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 Crazy David 84 Furlongs on September 20, 2012 at 11:02pm
You were wearing black with no lights on a dark stretch of Clark street. I was in my car. You were weaving in and out of traffic.
Permalink Reply by Far'arned Retrogrumpalunkus #63 on September 21, 2012 at 6:19am

Shame on you both...

David crZven said:

You were wearing black with no lights on a dark stretch of Clark street. I was in my car. You were weaving in and out of traffic.
Permalink Reply by Anne Alt on September 21, 2012 at 9:24am

In a situation like that, you can call the police but you ask for a supervisor.  Some of them are good, some are not.  It's police roulette.

Dovah Cat said:

To the cop barreling down the LFP just south of the Edgewater roundabout this morning around 9 AM - holy sheets, dude. You were definitely going over 20 mph, and did not move although you seemed to notice I was riding directly towards you, north, in the right lane of the path. We played the "which way is who going" game for a few scary seconds and you did not slow down or move out of my way. I rolled off to the right, pointing to show you I was moving away from your unnecessarily giant car, and you flew past me, no eye contact, nothing. (to the cyclist behind the cop car who acknowledged my frustration - thank you) I am not an advocate of U-lock justice, but I considered chasing you down and having a friendly conversation... especially after one of your buddies almost mowed me down by 71st last week, driving North on South Shore Drive (I think that's the street) ONTO the trail with no turn signal. While staring at an oncoming cyclist - me. Who does one call in these situations? The police? Ha! 

I thought about making this a thread when I got home. Has anyone else had similar issues with cars, specifically police SUVs, on the Path? I need a new place to ride. Yeargh.

In addition, some lovely reptilian Desperate Housewives in Beamers drove ONTO the path to roll down their windows and talk at the two-way stop by Belmont Harbor... 

I respect the trail to the extent that I won't try to sprint through a congested area or get all indignant, but cars on the trail are dangerous. I expect "stupid" on the LFP, but usually it's in a smaller, less threatening package. 

Permalink Reply by Meg Matthews on October 5, 2012 at 4:32pm

You had an awesome bike path to use called the Lakefront Path, but instead you rode up the ramp and tore down our caution tape so you could shortcut through our property. When a staff member pointed out that the caution tape--and security guard you blew past--were there for a reason, and that you were biking through a film site with lots of heavy equipment (which is why we had it cordoned off), you asked her why you should care and snapped: "This stuff is a nuisance!"

Well, actually, this "stuff" is a project that's employing about 100 Chicagoans for an extended period of time, so it's only a nuisance if you prefer high unemployment levels. Also, you almost ran over staff members and you were a complete jerk. Hope it was worth the 30 seconds it saved you.

Permalink Reply by Tricolor on October 5, 2012 at 5:30pm

Sic Vince Vaughn on them.

Permalink Reply by Joon Kim on October 5, 2012 at 6:28pm

Have to disagree Gabe.  I cycle to work on Lincoln from Lawrence to downtown almost every day.  I would say less than 10 percent of bikers follow traffic rules, and I'm not just talking about rolling through stop signs.  The majority of cyclists blow through red lights, even when there is clearly traffic present.  I think cyclists in the US have to change their attitude toward traffic laws if we're going to continue to increase cycling and cycling infrastructure.  The problem is not just with 'bad cyclists'.  The problem is ingrained in our cycling culture which defends, denies and excuses unsafe riding practices.  Cycling in Europe is a completely different experience and everyone is expected to follow the rules.  There are even cycle specific traffic lights.  One of the biggest ironies is that unlike in Europe, almost everyone here wears helmets.  Just wish more members of the cycling community would use the head they're protecting a bit more.

Gabe said:

Registration comes all the time and always has but implementation and enforcement would be cost prohibitive and impossible. i have 3 bikes right now. Register all? 1 plate for all 3? and when the bike gets stolen should i expect CPD to look for it like they would a car?

More fun to just howl at the moon, or in this case, bad cyclists. (ps on 848 on NPR they had a mini-bike sumit and some random asshead caller said 70-80% of all bikers break traffic laws. 20-30% obey. with no logical or noted back up. so all the people that saw the 3 bad riders we noted will remember them ridin like idiots and not us stopping.) yay!
Permalink Reply by Far'arned Retrogrumpalunkus #63 on October 5, 2012 at 6:41pm

The myth of the scofflaw cyclist

OBEY!


Joon Kim said:

Have to disagree Gabe.  I cycle to work on Lincoln from Lawrence to downtown almost every day.  I would say less than 10 percent of bikers follow traffic rules, and I'm not just talking about rolling through stop signs.  The majority of cyclists blow through red lights, even when there is clearly traffic present.  I think cyclists in the US have to change their attitude toward traffic laws if we're going to continue to increase cycling and cycling infrastructure.  The problem is not just with 'bad cyclists'.  The problem is ingrained in our cycling culture which defends, denies and excuses unsafe riding practices.  Cycling in Europe is a completely different experience and everyone is expected to follow the rules.  There are even cycle specific traffic lights.  One of the biggest ironies is that unlike in Europe, almost everyone here wears helmets.  Just wish more members of the cycling community would use the head they're protecting a bit more.


