Hey, in Chicago we frown on your opening a retail establishment!

Hey jackass! What do you think your doing? This is a bike thoroughfare, not a retail infested boulevard. Go to the suburbs where you belong! Better still move out of state.

Chicago’s New Bike Lanes Spark a Rebellion From Businesses

Cycling lanes that replace parking draw backlash from merchants, who say they are losing customers. ‘Bring back common sense.’

By Joe Barrett

July 30, 2026 7:00 am ET

Jose Luis Maya, owner of Deportes Maya, outside his store next to the Archer Avenue bike lane. Joe Barrett/WSJ

CHICAGO—When Maria Moctezuma learned that a project on busy Archer Avenue would replace on-street parking with bike lanes and reduce traffic from two lanes to one, she mobilized residents and grabbed a bullhorn to protest.

“We don’t need that,” said Moctezuma, a 47-year-old ride-share driver who raised her children in the neighborhood. She launched “Archer Guardians of Brighton Park,” a Facebook group now up to 2,600 members, many of whom vent about a perceived war on cars with posts such as “Stop taking away parking. Stop these waste of money bike lanes. Bring back common sense.”

But a biking faction quickly pushed back. Gil “Pookie” Campos, 59, a warehouse manager and devoted cyclist from the neighborhood, rallied his Instagram followers to counterprotest the Archer Guardians. “There’s plenty of Archer to go around,” read one supporter’s sign, depicting a car, bus and a bicycle wheel.

Maria Moctezuma; pro-bike demonstrators on Archer Avenue.Claudia Zuno, Gil Campos

The Archer Avenue standoff mirrors nationwide friction: As cities have installed hundreds of miles of bike lanes, often capitalizing on federal grants and a pandemic-era cycling boom, locals are revolting against lost parking and congestion. Last week, U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy sent a letter to senators calling on them to restrict federal funding for bike lanes that hamper traffic flow. Now, a backlash to the backlash is emerging as cyclists aggressively defend hard-won protected lanes.

In Chicago, weekly protests grew so heated that police showed up to keep the two sides apart.

‘They don’t stop’

The fights are playing out in statehouses and city halls, where officials are increasingly trying to balance the popularity of biking—to commute, shop or recreate—with local interests that rely on parking and the efficient movement of vehicles.

In California, where some cities have ripped out new bike lanes, cycling advocates are pushing a bill to make removal harder; the measure has passed the state Senate. In Washington, D.C., the Washington Area Bicyclist Association successfully stopped the Trump administration from imminently removing popular bike lanes on 15th Street—running from the Jefferson Memorial to the far side of the National Mall.

Chicago, under its “complete streets” design program, has been reworking the Archer Avenue area since last year, narrowing the main lane to calm traffic and adding consistent left-turn lanes, pedestrian islands and improved crosswalks.

The flashpoint, however, remains the removal of several blocks of on-street parking in favor of protected bike lanes.

Jose Luis Maya, the owner of Deportes Maya, has sold jerseys, shoes and soccer balls on Archer for 24 years. Previously, roughly a dozen parking spots existed on his block. Now there are just four, and they are down the street in front of the library. He estimates his business is down by about 30%. When people call and hear there is no parking, he said, they go elsewhere.

“This isn’t a biking area,” he insisted, noting that he sees more people riding bikes and scooters on sidewalks than in the lanes.

The cyclists who do roll by don’t come in, said Gustavo Hernandez, who stood nearby in his mostly empty restaurant, Taqueria Y Birrieria Morelia, at lunchtime. Bike lanes installed on his street last October slashed parking and, he said, drastically cut into his business. When asked if cyclists make up for lost customers, he shook his head.

“They pass and they go,” he said, “but they don’t stop.”

‘Stick it to them’

While the redesign had been in the works for several years, some small-business leaders complain they were left out of the planning process.

Shop windows now sport “2 Lanes Not 1” signs. Opponents have torn down some, according to business owners.

The competing factions faced off at rallies on Archer Avenue for months. Moctezuma, of the Archer Guardians, became known as “Megaphone Lady.”

At one protest, the cyclists were poking fun at Moctezuma’s group for being outnumbered, so she began counting how many passing drivers honked their horn in support, versus how many passing cyclists rang their bell. Her tally: more than 100 horns to zero bells, she said. “That’s one of the ways we would stick it to them.”

Her side won a partial concession: In late April, the city agreed to restore 17 parking spaces along several blocks of Archer, though shopkeepers call that a fraction of what was lost.

Meanwhile, city officials defend the changes on Archer as safety upgrades, not just bike-lane additions. “Archer is like a mini-expressway,” said Alderwoman Julia Ramirez, describing cars and trucks darting in and out on the diagonal road before the changes.

Still, the frustration is spreading to other Chicago neighborhoods.

“Right now, we don’t have a seat at the table,” said Carlos Chavarria, president pro tem of the newly formed Southwest Chamber of Commerce and co-owner of Kristoffer’s Cakes. “If we suffer, the community suffers.”

At a recent meeting, the group discussed how businesses could have a greater voice in plans for additional bike lanes on 35th Street.

Not everyone at the meeting agreed. Andrew Mack, 42, a cyclist who runs a government-affairs business, believes better cycling infrastructure will help wean people from their cars, particularly for short trips. “Bringing a 4,000-pound machine with you to go to a yoga class isn’t necessarily the best use of our public resources,” he said.

The backlash might soon reach the ballot box. Claudia Zuno, a 51-year-old photographer, launched a campaign fueled by bike-lane opposition to challenge Alderwoman Ramirez in the February election.

“This is a working-class community,” Zuno said, where residents haul work tools in a truck or ferry elderly people to the doctor in the family car. “People rely on their vehicles not out of luxury but of necessity.”