Remember, Chicago Now is a Chicago Tribune-sponsored collection of blogs.

 

Open Letter to Bicyclist[s] in Chicago

 

An open letter to bicyclist in Chicago!

Dear cyclist,

If you pull in front of me after I have already stopped and am going through the intersection, I will hit you!

If I am going straight and you come across my car from the right side to turn left in front of me, I will hit you.

If you are blocking me from turning right at a stop light, though I have right of way, I will hit you.

If you are on a sidewalk and I have to jump out of the way to avoid you, I will hit, just not with my car.

When I say "I will hit you", it is not a threat, its an inevitability.  Those who ride their bikes without caution are putting themselves at risk of being hit.  I am saying that because of that type of behavior, I will one day end up hitting a cyclist, with no intention.  I am all for cyclist and understand it can be dangerous to bike in this city; but some of you are making it difficult on yourselves.  Respect the laws of the road and my right to right of way; as I try to always respect those that cycle with respect and attention to what is going on around them.

Sincerely,

The Queer Guy

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Is this person saying that we cannot queue up to a stop light in the right lane? Those aren't right turn only lanes, they are both for straight moving traffic and right turn bound vehicles. Talk about misdirected anger.

"I have nothing of real substance to say, so I will repeat some hackneyed sensationalist thought so that I can keep stealing money from Chicago Now, and preserve my coveted irrelevant post of Queer Guy (Hey, it's another "cyclist" just like one of us, only he see's things from the regular guys point of view.  We need a lot more of these!) at an utterly insignificant news outlet". 

 

 

 

Pure Trollism, no question about it.  This guy is taking a page right from Scott "Suburban SickList" Rowan's playbook: write a bunch of stupid, sensational, death-dealing threats and nonsense, try to whip up everyone on all sides to a mouth frothing frenzy and--ka-ching!--collect some dough and notoriety from the click throughs to your site or book sales.  I considered leaving a "friendly" rebuttal on his blog site but thought better of it, on the off chance that he might collect a few pennies from my post.  I don't want to encourage his bad behavior in any way.

The ONLY statement of his that even piqued my interest was "If you are blocking me from turning right at a stop light, though I have right of way, I will hit you."  Even though this bullying, asinine, incompetent driving statement is only so much drivel, this does point up a small flaw in many current bike lanes: if you, on a bike, are properly in the bike lane along the curb at an intersection, waiting for the light in order to go straight, you have the problem of the cars on your left wishing to turn right, across your bike's path.  Bike boxes, where cyclists assemble in the center of the lane ahead of the first auto, are the obvious solution to this dangerous situation.  But until that's rolled out across the area widely, I can only think of three possible solutions: (a) hang back in the bike lane and allow the right turners to cut across your path, then proceed straight alongside the first car to go straight--a not very satisfying solution and the possibility of a constant stream of right turning cars could prevent you from entering the intersection at all. (b) Try to jackrabbit straight ahead before the right turning car on your left gets going--a very dangerous solution, if the turning motorist happens to stomp on the accelerator in order to get past YOU, or if a late turning left turner takes you down halfway into the intersection.  And (c), what I've been doing more of lately: merge left into the cars at the intersection, take the lane by planting youself centered behind the car in front of you and going straight; even if the car in front of you and behind you turn right, they won't run you over.  This maneuver on my part is often accompanied by car honks and high speed "I'll show you cyclists who's boss" car passing, but it seems to me the only way not to get right hooked.  Anyone else have some better ideas I can use?

 

 

 

 

Dear "Queer Guy" (your words, not mine),

Ditto on every single point.  

Except, (1) I think you need to revisit the concept of right of way and (2) when I say that I may hit you it IS a threat.

-Kellie

if you hit me i will scratch your car and bleed on your soul.



Jeff Schneider said:

This is exactly what I do.  I've only had one jerk yell at me, and lots of happy right-turners smile at me.

Thunder Snow said:

Pure Trollism, no question about it.  This guy is taking a page right from Scott "Suburban SickList" Rowan's playbook: write a bunch of stupid, sensational, death-dealing threats and nonsense, try to whip up everyone on all sides to a mouth frothing frenzy and--ka-ching!--collect some dough and notoriety from the click throughs to your site or book sales.  I considered leaving a "friendly" rebuttal on his blog site but thought better of it, on the off chance that he might collect a few pennies from my post.  I don't want to encourage his bad behavior in any way.

The ONLY statement of his that even piqued my interest was "If you are blocking me from turning right at a stop light, though I have right of way, I will hit you."  Even though this bullying, asinine, incompetent driving statement is only so much drivel, this does point up a small flaw in many current bike lanes: if you, on a bike, are properly in the bike lane along the curb at an intersection, waiting for the light in order to go straight, you have the problem of the cars on your left wishing to turn right, across your bike's path.  Bike boxes, where cyclists assemble in the center of the lane ahead of the first auto, are the obvious solution to this dangerous situation.  But until that's rolled out across the area widely, I can only think of three possible solutions: (a) hang back in the bike lane and allow the right turners to cut across your path, then proceed straight alongside the first car to go straight--a not very satisfying solution and the possibility of a constant stream of right turning cars could prevent you from entering the intersection at all. (b) Try to jackrabbit straight ahead before the right turning car on your left gets going--a very dangerous solution, if the turning motorist happens to stomp on the accelerator in order to get past YOU, or if a late turning left turner takes you down halfway into the intersection.  And (c), what I've been doing more of lately: merge left into the cars at the intersection, take the lane by planting youself centered behind the car in front of you and going straight; even if the car in front of you and behind you turn right, they won't run you over.  This maneuver on my part is often accompanied by car honks and high speed "I'll show you cyclists who's boss" car passing, but it seems to me the only way not to get right hooked.  Anyone else have some better ideas I can use?

 

 

 

 

Ahh... eh... I'm perhaps a bit unclear regarding right-of-way but ah... if someone's stopped in front of you you don't have right of way I don't think, ah? Eh... hmm...

 

Thundersnow: I've taken to keeping toward the left side of the right-hand lane. If the car behind me is signalling a turn, I'll get out of his way. If they're going straight, they've at least seen me and generally get around fairly civilly when the light turns.

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