Jack Kass-ery (was Gabe Klein, John Kass & Jake Hartford on the Radio)

As John Greenfield tipped us last week, Gabe Klein was interviewed/tormented by John Kass & Jake Hartford on WLS yesterday.  The Active Transportation Alliance did the hard work of finding the podcast of the event (I tried to find it myself yesterday, and failed).  Thank you, Active Trans!  It's a pretty reasonable interview, albeit one which has Kass yelling at Klein to make "the little bicycle people" pay, pay, pay for tickets and licenses (jeez, get over yourself Kass!).

Gabe did a deft sidestep when, after saying that removing lanes that motorists could use didn't necessarily reduce "throughput" efficiency of movement, and that many Chicago roads could handle more cars, Kass jumped in and said "Oh, so we need MORE cars?"  Gabe then deflected that to "more VEHICLES of different types, like BUSES and BIKES."  Nice work!

 

http://www.wlsam.com/FlashPlayer/default.asp?SPID=0&ID=2589403

Start at 16:50 if you want to avoid the first nearly seventeen minutes of blather about dead whales in Malibu and pigeons eating sidewalk vomit on Lake Street (I wish I had skipped over this myself).

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Permalink Reply by bk (aka: Dr. Mambohead) on December 13, 2012 at 7:41am
Oy vey! Let me at that mental midget.

John Kass would hand cops the additional responsibility of chasing bicyclists. Finally! Clearly the slackers at the CPD need more work. This noble, yet non-Nobel "jounalist" never saw a low-hanging fruit he couldn't pluck nor a popular emotion-driven, knee-jerk opinion he couldn't champion. Yes John Kass... For a millisecond Ninja Cyclists made you all afluster. Yes John Kass... Benghazi was a mess. Yes John Kass... Fire BURN!!!

Now, go cash your check.

For all that is right and good. Defender against logic and common sense. John Kass: Discourager of bicyclists. Hop in your jalopy and rave at them as they whizz you by in your unsustainable dream world of 1971.

This "Jack" Kass likes seems to like new taxes and some big government that is right up in your face.... and feel this one for me: For pedaling a bicycle!!! What's next Jack Kass? An excise tax for lemonade stands? What brief personal slighting or mild inconvenience will Jack Kass, noble soap salesman of The Fourth Estate, champion today?
How about a surcharge to get on a city beach or the LFP?.. Cower! These are other socialist utopians that have been pulling on the government teat for far too long!!!!

Use your thinky part Jack Kass. Encourage bicycling! We clear the roads... Increase their average speeds... We clear the air... We add more parking spaces.. etc.. etc.. etc... And? Best of all? Cyclists hand their superfluous gas money, not to the Royal House of Saud, our allies in the War on Terror!... Y'see Dr.Kass.... We keep more money local!.. Research shows cyclists are even able to purchase one of Chicago's fine printed newspapers!!... Instead of dialing up the same information on the www for free!.. But, unless they had a bird cage, who would do that?!?

This Jack Kass should be on his knees in service and gratitude for every bicyclist he sees.
Permalink Reply by Kara B on December 13, 2012 at 7:44am

:) 

bk (aka: Dr. Mambohead) said:

Oy vey! Let me at that mental midget.

John Kass would hand cops the additional responsibility of chasing bicyclists. Finally! Clearly the slackers at the CPD need more work. This noble, yet non-Nobel "jounalist" never saw a low-hanging fruit he couldn't pluck nor a popular emotion-driven, knee-jerk opinion he couldn't champion. Yes John Kass... For a millisecond Ninja Cyclists made you all afluster. Yes John Kass... Benghazi was a mess. Yes John Kass... Fire BURN!!!

Now, go cash your check.

For all that is right and good. Defender against logic and common sense. John Kass: Discourager of bicyclists. Hop in your jalopy and rave at them as they whizz you by in your unsustainable dream world of 1971.

This "Jack" Kass likes seems to like new taxes and some big government that is right up in your face.... and feel this one for me: For pedaling a bicycle!!! What's next Jack Kass? An excise tax for lemonade stands? What brief personal slighting or mild inconvenience will Jack Kass, noble soap salesman of The Fourth Estate, champion today?
How about a surcharge to get on a city beach or the LFP?.. Cower! These are other socialist utopians that have been pulling on the government teat for far too long!!!!

