At Bike Lane Uprising party, La Spata, Giannoulias, and CDOT’s Powe urged activists to keep pushing for safe streets

As Christina Whitehouse, founder of Bike Lane Uprising, a civic tech platform for reporting bikeway obstructions, recently told Block Club Chicago, September has been a “brutal” month for bicycle, e-scooter, and electric motorcycle (“e-moto”) riders in our region. Here are some recent cases:

• A hit-and-run pickup driver ran a red and fatally struck e-moto rider Juan Martin Marquez, 54, on Monday, September 14, around 5:15 a.m. at Archer and Laramie avenues in Garfield Ridge. Bike Lane Uprising is helping to organize a “ghost bike” memorial installation this Saturday, September 26, 1 p.m. at the crash site.

• A turning car driver fatally struck Jad Debiy, 8, on Thursday, September 17, as the boy rode an e-scooter on the frontage road of Harlem Avenue, crossing 93rd Street in suburban Bridgeview, the Daily Southtown reported. The driver was cited for failure to yield.

• According to the Chicago Police Department, a hit-and-run Jeep driver struck and injured a 74-year-old man on a bicycle on Thursday, September 17, around 4:04 p.m.on the 5000 block South Lake Park Avenue in Kenwood.

• A GoFundMe launched by Paige Perez states that her brother Brandon was struck by a driver and seriously injured. Block Club reported that the crash happened on Saturday, September 19 near Clark and LaSalle streets in Lincoln Park.

• Bike Lane Uprising shared a social media post from a bike rider who said a hit-and-run SUV driver struck and injured them, apparently on Thursday, September 24, at 18th Place and Morgan Street in Pilsen.

So it was no surprise that the local officials who spoke last night at BLU’s ninth anniversary party expressed frustration over Chicagoland’s traffic safety challenges, and discussed strategies to help prevent future pain and heartbreak. These included Ald. Daniel La Spata (1st), chair of City’s Council’s Committee on Pedestrian and Traffic Safety; Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias, who’s running for Chicago mayor; and Chicago Department of Transportation Assistant Commissioner David Powe. (I was told there were a few other candidates in the room, including 35th Ward aldermanic hopeful Omari Bektemba.)

Still, the party was a festive occasion that drew some 100 attendees. The crowd was a cross section of the Chicagoland bike advocacy community.

It took place in Specialized’s Fulton Market bike shop, 925 W. Lake St. Needless to say, outdoor bike parking at that intersection was at a premium that night, although there were also some indoor parking spots.

BLU’s Whitehouse kicked off the speeches, and told the politicos in attendance that simply showing up to bicycle events is not enough – “You still have to win these people’s votes. She then asked the civilians to “Raise your hand if you are not an easy win” when it comes to bike safety issues. Most of the crowd did so.

When Ald. La Spata took the mic, he approved of that. “Always be a hard winner,” he said. “Always expect more. Always put accountability on the table for all of us because it’s only way we get better and live into our intentions and values as elected officials.”

As such, the alder took the gloves off when discussing the recent actions of Mayor Brandon Johnson, La Spata’s colleague in progressive politics, at Wednesday’s City Council hearing. “Yesterday at City Council, the mayor took a moment of silence for Riley O’Neil. If you knew him, you loved him.” O’Neil, 35, was the CDOT Complete Streets planner who was fatally “doored” on his bicycle by an illegally parked driver on June 5 on Halsted Street in Bridgeport, as O’Neil rode in a paint-only bike lane.

Riley O’Neil. Photo via Working Bikes’ Instagram.

La Spata said he has two problems with the mayor’s gesture. “Problem number one was you did the same thing in July,” he noted. “Did you forget that you took the same moment in July? Because if you can forget easily that you said someone’s name two months earlier, that’s a problem.”

“The second problem is [22] of us on the City Council signed a letter through Active Transportation Alliance, and none of those demands were saying someone’s name,” the alder added. “I am so tired of cheap tributes… It is easy to say someone’s name. Saying a name without action is cruel.”

La Spata went on to express optimism about Chicago’s Smart Streets pilot. That initiative launched in November 2024, using bus- and City-vehicle-mounted cameras to issue tickets for illegal standing and parking in downtown bus/bike lanes and bus stops. He argued that, unlike police officers and traffic enforcement aides, the cams can be counted on to enforce the law. “And thankfully, with the Smart Streets pilot, 70 percent of folks who get a first ticket never get a second.’ he said. “They have learned their lesson.”

The alder added that on Wednesday, he and Ald. Andre Vasquez (40th) introduced an ordinance to take the Smart Streets pilot citywide in 2027.

