By Michael J. Erickson

Lina Mooth, 82, is a volunteer hall monitor at Little Company of Mary Hospital in Evergreen Park. Her 18-year-old, French-made adult tricycle, for which she paid $700, is parked in the hospital’s schoolyard style bike rack.
“I ride a three-wheeler all around Evergreen Park: to the store, the church, and here to the hospital,” said Mooth. “Cycling is my primary form of transportation, and it keeps me healthy. It is a one-speed, you know. I have to pump it to make it go.”

Lina Mooth with her French-made adult tricycle (photo: Mike Erickson)

Mooth lost vision in one eye in 1987, the same year she bought her tricycle. Then she lost her driver’s license in 1993 due to continued myopic macular degeneration. She now has only peripheral vision in both eyes and is legally blind.

So how has she managed to cycle around Evergreen Park for the past 12 years? Very carefully, she said. Mooth doesn’t ride in the rain; and she doesn’t ride in the winter. On bad days, she gets a lift. Sometimes she signs up, a week in advance, for a van trip provided by the village of Evergreen Park’s Office of Citizen Services. Mostly, Mooth cycles against traffic and on the sidewalks.

“I could ride a stationary bike at home, but I like riding out in the open,” she said. “I know cycling helps my weight and my cardiovascular system -– the doctors agree. If not for winter, I’d cycle year-round.

“Even my dog, Tippy, used to love riding in the basket,” Mooth said. “Now I keep a box with a lid in my rear basket for privacy and security. Families ride together. I ride for pleasure; it’s something to do.”

As a disabled cyclist, she notices that the laws don’t always take her unique challenges into account. “Once a policeman told me I wasn’t supposed to cycle against traffic,” she explained. “I know the rules. The mayor in Chicago is preaching all the time. I know the new citywide fines for sidewalk-riding. Ticket me if you must. The cop let me go without a fine. There should be allowances made for handicapped riders. There should be special tags for handicapped cyclists.

“People like me, we fall through the cracks in the transportation system,” Mooth said. “The way gas is going – a barrel of oil for $67 bucks – more people would like to cycle to work. A lack of decent, dispersed bike parking holds some people back. I know people who would bike, but don’t because of the parking situation. The (hospital) cafeteria chef rides his bike to work, but he locks the bike to a chain in a covered driveway when it rains.

After our conversation I could imagine, visualize, and wish for a happy Lina Mooth riding her tricycle into the sunset, against traffic, laughing all the way home for many years to come. But for now, she was still on duty, safely behind her desk.

As I rode my two-wheeler home, with traffic, my two fairly good eyes on the road, I realized that Lina taught me a new lesson: it’s not how well you see, or how hard you pump, it’s the inherent pleasure of the ride.

Michael J. Erickson is Program Coordinator II, Program Development, for Metra Metropolitan Rail