Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Lisa Curcio on November 7, 2014 at 1:32am

Unfortunately, as usual, despite "hours of video" there is almost no footage of drivers behaving badly.  

Permalink Reply by Deet 4.5mi on November 7, 2014 at 1:47am

Yea what about drivers. That was a rather one sided report.

Permalink Reply by Michelle S on November 7, 2014 at 2:32am

I actually thought that was a pretty balanced report, much due to their including lots of nice support from John Greenfield. Also, given that they said they filmed at an intersection for eight hours for three days, if that footage is the worst they've got, then we on bikes are doing pretty well. The guy they point out at 2:15 who "nearly hits" a jogger and then another bicyclist was going approximately 3 mph.

Permalink Reply by Anne Alt on November 7, 2014 at 3:05am

+1

Michelle Stenzel said:

I actually thought that was a pretty balanced report, much due to their including lots of nice support from John Greenfield. Also, given that they said they filmed at an intersection for eight hours for three days, if that footage is the worst they've got, then we on bikes are doing pretty well. The guy they point out at 2:15 who "nearly hits" a jogger and then another bicyclist was going approximately 3 mph.

Permalink Reply by Deet 4.5mi on November 7, 2014 at 3:45am

Good point, johns portion was good, it was just the way they phrased it. I would have liked them to talk about the statistics related to car/ped encounters as a frame of reference.

Permalink Reply by Anne Alt on November 7, 2014 at 4:15am

John Greenfield did a great job. Yes, it would have been nice if they'd done more with stats.

Permalink Reply by John Greenfield on November 7, 2014 at 5:02am

Thanks guys. Obviously they selected a few soundbites from a long interview. Among the stats I mentioned were that in 2012 alone, the last year for which we have accurate info, drivers killed 48 pedestrians in Chicago and seriously injured 398, while there's no record of a bicyclist killing a pedestrian here, ever.

Permalink Reply by Anne Alt on November 7, 2014 at 7:57am

Yes, very well said.

John - I had a feeling they probably edited you down quite a bit. Glad they included what they did.
 
Tom A.K. said:

The pedestrian interviewed at the end of the report sums it up well. He says, "It seems that EVERYONE is in a hurry, and no one has respect for one another!" ALL (cyclists/ pedestrians/drivers) who 'share' the road must strive to behave and respect each other.

Permalink Reply by Chitown_Mike on November 7, 2014 at 10:39am

I clicked the link but it is claiming it is a phishing site???

Permalink Reply by Not too hip on November 7, 2014 at 3:20pm

I agree with both of you.

Permalink Reply by Tandemonium on November 7, 2014 at 4:31pm

This.

Michelle Stenzel said:

I actually thought that was a pretty balanced report, much due to their including lots of nice support from John Greenfield. Also, given that they said they filmed at an intersection for eight hours for three days, if that footage is the worst they've got, then we on bikes are doing pretty well. The guy they point out at 2:15 who "nearly hits" a jogger and then another bicyclist was going approximately 3 mph.

Permalink Reply by David Altenburg on November 8, 2014 at 7:33am

This report seems balanced compared to what I expected, but that's only because media reporting on bikes is typically so terrible. Objectively, this wasn't at all balanced journalism - the reporters mentioned that bikers in New York have killed 2 people this year but had no mention of the bikers (and pedestrians and others) killed by car drivers in Chicago this year.  Even the premise was idiotic - it starts out with the question of whether "some cyclists think they own the road". What does that even mean?  

Like others, though, I'm grateful they gave John Greenfield a chance to inject a bit of sanity into this report.