The Chainlink

Salmoning poll

I ended up in West Town during the tail end of rush hour tonight, and saw a ridiculous amount of salmoning on the way there.... just wondering on average how often folks experience a rider coming at you going the wrong way.

How many times have you experienced it in the past week/month, and is there a place and time where you think you're more likely to encounter it? Have you noticed repeat offenders? Are there folks who seem to be doing it deliberately to endanger/scare the right-way riders?

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Permalink Reply by Sarah D. on June 17, 2013 at 11:39am

Confession time: I realized today that I salmon, too - when I am trying to merge into traffic from the wrong side of the street on streets like Lincoln Ave., Elston, Damen, etc. I'm impatient about waiting for both sides of cars to clear a safe crossing, so I salmon slowly in the bike lane of the wrong side until there's an opening and I can join the bike lane going in "my" direction.

I am super aware of it and defer to other "right-way" cyclists, but still. 

Permalink Reply by h' Zerocats on June 17, 2013 at 12:13pm

Say 10 Hail Marys and 5 Our Fathers, and try to be better.

Sarah D. 1-3.3 said:

Confession time: I realized today that I salmon, too - when I am trying to merge into traffic from the wrong side of the street on streets like Lincoln Ave., Elston, Damen, etc. I'm impatient about waiting for both sides of cars to clear a safe crossing, so I salmon slowly in the bike lane of the wrong side until there's an opening and I can join the bike lane going in "my" direction.

I am super aware of it and defer to other "right-way" cyclists, but still. 

Permalink Reply by El Dorado on June 17, 2013 at 12:33pm

I believe riding against traffic can be safer. It allows the driver to see you more easily and make eye contact. Granted, I no longer "salmon" as it has caused near accidents with other bike riders.

Permalink Reply by Anne Alt on June 17, 2013 at 12:37pm

But drivers are not expecting head-on traffic and may not be watching for it, especially when pulling out of parking spaces.

El Dorado said:

I believe riding against traffic can be safer. It allows the driver to see you more easily and make eye contact. Granted, I no longer "salmon" as it has caused near accidents with other bike riders.

Permalink Reply by Bez on June 17, 2013 at 2:21pm

It is absolutely not safer.  Drivers are taught to expect road traffic going in specific directions.  It's one thing if you are walking and easily able to leave the roadbed, bicycles do not have this luxury.  Not to mention that it is illegal as all hell and just tends to piss off drivers when they get confused.

El Dorado said:

I believe riding against traffic can be safer. It allows the driver to see you more easily and make eye contact. Granted, I no longer "salmon" as it has caused near accidents with other bike riders.

Permalink Reply by El Dorado on June 17, 2013 at 5:51pm



Dann B (5.25 mi/8.75 mi) said:

It is absolutely not safer.  Drivers are taught to expect road traffic going in specific directions.  It's one thing if you are walking and easily able to leave the roadbed, bicycles do not have this luxury.  Not to mention that it is illegal as all hell and just tends to piss off drivers when they get confused.

But making eye contact or a head nod is important and helps drivers focus on the bike riders position. You may also get the make/model or even license plate if they hit you and run. Which, sadly, happens more often than people realize.

Permalink Reply by Juan 2-3 or more mi. on June 17, 2013 at 5:54pm

Viva!

envane (69 furlongs) said:

About half my commutes while on Lawrence.  Always Mexicans.

Permalink Reply by Lisa Curcio on June 17, 2013 at 6:06pm

I was thinking I had not seen one in a long time, but today, as I headed north on Dearborn just south of Oak, a woman was riding southbound in the nice new painted bike lane.

BTW, have you all not figured out that El Dorado is a troll?

Permalink Reply by Josh L. on June 17, 2013 at 6:18pm

I confess I do it sometimes.  I do it when I need to take a shortcut and am convinced nobody is coming in the bike lane

Permalink Reply by daWillinChi on June 17, 2013 at 8:38pm
The first mile or so out of my neighborhood I salmon on Glenwood from Thorndale to Foster. It is a one way.
Permalink Reply by h' Zerocats on June 17, 2013 at 11:49pm

Vitaliy, why should you let someone who's willing to endanger you force you out into traffic?

I decided a while back on the following approach, and have stuck to it consistently:

As soon as aware of oncoming salmon, slow down and move right.

Stay as far right as possible, avoiding any eye contact with the salmon, and doing your best to appear completely oblivious to them. The goal is to let them think you never even saw them. (To reiterate, you've already slowed down to the point where you can stop and hop off the saddle if necessary.)

This approach does 4 things:

1)Gives an early and consistent clue as to your path

2)Shifts the risk of the behavior to the salmon where it belongs

3) Decreases the likelihood that the salmon will try to negotiate for positioning somehow, which is more likely to create confusion and increase the chance of things ending badly than decrease it

4) [hopefully] leaves the salmon thinking that maybe riding on the wrong side wasn't such a great idea...



Vitaliy said:

Oh West Town especially down division between Cali and Western. The folks there dont care for the rules and telling them wont change anything either. I just deal with it and squeeze slightly to the left while watching my back for cars.

Permalink Reply by Eli on June 18, 2013 at 9:09am

The first mile or so out of my neighborhood I salmon on Glenwood from Thorndale to Foster. It is a one way.

Yes, we live in the same neighborhood, and I do sometimes cut across a one way street the wrong way for a block or two. I do this because:

  • all of the consistently two-way streets have heavy traffic, several lanes (making it very difficult to turn left at the many uncontrolled intersections), and no bike infrastructure at all (Broadway, especially Ridge which is full of drivers who just got off of Lake Shore Drive and haven't quite realized they should be back in "surface street" mode)
  • the side streets will change from one way, to two-way (or to one-way in the opposite direction!) from block to block with no apparent pattern which makes routefinding in strict accordance with all one-way rules difficult and liable to spit you out somewhere you don't want to be (e.g. at Clark and Thorndale on the east side of the street when you need to go south--you've got to cross into the left lane of pretty fast traffic, head north for a block to make a u-turn around the median (in the middle of the Clark/Elmdale/Peterson intersection), then cross two lanes of fast southbound traffic to get to the part of the street where it is safe to ride
  • the one-way side streets are very low traffic--I often continue on Glenwood southbound past Ridge (where it changes from two-way to one-way going north) to Bryn Mawr without encountering any other vehicles

I don't really like doing this but sometimes it is hard to avoid.

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