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Permalink Reply by Christine (5.0) on September 2, 2013 at 9:12am

This incident said it happened to a jogger; was the first incident a jogger as well?  Not to make light of the situation, perhaps this is just someone who is really serious about scaring runners away from jogging on bicycle paths (if it is a dedicated bicycle path?  I don't know the area).

Nice thing about being on a bike: I generally keep my u-lock on my handlebars, where I can grab it in an emergency.  And if I somehow get removed from my bike, I can use the bike itself as a weapon.

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Permalink Reply by Tom Dworzanski on September 2, 2013 at 10:19am

It looks like the image below. It's bike trails through forest preserves. The trails are used by cyclists, runners and the occasional roller blader. They are not very crowded (during the week I might see someone every 3-5 minutes riding 14mph) so there isn't any sort of big competition for space like on the LFT and since it's suburbia people tend to be a little more polite than in the city. People don't really get into debates over space on these trails.

The problem of course is that attacker has tons of cover, a good amount of time, and an easy way to get escape and hide along these paths. I think the best sorts of weapons would be pepper spray and some sort of noise making device that can't be turned off easily. Maybe some sort of personal GPS tracker or alert system as well. Perhaps there is a phone app.

These attacks are really sad because they are in really good areas and in places most people feel very comfortable.



Christine (5.0) said:

This incident said it happened to a jogger; was the first incident a jogger as well?  Not to make light of the situation, perhaps this is just someone who is really serious about scaring runners away from jogging on bicycle paths (if it is a dedicated bicycle path?  I don't know the area).

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