Cyclists are shutting down streets to demand safer rides

AS PROTESTS GO, few are as good-natured as those led by Bike Grid Now, a Chicago-based group of cyclists. On one held early in the morning of October 26th, three dozen or so cyclists gathered outside the Loop, Chicago’s downtown, before cycling together to Daley Plaza, next to City Hall. Riding various sorts of bicycles—from the basic bikes of the city’s “Divvy” hire scheme to electric ones with child seats—they cycled around the block, spreading across all three lanes, before pausing outside the entrance to block car traffic. After a police officer, who was also on a bicycle, politely told them that they had five minutes before he would have to arrest them, they rang their bells and chanted demands for bike lanes. A few minutes later the group, made up largely of 30-something white professionals, dispersed to their jobs in the nearby offices.