Death of a cyclicst

 

Hello my name is Dario.  I am typing this one handed because of an injury sustained while biking.  Obviously I did not die but if you want people to read your story you have to have a headline that grabs attention.  I am/was a year round cyclist who started commuting to work at the age of 32 (nearly 3 years now).  I know I am late to the party.  I started riding to lose weight but ended up loving it.  I love riding in Critical Mass, the clarity it gives me in the morning, and the way the way stress falls away on the ride home.  I love it so much I strong armed my best friend to follow me in biking.  It was easy to do when he saw my weight loss.  At first it bothered me to be the “crazy bike rider” who rides in the winter, but I got over it and now wear it like a badge of courage.  Besides I was never one to go with the flow.  I am a bit of a safety nerd.  While I don’t wear lime green spandex I always have lights and wear my helmet (not that it should matter).   I am extremely cautious and courteous.  I stop at stop signs,  don’t salmon, ride on side streets to minimize my interaction with “cagers”, and yell on your left when I pass people.  Yesterday while riding on the lake path a rollerblader (are they really still around), stepped in front of me after I shouted “on your left” and I ran into her.  I fell and separated my left shoulder. I have never felt pain like this.   She walked away.  In pain and furious I screamed at her to “get the fuck away from me before I beat your ass”, so I did not get her info.  Thank  God I have insurance.  Through no fault of my own, I will be out of commission for about a month.  

My wife and I brought home our newborn son Tuesday the 26th, and I can’t even hold him in my arms.  That hurts some much more than my shoulder.   This injury has saddled her with extra chores since I can do so little with one hand.  At the time in our lives when she needs me most I am a burden.  This is so unfair.  She has always been supportive(despite her reservations) and even liked buying me workout/cycling clothes.  

I cannot in good conscience continue to risk my well being with so many ignorant, discourteous, self centered, and just plain stupid people out there.  When it was just me I could rationalize it but I have a family now and I don’t want to miss any of it.  In short I am hanging it up, throwing in the towel, and giving up.   I did not write this for sympathy, or to hear people try and change my mind, i just needed to vent to like minded people.  Will I still bike, probably, but not as much.  If you’ve been a cyclist for a day you’ve probably had a close call, so you know what i mean.  I can not justify the risk any longer.  Thank you for reading this.  Goodbye.

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Permalink Reply by Ruby Red on July 29, 2011 at 3:58am

No need to get sarcastic. The story is worth noting and it certainly is useful to me. I'll regard skaters with as much caution as I do people's dogs... they're obviously very unpredictable. I was more marveling at the absolute callousness of someone who could cause an accident and blithely skate away. 

 

I think the general sarcasm on this thread is a little surprising and unnecessary. The guy had a serious scare and now he has a baby he can't even hold because of it. He's making a personal choice. Don't judge. Take it as informational and make your own decisions.

Permalink Reply by Far'arned Retrogrumpalunkus #63 on July 29, 2011 at 4:03am

You got me there.  I drive and ride like an old man because I'm rapidly becoming one.  But that comes complete with a lack of accidents in a couple decades on 2 wheels or 4.

 

Drive it like you OWN it...

Carter O'Brien said:

it's probably a realization that comes with age.  

 

Permalink Reply by Michelle Gregorek on July 29, 2011 at 4:40am
I hear ya Rudy Red.  Keep spreading the love.

Ruby Red said:
...

 

I think the general sarcasm on this thread is a little surprising and unnecessary. The guy had a serious scare and now he has a baby he can't even hold because of it. He's making a personal choice. Don't judge. Take it as informational and make your own decisions.

Permalink Reply by Juan 2-3 or more mi. on July 29, 2011 at 4:41am
+1

James BlackHeron said:

You got me there.  I drive and ride like an old man because I'm rapidly becoming one.  But that comes complete with a lack of accidents in a couple decades on 2 wheels or 4.

 

Drive it like you OWN it...

Carter O'Brien said:

it's probably a realization that comes with age.  

 

Permalink Reply by Carter O'Brien on July 29, 2011 at 5:28am

The sarcasm is likely due to people feeling annoyed that they were misled by a title called "Death of a Cyclist."

 

I agree with you on the other points.


Ruby Red said:

No need to get sarcastic. The story is worth noting and it certainly is useful to me. I'll regard skaters with as much caution as I do people's dogs... they're obviously very unpredictable. I was more marveling at the absolute callousness of someone who could cause an accident and blithely skate away. 

