The Chainlink

Think of this as a Missed Connection.

You blew the red light east bound on Lawrence at Damen at 5:26 pm this evening.

 

There was enough time for the biker in front of me to make it half way into the intersection, northbound on Damen, before you came whizzing past my front wheel.

 

I yelled "You're an idiot!" at your big haired chick, self, and you looked back at me. I meant it!

 

I woulda testified for any of the cars, that managed to not kill you, if they had.

 

Keep riding like a tard!

love,

gabe

 

Witness bad behavior during your commute? Feel free to post. Maybe that lovely human can read it and think they are famous. Maybe you can also inspire the whole generation of kids to shower but we can start with small things.

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Jaik S. on June 8, 2018 at 1:33pm

Dear Navy Buick Sedan,

 I know, you're in a car, you're special. So special. What makes you more special is you figured out that if you drive on the one way streets parallel to Logan Boulevard, you can go really fast and avoid all that pesky peasant rush hour traffic. I should have known that you were behind me and overly excited to show me how fast you can go. While you only honked once while the GF and I were approaching an intersection, It was my mistake to think that you wouldn't speed by me showing your skill of how close you can get to me on my bike without knocking me off. I apologize. Now I know how special you are.

Yesterday our time was too quick. Hopefully I can see you there today. Really, I'd love to see you again.

Permalink Reply by Matt Talbert on June 18, 2018 at 8:47am

I have two from this early morning in Park Ridge.

1. You were heading north on Prospect and proceeded at the Oakton stop light when it was still red with cars present. What was the gain of that? Prospect is not a busy street, so there is no need to jump ahead. There was no incentive to proceed here except to give the community more fodder to hate us.

2. The second was a double faux pas. I stopped at the Belleplaine/Cumberland stop sign that was pretty busy for the morning rush. Not only did you shoal right around me, you completely blew the stop sign. Are you trying to cause an accident? If so you are on the right track.

Permalink Reply by Doug Haynes on June 18, 2018 at 9:06am

Did either of the cyclists cause a car to have to hit its brakes?

Did you overtake the second cyclist after they passed you?  Because if not you did not get shoaled, you got passed.

Permalink Reply by Matt Talbert on June 18, 2018 at 9:35am

Them red light runners!

Permalink Reply by Alex Z on June 18, 2018 at 12:50pm

I'm confused about the Congress to Lake to Adams route?

Permalink Reply by Matt Talbert on June 18, 2018 at 9:59am

#1 was stopped and waited for an opening on Oakton, then proceeded even though the light was still red. This one did not force a hard stop by a car. There was another cyclist behind him that waited for the green...just sayin.

#2 was never in front of me. I stopped at the stop sign, the other guy did not at all. He came hard and zipped from my left side to make a left turn. He did force a car to make a hard stop and was honked at, rightfully so. Admittedly not a true shoal, but an unsafe/unnecessary move IMO. I would not have mentioned him if he at least did an Idaho stop.

Permalink Reply by Doug Haynes on June 19, 2018 at 5:46am

Why do you care what #1 did, it has no real effect on you.

#2 is an asshole.

Permalink Reply by Matt Talbert on June 19, 2018 at 8:11am

Re #1: I am sure this could go down the rabbit hole, so I'll give my $0.02 and move on. In a way #1 can impact me and the community. What he did was run a red light at the start of the morning rush, so other cars can see and have more fodder to hate the cycling community. I'm aware there are circumstances when you can proceed, but this clearly was not one of those circumstances. It also occurred in the city I live in where we are in the midst of a fight for bike infrastructure. Next thing you know, when our bike infrastructure is on the city council agenda, enough citizens may come in and complain about red light runners and stop sign blowers, and boom, bike lanes are gone.

Permalink Reply by Steve Weeks on June 19, 2018 at 8:44am

I second (or third) this. On my 2-mile ride from METRA to work this morning I observed 3 bike riders running red lights in front of motorists. "Good will" is a very intangible commodity, and as Matt says ^^ this unlawful (and, really, inconsiderate) behavior could come back to bite us all in the ass.

Permalink Reply by Doug Haynes on June 19, 2018 at 5:09pm

I think you highly overestimate how big of an effect these actions have on peoples perception of cyclists...

People in cars hate bikes because they perceive us as in the way and slowing them down.

I'll start to think about paying attention to traffic laws when cars do... 

Permalink Reply by Yasmeen on June 19, 2018 at 9:01am

Ok, to those that are mad at the "red light runners", what do you recommend as a solution? I don't know that shaming them does any good whether it's on the road or on social media. 

One of my friends in my women's cycling group had this excellent response to when she is dealing with drivers, cyclists, etc. - she encourages them to "do better" instead of swearing/shaking fist/shaming. I'm going to admit, I don't know that I am personally at that Zen place when people fly past me on the right in a bike lane without a peep. Or a driver cuts me off in the bike lane. 

To play devil's advocate, red light runners are annoying but what is dangerous is a driver running a red light or turning without notice or texting while driving. If I am going to focus my frustrations, I tend to focus it there because motorists are in massive SUVs which makes them scary dangerous. I try to focus on motorists because they can be dangerous, deadly. The rest may or may not annoy me on my commute. I try not to let it because I love riding my bike and want to enjoy that ride as best I can so I ignore what doesn't put me in direct harm's way. Just a thought.

Permalink Reply by Carter O'Brien on June 19, 2018 at 9:15am

It may not be frequent, but cars trying to avoid red light runners have most definitely caused accidents, some of them fatal, over the years.

So whether shaming them per se is a solution is somewhat secondary to the larger issue of cyclists en masse recognizing that this is not necessarily a victimless crime. Do I lose a lot of sleep over the issue? No, and we all compromise in the course of our lives. But cyclists defending it as  standard, acceptable practice are a problem, and if they get called out, well, they bring it on themselves.

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