether it's for bike safety or some other cause, go to a village meeting and then use your voice. It will be heard.
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