The Chainlink

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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Getting tougher to be loyal to my bike.  Brrrr!  :-)

Oh, come on! It's only in the 30s. What do you do when it gets below zero?  ^_^

Steve

Domenica Cresap said:

Getting tougher to be loyal to my bike.  Brrrr!  :-)

I think you are riding close to the "edge", but the taxi driver may not have been as aware of you as he should have been. TK and Tricolor have some sensible suggestions. Mine would be to add an air horn to your bike... I've found it very helpful in announcing my presence.

Steve

Michael Perez said:

I encountered this guy today........Maybe I was riding in too tight. What do you think?

It's on the cabbie for not signaling.  I would have stopped in front of his car and let him know that too.

Michael Perez said:

I encountered this guy today........Maybe I was riding in too tight. What do you think?

Ha! At least he had a profane sense of humor.

The only place I've been chastised by a cop for going through controlled intersections against my signal was in, of all places, Detroit. I say "of all places" because I spent years watching DPD patrol cars do roll-throughs at red lights all over the city. I had gotten caught out in a rain storm and was hustling home up E. Jefferson past appx. Pewabic and the water plant when a cruiser went by and broadcast through the speaker at me that I should have stopped at that red....thanks, but I just wanted to get home and dry :)

Chi Lowe 12.5+ mi said:

True story, retold here in homage to the cop who let me slide with an 'F-bomb' up on Bryn Mawr a week or two ago... when I heading back to the LFP to zoom back to the office, where, I'll admin (after donning my flame-proof suit) I was blowing stop sign after stop sign, because there was no cross traffic.  

Listening behind me, I noticed that a car seemed to be keeping up - rare, since they tend to kind of fall off in a situation where there are multiple stops back to back.  I finally reached a stop with cross traffic, stopped, and when I looked back and there it was: the car keeping up (because it was not stopping either) was an unmarked police car.  

The officer inside leaned over at me, and yelled: "Hey, jagoff can you f@!ing read?". 

"Yes", I responded.

"So what does that f@!ing sign say", he gestured, pointing to the STOP sign I had just stopped for.

"Um... Slow down?" I joked, smiling.

He paused for a moment.

"You know what buddy?  F@!k you.", he said, driving away.

Wherever you are officer, thanks for not writing me six tickets.

Two car story this morning:

1) Thanks to the driver of the red mini that honked at me when I was entering an intersection under a green light in Rogers Park this morning, because

2) of the Blue minivan that blew the red light at 30 mph right in front of me.

If not for the warning honk I would have been creamed. 

To the officer whose vehicle was parked in the bike lane on Jackson this evening in front of the Chicago Police Education and Training Academy:

When I passed and commented "It is against the law to park in a bike lane", I couldn't quite hear your response... but it didn't sound like an acknowledgement.

For your information, parking in a bike lane is a violation of MCC 9-40-060 ("Drive/park vehicle on bicycle lane/path, marked shared lane") and is punishable by a fine and immediate towing.

I refer you to "Traffic Enforcement for Bicyclist Safety- Chicago Police" (Here: VIDEO).

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Steve Weeks, DDS

To my local alderman (not Chicago):  Not only have you made a bunch of stupid comments in email responses to me and generally told me what I want to hear while doing exactly bupkis about actually improving biking conditions in my area, today I had the pleasure of being passed by you on my commute.  While you did leave the required 3 feet, you did it by pulling into the left turn lane on both sides of the intersection you passed me in.  So, thanks for that... 

I was waiting at a red light on EB Chicago at halsted yesterday in the late afternoon. Halsted went red and the left turn arrow for traffic turning from Chicago onto Halsted went green, and then a woman on an upright bike cruised through her red light and full speed in the face of turning traffic in a state of utter, blithe oblivion. What are people thinking when they do this??

You assume that they're thinking.

David P. said:

I was waiting at a red light on EB Chicago at halsted yesterday in the late afternoon. Halsted went red and the left turn arrow for traffic turning from Chicago onto Halsted went green, and then a woman on an upright bike cruised through her red light and full speed in the face of turning traffic in a state of utter, blithe oblivion. What are people thinking when they do this??

You: the pedestrian standing in the southbound bike lane on Milwaukee by the bus stop just south of California. Me: the bicyclist who called out to you to please move from the bike lane. I couldn't hear what you yelled back at me but I'm quite sure from the tone it wasn't "Thanks, you're right, I shouldn't stand in the street!" 

As an aside, I'm tired of the anti-bicyclist rants from pedestrians who know someone who know someone who got hit by a bike and was maimed. If pedestrians are so concerned about their safety, they'd do well to 1) look before crossing the street, 2) not jaywalk between large vehicles, and 3) not stand or walk in the street. 

Last week as I was riding down the Dearborn lane in the loop, I stopped at a red light at which I was about to turn right once crossing traffic cleared. A gaggle of women walked out into the lane and stood there chattering, and i said, nicely, "ladies, you're standing in a traffic lane." They excused themselves and stepped back, and as I turned I heard one of them say to the others, "....they'll run your ass over!..." Well, yeah, that can happen when you stand in traffic :)

Cheryl said:

You: the pedestrian standing in the southbound bike lane on Milwaukee by the bus stop just south of California. Me: the bicyclist who called out to you to please move from the bike lane. I couldn't hear what you yelled back at me but I'm quite sure from the tone it wasn't "Thanks, you're right, I shouldn't stand in the street!" 

As an aside, I'm tired of the anti-bicyclist rants from pedestrians who know someone who know someone who got hit by a bike and was maimed. If pedestrians are so concerned about their safety, they'd do well to 1) look before crossing the street, 2) not jaywalk between large vehicles, and 3) not stand or walk in the street. 

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