 

I think the general sarcasm on this thread is a little surprising and unnecessary. The guy had a serious scare and now he has a baby he can't even hold because of it. He's making a personal choice. Don't judge. Take it as informational and make your own decisions.

Permalink Reply by Juan 2-3 or more mi. on July 29, 2011 at 6:03am
First of all, he yelled at the rollerblader just like a mindless cager yelling at a hipster...

Carter O'Brien said:

The sarcasm is likely due to people feeling annoyed that they were misled by a title called "Death of a Cyclist."

 

I agree with you on the other points.


Ruby Red said:

No need to get sarcastic. The story is worth noting and it certainly is useful to me. I'll regard skaters with as much caution as I do people's dogs... they're obviously very unpredictable. I was more marveling at the absolute callousness of someone who could cause an accident and blithely skate away. 

 

I think the general sarcasm on this thread is a little surprising and unnecessary. The guy had a serious scare and now he has a baby he can't even hold because of it. He's making a personal choice. Don't judge. Take it as informational and make your own decisions.

Permalink Reply by Erin on July 29, 2011 at 6:39am
If I want to aggressively get someone's attention while I'm biking, I yell "Heads up!" And then again, louder, "HEADS UP!"
Permalink Reply by Carter O'Brien on July 29, 2011 at 6:45am

I wouldn't say by his post that it was mindless, he was yelling at someone who unexpectedly moved in front of him and made him crash.  If you are going in a straight line and someone swerves in front of you - jogger, blader, unicycle, dog, alligator, whatever - they are at fault.  That and a buck will buy you a cup of coffee, I know.

 

It's just common sense.  The LFP does have stripes indicating where the bikes go, and where the pedestrians go, and the default etiquette in Chicago is always slow on the right, passing on the left.

 

This is why functional or not-so, yelling "on your left" IS the long-established etiquette on the path. Whether people choose to react properly to it is a separate question involving education, or more accurately, the lack thereof.

 

But to tie in to some earlier comments, shouting "Hey!" means absolutely nothing to most people except that someone is shouting behind them.  If I hear someone yelling "Hey!" behind me, why would I assume that was a cyclist about to cruise by me on the left? 

 

The bell is really a better solution across the board, I'm convinced after this conversation.

Juan said:

First of all, he yelled at the rollerblader just like a mindless cager yelling at a hipster...

Permalink Reply by Carter O'Brien on July 29, 2011 at 7:08am
I save that for the giant groups of people who often clog the stretch that crosses the river or stop to take photos.


Erin said:

If I want to aggressively get someone's attention while I'm biking, I yell "Heads up!" And then again, louder, "HEADS UP!"
Permalink Reply by S on July 29, 2011 at 7:08am


Carter O'Brien said:

It's just common sense.  The LFP does have stripes indicating where the bikes go, and where the pedestrians go, and the default etiquette in Chicago is always slow on the right, passing on the left.

I haven't really noticed stripes separating pedestrian and bike portions of the path, where is this located?  The vast majority of the path has a striped line down the middle separating north and south bound traffic and that's about it.

Permalink Reply by Rowbike Mike on July 29, 2011 at 7:17am

 

When I ride the Lakefront Path, I find it annoying and rude that most "On your left" people wait until the last second to make their call. Why? because it's harder to hear it from any further away.

I agree.  Imagine if an ambulance, police car or fire truck waited until they were right behind you before turning on their sirens. I imagine that many car drivers would veer into the left lane too, out of shock.

Permalink Reply by Sara Gmitter on July 29, 2011 at 7:26am

I ride the LFP often and use my bell a LOT.  The problem I sometimes have is that people mistake the bell for one of those slow moving ice cream carts.  When I'm approaching groups from behind I try to do a series of short rings so they hear me coming (because bikes really are SO quiet, maybe we all need to return to the elementary school playing card on the spokes trick) and then ring more aggressively as I get closer if they don't seem to be paying attention.  

I agree that we, as cyclists and esp. as the ones passing, need to take responsibility for moving safely.  I've been passed on my bike very fast and very close by a lot of cyclist on the LFP, which makes me particularly nervous because the one serious bike accident I had (shattered wrist bones) was getting my handlebar clipped by another cyclist on the LFP (who never stopped btw).  I've started calling out "That was too close!" after them.  Sometimes (and I've definitely been guilty of this too) I think we think if no 'accident' happened, then we've biked responsibly, w/o taking into account the role that both luck and the response of the passed person, whatever their mode of transport, play.  Not to mention the stress of the near miss.  If you're in training or want/need to go fast, the LFP in summer time is NOT the place to do that.  

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