ADDRESSING QUALITY OF LIFE ISSUES

December 4, 1998

Chicago Tribune

CITY REVVING UP TO BAN MOTORCYCLES ON LAKE SHORE DRIVE AT NIGHT

Gary Washburn, Tribune Staff Writer. Tribune staff writer Monica Davey contributed to this report.

The wee-hour roar of motorcycles on Lake Shore Drive would come to an abrupt end if eight noise-weary lakefront aldermen get their way.

The council members, led by Ald. Barbara Holt (5th), are proposing a ban on all cycles on Lake Shore between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m. daily.

"Since I took office in 1995, I have been bombarded with complaints from people being disturbed in the middle of the night by motorcycles," Holt said Thursday. "Particularly in the summertime, people feel so apprehensive about the possibility that they will be awakened by the awful noise that (the very threat) disturbs them."

The issue was a major topic of conversation at a community meeting in East Hyde Park earlier this week, she said.

"I have people who call me almost hysterical because of sleep deprivation over this," said Ald. Helen Shiller (46th), a co-sponsor of the proposed ban. "They literally get no peace."

Lake Shore Drive is a boulevard where trucks have been prohibited for years and a partial ban on motorcycles is reasonable, supporters contend.

But Todd Vandermyde, a lobbyist for ABATE, a motorcyclists' rights group, contended the proposed ordinance is unconstitutional and runs counter to a new federal law.

"I guess everybody has to have an election issue," he said.

Vandermyde and Holt agree that the new federal statute ensures motorcycles access to highways where federal funds are used for construction, repairs or maintenance. But they diverge on the interpretation of an exemption that can be imposed if a matter of safety is involved.

ABATE contends that the provision is designed to allow cities to ban under-powered motorbikes from using high-speed roads.

But Holt believes a partial prohibition on motorcycles can be imposed on highways such as Lake Shore Drive where, she asserted, overnight cyclists routinely take advantage of wide open stretches of pavement to travel at high speeds.

"There is a place just north of my ward, a Lake Shore Drive bridge at 47th Street, where they love to get up to a high speed and fly over," Holt said.

Police officials report that some speeding cyclists drive their machines off the road into bordering park land to escape pursuing officers, she said.

"If there is a speed limit, enforce the speed limit," Vandermyde declared. "I think they may be embellishing a little bit here. If there were a pattern of high-speed chases where cyclists elude police and wipe out, I think we would have seen that on the front page of the newspaper."

For most concerned about choppers on Lake Shore Drive, however, the primary issue is quality. They complain that some cycles have illegally altered exhaust systems that maximize noise.

The result: a din that echoes and resonates through the condo canyons bordering the lakefront, they said.

"The bottom line in my community is noise," said Ald. Mary Ann Smith (48th), another of the ordinance's co-sponsors. "When the weather starts to get good in spring, my phone starts ringing."

The northern end of Lake Shore Drive terminates in Smith's ward at Hollywood Avenue, and constituents who live on such nearby arterial streets as Sheridan Road and Ridge Avenue are assaulted by the racket of cyclists making their way to or from the highway, Smith said.

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