The Chainlink

 

Hello my name is Dario.  I am typing this one handed because of an injury sustained while biking.  Obviously I did not die but if you want people to read your story you have to have a headline that grabs attention.  I am/was a year round cyclist who started commuting to work at the age of 32 (nearly 3 years now).  I know I am late to the party.  I started riding to lose weight but ended up loving it.  I love riding in Critical Mass, the clarity it gives me in the morning, and the way the way stress falls away on the ride home.  I love it so much I strong armed my best friend to follow me in biking.  It was easy to do when he saw my weight loss.  At first it bothered me to be the “crazy bike rider” who rides in the winter, but I got over it and now wear it like a badge of courage.  Besides I was never one to go with the flow.  I am a bit of a safety nerd.  While I don’t wear lime green spandex I always have lights and wear my helmet (not that it should matter).   I am extremely cautious and courteous.  I stop at stop signs,  don’t salmon, ride on side streets to minimize my interaction with “cagers”, and yell on your left when I pass people.  Yesterday while riding on the lake path a rollerblader (are they really still around), stepped in front of me after I shouted “on your left” and I ran into her.  I fell and separated my left shoulder. I have never felt pain like this.   She walked away.  In pain and furious I screamed at her to “get the fuck away from me before I beat your ass”, so I did not get her info.  Thank  God I have insurance.  Through no fault of my own, I will be out of commission for about a month.  

My wife and I brought home our newborn son Tuesday the 26th, and I can’t even hold him in my arms.  That hurts some much more than my shoulder.   This injury has saddled her with extra chores since I can do so little with one hand.  At the time in our lives when she needs me most I am a burden.  This is so unfair.  She has always been supportive(despite her reservations) and even liked buying me workout/cycling clothes.  

I cannot in good conscience continue to risk my well being with so many ignorant, discourteous, self centered, and just plain stupid people out there.  When it was just me I could rationalize it but I have a family now and I don’t want to miss any of it.  In short I am hanging it up, throwing in the towel, and giving up.   I did not write this for sympathy, or to hear people try and change my mind, i just needed to vent to like minded people.  Will I still bike, probably, but not as much.  If you’ve been a cyclist for a day you’ve probably had a close call, so you know what i mean.  I can not justify the risk any longer.  Thank you for reading this.  Goodbye.

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It might just be in the downtown area, there are yellow stripes demarcating the "big lanes," and then there are white stripes that (very possible the signs have faded to oblivion) say Ped, or something like that.

 

I understand people aren't going to stay walking single-file along the right edge of course, but the rule of thumb is slow to the right regardless (same as escalators on the CTA, standees to the right, walkers on the left). 

 

What I find most ridiculous about the situation is that on the lakefront besides the LFP you have a 1/4 mile of beach, parkland, and, b/n Oak and Navy Pier, other concrete.  What is it with people that they intrinsically are drawn to where they don't belong?  Nobody should ever be walking right down the middle of the LFP, yet it happens daily, and the bike cops don't do a bloody thing about it. 

 

A good example of poorly-thought out design - that "jogger path" that runs along the LFP just south of Fullerton - almost nobody uses it.  Waste of space, waste of money.  Put a dedicated bike lane along that western strip, it could be done, there are a few trees which would need to be moved and other obstacles, but putting pedestrians in a situation where they always need to cross the LFP to go from the beach to a hot dog stand or the restrooms is so shortsighted it's almost evil.

 

I agree with the poster that said it would be worth the time and effort to completely rethink the LFP, it has too many inconsistent markings, too many conflict zones (benches and kiosks right off the path), and most importantly, doesn't separate wheels and heels.  A *good* example of how that was done can be directly credited to ATA/Chicago Bike Fed, which had a new path made to go around (on the west) of the North Ave beach house - for decades that was the worst part of the path, now it's about the best.