Permalink Reply by Joon Kim on October 5, 2012 at 7:05pm

The reality of scofflaw drivers is no excuse to be a scofflaw cyclist.  Cyclists get nowhere fast by pointing fingers at drivers.  In fact that finger isn't going to do you a lot of good when you get hit by a driver. Yeah there are bad drivers but they're in a 2 ton machine and you're on a bike.  If you blow the red light and there's a collision, you're gonna die.  Doesn't matter if the driver sucks, isn't paying attention and didn't see you.  Doesn't matter if cyclists deserve the right of way no matter what.  Inattentive pedestrians, people who open doors without looking, rollerbladers who swerve back and forth and dumb ass drivers are no excuse for cyclists to break the rules.  Cyclists should do better than all of them because we are better.  

Don't be this guy:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/05/opinion/sunday/if-kant-were-a-new...

James BlackHeron said:

The myth of the scofflaw cyclist

OBEY!


Joon Kim said:

Have to disagree Gabe.  I cycle to work on Lincoln from Lawrence to downtown almost every day.  I would say less than 10 percent of bikers follow traffic rules, and I'm not just talking about rolling through stop signs.  The majority of cyclists blow through red lights, even when there is clearly traffic present.  I think cyclists in the US have to change their attitude toward traffic laws if we're going to continue to increase cycling and cycling infrastructure.  The problem is not just with 'bad cyclists'.  The problem is ingrained in our cycling culture which defends, denies and excuses unsafe riding practices.  Cycling in Europe is a completely different experience and everyone is expected to follow the rules.  There are even cycle specific traffic lights.  One of the biggest ironies is that unlike in Europe, almost everyone here wears helmets.  Just wish more members of the cycling community would use the head they're protecting a bit more.


Permalink Reply by Far'arned Retrogrumpalunkus #63 on October 5, 2012 at 7:13pm

You read the first 2 lines and extrapolated the rest, didn't you?  Here's a hint:  You might have gotten it wrong.

Permalink Reply by Vilda on October 5, 2012 at 9:07pm

Joon, did we take a time machine back to the time of I Don't Give a Shit? You wanna debate use a different thread. This thread is clearly about Missed Connections. You only Missed the Point. :-)



Joon Kim said:

Have to disagree Gabe.  I cycle to work on Lincoln from Lawrence to downtown almost every day.  I would say less than 10 percent of bikers follow traffic rules, and I'm not just talking about rolling through stop signs.  The majority of cyclists blow through red lights, even when there is clearly traffic present.  I think cyclists in the US have to change their attitude toward traffic laws if we're going to continue to increase cycling and cycling infrastructure.  The problem is not just with 'bad cyclists'.  The problem is ingrained in our cycling culture which defends, denies and excuses unsafe riding practices.  Cycling in Europe is a completely different experience and everyone is expected to follow the rules.  There are even cycle specific traffic lights.  One of the biggest ironies is that unlike in Europe, almost everyone here wears helmets.  Just wish more members of the cycling community would use the head they're protecting a bit more.

Gabe said:

Registration comes all the time and always has but implementation and enforcement would be cost prohibitive and impossible. i have 3 bikes right now. Register all? 1 plate for all 3? and when the bike gets stolen should i expect CPD to look for it like they would a car?

More fun to just howl at the moon, or in this case, bad cyclists. (ps on 848 on NPR they had a mini-bike sumit and some random asshead caller said 70-80% of all bikers break traffic laws. 20-30% obey. with no logical or noted back up. so all the people that saw the 3 bad riders we noted will remember them ridin like idiots and not us stopping.) yay!
Permalink Reply by Crazy David 84 Furlongs on October 10, 2012 at 11:05am

I was walking up Lincoln.  You were on your bicycle stopped at the light at Grace and Lincoln.  This is not addressed to you.  This is addressed to the guy in the big black SUV who was screaming at you for no reason at all.   Voices were being raised.   You may have won the war, but I think we lost the battle.   I expect that the A------ in the SUV is going to be even more aggressive to bicyclists... certainly he just about took out a few pedestrians afterward. 

Permalink Reply by Tim S on October 10, 2012 at 11:31am


David crZven said:

I was walking up Lincoln.  You were on your bicycle stopped at the light at Grace and Lincoln.  This is not addressed to you.  This is addressed to the guy in the big black SUV who was screaming at you for no reason at all.   Voices were being raised.   You may have won the war, but I think we lost the battle.   I expect that the A------ in the SUV is going to be even more aggressive to bicyclists... certainly he just about took out a few pedestrians afterward. 


While I agree to a certain extent some times words have to be exchanged. There are plenty of times in a commute that we have to deal w agressive/aloof/stupid drivers and they need a stern talking too.

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