Secretary of State Giannoulias told attendees he’s the father of four young girls, and the family likes to ride their bikes every evening. “That’s probably my favorite thing to do with my daughters,” he said.

“Groups like Bike Lane Uprising are advocating, and identifying s—ty actors and making sure that they’re held accountable,” Giannoulias said. “We worked with some of the folks in this room on our micromobility bill, which is really important.” The crowd cheered.

Later that evening, I asked Giannoulias how the new micromobility law will be enforced. “E-motos [defined as high-speed, no-pedal electric cycles with a motor of over 750 watts] in particular look a lot like bicycles,” I noted. “When there are news reports about an e-moto crash, like the recent one at Archer and Laramie, they’re usually referred to as e-bikes.”

“We’ve noticed two things,” the secretary of state responded. “The first is there were different regulations depending on what suburb or city. So one town would have a bunch of rules on e-bikes, e-motos, e-unicycles, and the next street over would have nothing. So, number one, we wanted to create some uniformity.”

“The second piece, which was a big deal to me, we saw a lot of parents and grandparents buying e-bikes for nine- and ten-year-olds, not realizing they’d go 40, 50, 60 miles an hour,” Giannoulias added. “So bringing awareness is something that’s really important to us… It’s about working with law enforcement to help regulate some of these vehicles because, as you mentioned, sometimes people call these things e-bikes, and they’re literally motorcycles.”

CDOT’s David Powe was a coworker and friend of Riley O’Neil. He addressed the bike activists in the room. “Your sustained advocacy pushed the City to change its infrastructure, which we know if the most important way to save lives and prevent unnecessary deaths like Riley’s.”

“Over the last couple of months, the department of transportation, the City of Chicago, the advocacy community in Chicago has been heartbroken,” Powe added. “We lost a friend. We lost a family member. We lost a colleague on a painted bike lane where there should have been protection. We know what works. We know what saves lives in Chicago. We know where we should be building this infrastructure.”

Powe then provided statistics that indicate that the street redesigns CDOT has completed in the last few years are preventing serious and fatal crashes. Here’s a list of the numbers he provided (CDOT’s language, edited slightly for SBC publication).

• Chicago now has about 500 miles of bikeways and 70 miles of protected bikeways.
• On protected bike lanes installed between 2022 and 2024, serious and fatal injuries fell 47 percent from 2021 to 2025, compared with a 27 percent reduction citywide.
• Serious and fatal injuries among people walking and biking on those corridors fell 29 percent, compared with 13 percent citywide.
• On several Chicago corridors, CDOT has measured 60-80 percent reductions in the share of drivers exceeding 30 mph, with even larger reductions in extreme speeding in some locations.

Milwaukee Avenue: California to Western avenues

• Total injuries across all modes: down 23 percent
• Serious and fatal injuries: down 38 percent
• Cyclist injuries: down 34 percent
• Comparison: five years before versus five years after installation

Grand Avenue: Chicago (about 2900 W.) to Damen Avenues

• Averaged four serious injuries per year before the project.
• In 2025: one serious injury, a 75 percent reduction. 
• The protected segment also had substantially fewer pedestrian injuries per mile than the adjoining unprotected segment.
• Bicycle volumes: up 52 percent

Other bicycle volume changes

• Dearborn Street: 64 percent increase in average daily September bicycle traffic from 2022 to 2024 after installation of the new protected lane north of Hubbard Street in River North.
• Clark Street in River North: 159 percent increase in average daily August bicycle traffic.

“[These street redesigns] are safer for everyone, and we want to be building that type of infrastructure,” Powe concluded. “And we can only do that when we have sustained advocacy from people like you, and when we have elected officials who support the policies that allow us to do that… I want to thank everyone in this room for all that you do to help us build a safer Chicago. Happy birthday Bike Lane Uprising!”

At the end of the presentations, Whitehouse said 2026 has been a challenging year for BLU. “We’ve never been less resourced than we have, and actually never hauled ass as fast as we have, with the technology that we have.” She heralded the launch of Uprise, described on its website as “Expert-led training courses designed to reduce risk, improve driver performance, and keep your fleet moving safely.”

Whitehouse said it’s a BLU tradition to do shots of Malört, whenever they launch something. “This year has left a particularly bad taste in my mouth, and I would like to leave one in yours.” With that, shots of the spirit, whose flavor is reminiscent of grapefruit rind, pencil shavings, and earwax, were passed around the room, and La Spata and Powe partook.

But that’s not to say the event made attendees feel bitter. Rather, they left the party with a refreshed desire to fight for safer streets.

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