 

On announcing ourselves to potential people crossing our path, there really isn't a perfect option.  I don't have the lungpower or desire to be able to yell "On your left" 200 ft before I pass someone, and often the path is so crowded nothing you say would ever make an impact.  Thinking the bell is well worth the $15 investment...


S said:



Carter O'Brien said:

It's just common sense.  The LFP does have stripes indicating where the bikes go, and where the pedestrians go, and the default etiquette in Chicago is always slow on the right, passing on the left.

I haven't really noticed stripes separating pedestrian and bike portions of the path, where is this located?  The vast majority of the path has a striped line down the middle separating north and south bound traffic and that's about it.

The bike/person/horse/skater/stroller in front of you should always have the right of way. So even if you ring or yell "ON YOUR LEFT, KIND SIR or MADAM", it's one's responsibility to avoid a collision.

 

This is analogous to tailgating for cars. Very often on the fast lane of Interstates. Another example is skiing, where the person below you has the right of way.

 

Still, bells >>> "On your left"  IMO.

What surprises me the most about this discussion (and watching the behavior of some riders on the LFP) is that there seems to be sense of entitlement to the right of way over all other path users.

 

I'm sorry to say that an overtaking bicycle does NOT have the right of way over the other users in front him him/her going the same way regardless of how loud they yell, how many bells, whistles, air-horns or firecrackers they deploy to get the walkers/joggers/roller-blader's attention.

 

It's a matter of courtesy for slower users to let the faster movers by -just like it is on the road. But it not required and the faster bicycles are NOT ambulances or emergency vehicles that DO have the right of way in these situations.  

I would like to apologize for the lack of sympathy in my previous post. Especially when you have children, you think differently.

 

I would like to encourage Dario to not give up, to reflect on it and take away an important lesson. We've all been there. We've all had near misses, or hits, and had to acknowledge that we have to do what's in our control.

 

There's a psychological phenomena occurring here. I live near Lincoln and Cullom where the cyclist was k****d last month. My wife saw the mangled bike and told me about it -very upsettedly. I found myself wanting to blame the cyclist. Why? Because if it wasn't the bicyclists "fault" then the bicyclist had no control over the situation.

 

That means that I, too, don't have complete control when I'm out riding my bike - I'm at the mercy of someone else. That's a difficult reality to be confronted with. Especially when severe injury or worse is factored in.


That's why I don't ride my bicycle down Ashland. Or Western.

 

Somebody can always come out of nowhere and injure us, but we have to be tenacious in taking as much control over our riding situation as we can. - it's ultimately our best way of keeping safe. Being "in the right" doesn't matter much after the accident, because it's the bicyclist who will generally be injured. And it's no fun to be the one that caused somebody else's injury, either!

 

Perhaps a few "bell awareness" or "rules of the LFP" signs are in order?

 

 

Not necessarily.  I think you're assuming the person in front is more-or-less behaving according to basic path etiquette.  But just because it often is ignored does not mean it doesn't exist- of course there are basic rules for the path, if there weren't they wouldn't have lanes there in the first place.

 

I've been riding to/on the lakefront since the early 80s, most people are and always have been respectful of those around them, but jerks will be jerks regardless of what their mode of transport is & nobody should get a free pass to do so simply as they aren't on a bike. 

 

People walking 3 or 4 abreast and taking both lanes have no business complaining about a cyclist yelling at them, it's not the cyclist creating the bottleneck, it's them.  Walking a dog you can't control because of a 15' extendable leash on the path is criminally stupid and selfish.

 

And rollerbladers aren't analogous to cars on the highway in front of you unless said car is weaving back and forth from one lane to another.  If a car did that, it would be pulled over, and the driver given a breathalyzer test for driving like a drunk.  Your other example of tailgating in the passing lane is an example of more gray area - I have seen plenty of reasonable interpretations of the law which describe the left lane as both a "fast lane" (inferred by signs that say "Slower traffic keep right") as well as a "passing lane" (which means pass the guy in front of you and then move back over to the right.

