Police can choose to stop bikers for traffic law violations in the same way they can stop drivers. Like traffic stops, bike stops can be intended to promote road safety or be a pretense to investigate the biker for potential crimes unrelated to the stop. The problem with these discretionary stops is that they enable police to target Black and Latine bikers to fish for criminal conduct under the guise of traffic safety, and they do not address the root causes of dangerous roads.

• In Chicago, thousands of bikers use the city’s roadways daily to get where they need to go. Yet not all bikers have the same experience on their journeys.

• Historic disinvestment in communities of color and inequitable distribution of infrastructure means Black and Latinx riders on Chicago’s South and West sides face more dangerous road conditions with fewer structural protections.

• Research shows that Chicago’s Black and Latine communities are also subject to disproportionate police enforcement of biking safety laws. Majority-Black and majority-Latine neighborhoods receive disproportionate numbers of bike tickets.

• The number of tickets issued in Chicago is unrelated to serious cyclist crashes but positively associated with the violent crime rate. This suggests the police use bike stops to perform criminal investigations through pretextual stops rather than to enhance biking safety.

To end racially disparate stops of Black and Latine bikers in the city, Chicago must eliminate its use of bike stops for low-level infractions that do not present safety risks. Instead, the city must focus on an approach that research shows will keep bikers safer by investing in traffic and biking infrastructure that protects vulnerable road users and encourages safer driving.