"Tom Sherman" <
[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> harv wrote:
>
> > It sure isn't Naperville IL!
>
> Harv,
>
> You mean that you don't ride your bike on IL 59?
>
> Some of the older residential and downtown parts of Naperville would not be too bad, but it would
> be near suicidal to ride on any of the major arterials. [1]
>
> [1] In the more recently developed areas, these are often the only way to get anywhere, unless one
> were to ride off-road through private
property.
>
> Tom "Spent most of December in Naperville" Sherman - Quad Cities
>
In almost any Naperville neighborhood of significant size, one is generally able to enter or leave
without being forced directly onto a major arterial road, defining the main arterials as Route 59,
75th Street, Ogden, and Washington, and assuming one is willing to go a bit out of one's way. The
referenced Diehl isn't always bad, depending on time of day and which section you're talking about.
I've ridden on worse. For that matter, very early on summer weekend days you can find about any of
the major arterials rideable, although I wouldn't necessarily recommend it -- Ogden and Washington
less dangerous than the others.
Certainly Naperville is not so terribly bike-antagonistic that individuals can not have biked
several thousand miles within its borders without a major car-related mishap. That said, the traffic
can be horrendous and drivers' attitudes towards cyclers is rather at the lower end of the spectrum
of bike-friendliness. This is typical of most suburbs of major metropolitan areas -- and the metro
areas themselves -- from what I have seen, nothing is particularly special about how bad Naperville
is for bicycling. It is the good biking towns that are exceptions to the car-based culture which
draw our attention to how bad things are for bicycling in general, and may make local bikers
overpersonalize their experiences to demonize one specific area rather than generalize them to the
USA as a whole.
That said, I must admit that it's probably a truism that smaller towns are usually nicer to ride in
than bigger ones because there is a smaller pool of car drivers available to ignore, insult, maim or
kill you. Given Mr. Sherman's posted experience here in both towns, he could tell you that Champaign-
Urbana is nicer to ride in than Naperville and surrounding areas if for no other reason than their
traffic is much lighter. The fact it is doubtless more liberal is probably not a factor.