 

I'm not defending the Tour de France wanna-be's who are trying to bike 25 mph on a Saturday afternoon or during the evening rush hour.  I'm actually not supporting the idea a cyclist is entitled to pass people, period.

 

But there are basic rules of etiquette for the LFP, and generally cyclists are far, far, far removed from the worst offenders camp.  I'm not surrendering my right to ride a bike at a moderate speed along the only extended car-free stretch of Chicago just because people feel they should be able to watch volleyball while standing in the path, or to turn the LFP into a dog park where they socialize in the middle of it.

 

MagMileMarauder said:

The bike/person/horse/skater/stroller in front of you should always have the right of way. So even if you ring or yell "ON YOUR LEFT, KIND SIR or MADAM", it's one's responsibility to avoid a collision.

 

This is analogous to tailgating for cars. Very often on the fast lane of Interstates. Another example is skiing, where the person below you has the right of way.

 

Still, bells >>> "On your left"  IMO.

Why should we, as cyclists, expect people to move out of our way as if we were emergency vehicles; way to share the road.

Rowbike Mike said:

 

It sounds like the response we want from pedestrians and others on the path is similar to what automobile drivers (should) do when an ambulance or fire truck is trying to get to an emergency - i.e., watch out for the vehicle that needs to get past you.  I wonder if the solution is to have, not a siren, but something that you can activate early enough, and which repeats a noise, so that people aren't caught off guard.  Maybe it's just as simple as continuously ringing a bell as you approach someone from behind to pass. 


Stop for a second and think about how the original post reads to someone who is not a cyclist.  The O/P screamed a threat at somebody who did not mean to cause an accident; can you blame them for taking off on the whole scene?

Ruby Red said:

 

I think the general sarcasm on this thread is a little surprising and unnecessary. The guy had a serious scare and now he has a baby he can't even hold because of it. He's making a personal choice. Don't judge. Take it as informational and make your own decisions.

Some of the reasoning I'm readiing sounds just like what is going through a car-driver head when us damn slow bicyclists are in their way.  Beep-BEEP!  Get on the sidewalk and off the road!

 


notoriousDUG said:

Why should we, as cyclists, expect people to move out of our way as if we were emergency vehicles; way to share the road.


Who died?  When's the funeral?  It definitely wasn't hyperbole - that's alive and well.  Thanks for the movie recommendation.
Between May and October, with very few exceptions, the Lake Front Path is neither a suitable nor a safe place to ride a bike. I can't say I never ride it, but I ride it about as frequently as I ride on Western Avenue.

For the OP I hope you called the hotline and taking a break is probably good. In a couple months you'll have some better perspective and able to decide better what you should do. Don't forget the other positive benefits of cycling you'll bring as a dad: calmer, in a better mood when you get home compared to aggravated dealing with public transportation or driving, fitter, more time to spend, etc.

 

re: the LFP, Thursday i was passed by  this guy going a bit fast  . It looks like I am going faster than I remember, I remember barely moving, but even for going slow in the Oak street curve area I still slowed down a lot when I saw the barely supervised kid on the left, then I heard this guy yell "watch your kid!" as he zoomed by.


As though he's doing them a favor. Of course the kid shouldn't be on the path, but is he prepared to stop if the kid steps in front of him?

 

When I ride the Lakefront Path in the day, I enjoy it for what it is. I enjoy seeing all the people, I enjoy negotiating the space respectfully with others, it's like a mobile park.

 

I really like riding the Lakefront Path at night, though! Especially the side trails. This evening I sat by the lake by Addison for a while. I noticed there were stars, which are hard to see in the city. And of all things, I saw a shooting star, burning up in the atmosphere. That was cool. On Sunday mornings, the area around the Montrose bird Sanctuary is really cool. I like waking up really early and heading out there. The cool morning air, and the sounds and smells that only happen at that time. Then I ride down to Belmont, cut over to Lincoln and ride home.

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