February 8, 2024 - Christina Whitehouse, who founded Bike Lane Uprising in 2017 after a commercial truck almost ran her over while she was biking, was named Chicagoan of the Year by Chicago Magazine.
Whitehouse created an app that let Chicago cyclists upload photos of vehicle obstructions and other biking nightmares — snow plowed into lanes, potholes, faded safety paint. As the number of incidents ticked into the thousands, she started working with city officials to identify repeat offenders and obstruction hot spots.
Bike Lane Uprising celebrated its sixth birthday last September and now documents vehicles illegally blocking bike lanes in cities across America. In 2023, it registered an all-time record high number of submissions to their database, collecting over 65,000 instances of blocked bike lanes.
The organization’s work has been published in almost 100 news and cycling articles, it funded over 2,000 sets of bike lights through its bike light giveaway program in 2023, and it helped get the Post Crash Ordinance for vulnerable road users passed in Chicago. The ordinance requires the city to conduct a post-crash investigation when a person biking or walking is killed, and provide recommendations on how to improve the safety of the location, and do a better job of transparent record keeping.
Read more about the Chicagoan of the Year award here, and about Bike Lane Uprising here.