Use your thinky part Jack Kass. Encourage bicycling! We clear the roads... Increase their average speeds... We clear the air... We add more parking spaces.. etc.. etc.. etc... And? Best of all? Cyclists hand their superfluous gas money, not to the Royal House of Saud, our allies in the War on Terror!... Y'see Dr.Kass.... We keep more money local!.. Research shows cyclists are even able to purchase one of Chicago's fine printed newspapers!!... Instead of dialing up the same information on the www for free!.. But, unless they had a bird cage, who would do that?!?

This Jack Kass should be on his knees in service and gratitude for every bicyclist he sees.
Permalink Reply by Brendan Kevenides on December 13, 2012 at 7:52am

I dunno, Anne.  As I demonstrate in my article, it is happening; slowly, but it is happening in places where you might not expect it, like Arizona and Virginia.

I agree with Jim regarding even enforcement, but I frankly think enforcement isn't as uneven as folks like Kass suggest.  As I'm guessing Jim's video would demonstrate, both cars and bicyclists roll stop signs and both are ticketed for it rarely.  Of course, the difference is that bicyclists (1) have a much better view of the road, (2) slow and accelerate much slower than motor vehicles and (3) pose a far lesser hazard to others using the street.



Anne Alt said:

In order to make a change like Idaho stop politically acceptable, we would need some even-handed enforcement of traffic laws, as Jim Freeman suggests in his quote to Kass.  Without that leveling of the enforcement playing field, it's likely to be a cold day in hell before we could gain enough traction to get Idaho stop passed here.  The level of pushback from drivers would probably be a lot more than we're seeing now for protected bike lanes.

Permalink Reply by Lisa Curcio on December 13, 2012 at 8:06am

Do you think the person who is the subject of our derision has a google alert or something set up so his computer goes "ding" every time his name is mentioned on the internet?  Do you suppose he rubs his hands together with glee every time he hears that ding?  Are we making him really happy?

Permalink Reply by Anne Alt on December 13, 2012 at 8:08am

Of course, the difference is that bicyclists (1) have a much better view of the road, (2) slow and accelerate much slower than motor vehicles and (3) pose a far lesser hazard to others using the street.

Agreed.  Of course it doesn't help that there's such a huge amount of red light and stop sign running in general (mostly by drivers) and that so little of it is ticketed. People feel like they can get away with just about anything, and they usually do.  And the judges don't necessarily do us any favors even when tickets are written.

A police officer I know wrote a ticket on a cyclist for blowing a red light, which nearly caused the cyclist to end up a hood ornament - on the squad car.  The officer showed up at the court date, but the judge didn't take the charge seriously and dismissed it. Her attitude: why write tickets on cyclists? WTF?!?  If somebody is doing something illegal that creates a significant risk for someone else (who's doing things legally) or injures another person, shouldn't there be consequences for that action, whether the violator is a driver, a cyclist or a pedestrian?  That officer doesn't write frivolous tickets.  He writes them if someone is causing a problem, especially one that may hurt other people. That's the kind of even-handed enforcement we need.  And judges need to take it seriously.

And it's rather surprising to see this kind of change passed or proposed in places like Virginia and Arizona.  Where next?

BTW, it's not Jim's video, just a relevant example I picked out.


Permalink Reply by Doug Haynes on December 13, 2012 at 8:36am

You wanna do one of the primary things that can be done to stop John Kass, and those like him, from writing things like this?

STOP RESPONDING TO THEM.

Permalink Reply by Anne Alt on December 13, 2012 at 9:31am

I'm not feedin' that troll. Who you gonna call? Trollbusters!  ;)

Permalink Reply by Eric R on December 13, 2012 at 10:20am

I LOVE IT when a Republican suggests a government solution for a problem that doesn't exist. But hey, adding staff to process all of the applications for bicycle registrations would count as Government creating jobs, might even need an entirely new department! Who would've guessed Kass was secretly promoting a bigger government.

(Edit) Also, make sure to ring your bell and say hello when you ride by him and his buddy standing at the corner of Lake and Dearborn aroundish 11am.

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