Chicago is a great place to ride—that is, depending on the time of day. In that way, I would imagine that it’s probably a lot like most major cities. When traffic is light, you can get where you need to go with minimal interruption. Since you’re not expending all your mental and physical energy concentrating on stop-and-go traffic, you have more capacity to enjoy every sensory delight that your city has to offer. Super early in the morning or extremely late at night are absolute dreams for low-stress riding.
Of course, very few of us can consistently choose what time we need to go out and do things. Most of us have jobs, errands, appointments, family obligations, meetups with friends—you know, the stuff of everyday life. If you live or work in a city like Chicago, chances are good that you’ve been stuck in some gnarly traffic snarls more than once (and that’s not even touching on construction).
