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Mayor wants to increase fines for reckless cyclists, motorists

Mayor wants to increase fines for reckless cyclists, motorists

BY FRAN SPIELMAN City Hall Reporter fspielman@suntimes.com May 7, 2013 6:32PM

Five years ago, then-Mayor Richard M. Daley threw the book at reckless motorists who endanger bicycle riders amid demands that he do the same to “cowboy cyclists.”

On Wednesday, Mayor Rahm Emanuel plans to do both.

The even-handed ordinance Emanuel plans to introduce at a City Council meeting would raise fines for cyclists who disobey the city’s traffic laws — from $25 for all offenses to $50-to-$200, depending on the severity of the violation.

The mayor’s plan also would double — to $1,000 — the fine imposed against motorists who open their doors without looking into the path of cyclists. The fine for leaving a car door open in traffic would also double — to $300.

Last year, there were 1,675 bicycle crashes in Chicago, 250 of them so-called “dooring” accidents.

In an attempt to reduce those bone-crunching accidents that send cyclists flying, City Hall is launching an awareness campaign to remind taxicab passengers of the need to look before they open passenger doors.

Stickers to be placed on the rear passenger windows of all 7,000 Chicago taxicabs were designed by MINIMAL design studios.

Neill Townshend, a 32-year-old MINIMAL employee, was killed last fall while biking to work on the Near North Side. He was hit by a semi-trailer after swerving to avoid an open car door.

Ron Burke, executive director of the Active Transportation Alliance, applauded the mayor for his even-handed approach to making Chicago streets safer and his particular emphasis on preventing “dooring” accidents.

“With more and more people cycling in Chicago [and bike-sharing on the way], it’s imperative that motorists look for cyclists before opening car doors. This needs to become second nature,” he said.

Burke acknowledged that the city currently issues few tickets and mostly warnings against cyclists who text while riding and blow through red lights and that the higher penalties likely mean more tickets.

“We support that 100 percent. One of our over-arching goals is to see fewer crashes and injuries. One important way to do that is to issue tickets. Enforcement is crucial,” Burke said.

Emanuel’s decision to create a ground-breaking network of protected bike lanes in Chicago has increased tensions between cyclists, motorists and pedestrians.

But Burke said, “It’s not so much bikes vs. cars vs. pedestrians. Unfortunately, there’s a percentage of the population that travels recklessly — whether it’s on foot, on bike or driving a car. The Active Transportation Alliance supports increased traffic fines [across the board] as an important way to improve safety.”

In a news release, Emanuel argued that “everyone is safer” when traffic laws are obeyed.

“If they are sharing the roadway with vehicles, cyclists must obey all traffic laws, including yielding to pedestrians, stopping at traffic signals and indicating when they are making turns,” he said.

“By increasing the fines for failing to obey the law, cyclists will behave more responsibly, increasing safety and encouraging others to ride bikes.”

Like Daley, Emanuel is an avid cyclist who campaigned on a promise to make Chicago the nation’s most “bike-friendly” city.

Emanuel installed Chicago’s first, of what he promised would be 100 miles of protected bike lanes over four years less than a month after taking office.

The city now has 204.1 miles of on-street bike ways. That includes: 18.6 miles of protected or buffered bike lanes; 134.2 miles of standard bike lanes and 39.8 miles of marked shared lanes.

Protected bike lanes are expected to be installed this summer on Milwaukee and on Clybourn.

More than 20,000 people bike to work each day to jobs in downtown Chicago. That’s a 200 percent increase since 2005, according to City Hall.

http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/19960894-418/mayor-wants-to-incr...

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Julie Aberman (Hochstadter) on May 8, 2013 at 9:28pm

My cousin and his friends were quite paranoid in San Diego about not biking under the influence there too.

David P. said:

Every time I am in California I am struck by how noooobody jaywalks at all, ever. I haven't been everywhere, but I have been to a fair number of cities in NorCal adn SoCal. I mentioned it to a friend of mine who is a retired LAPD officer and he confirmed that they've ticketed this for ages.

Nelson Trautman said:

To be fair, I have never been to any city in the world where people don't jay walk constantly, and I do travel.

Julie Hochstadter said:

Has anyone seen mention of jaywalking tickets? In other cities around the world pedestrians don't run in the middle of the street cause they know they will get a ticket.

Permalink Reply by mike w. on May 8, 2013 at 9:46pm

In California, drivers STOP whenever a ped steps off the curb. If a ped even looks like they're maybe possibly beginning to think about stepping off, traffic comes to a halt.

 Whenever my sister- a 35+ year CA resident- visits us and drives anywhere, i have to caution her to not slam on the brakes for peds lest she get rammed by the guy behind.

i think in CA the fines for not stopping and waiting for a ped must be pretty high. Whenever i go there, i'm often embarrassed by this enforced courtesy by drivers- i've grown up expecting to have to wait for them to drive by.
 
David P. said:

Every time I am in California I am struck by how noooobody jaywalks at all, ever. I haven't been everywhere, but I have been to a fair number of cities in NorCal adn SoCal. I mentioned it to a friend of mine who is a retired LAPD officer and he confirmed that they've ticketed this for ages.

Nelson Trautman said:

To be fair, I have never been to any city in the world where people don't jay walk constantly, and I do travel.

Julie Hochstadter said:

Has anyone seen mention of jaywalking tickets? In other cities around the world pedestrians don't run in the middle of the street cause they know they will get a ticket.

Permalink Reply by WillG on May 9, 2013 at 7:58am

Channel 2 interviewed me about this yesterday as I saddled up for the ride home. Then as I rode home I thought of everything I should have talked about (Idaho stop laws, lights that don't change for cyclist, etc), but they edited me heavily anyway, not sure how much of that would have made it in.

I did my best to make cyclists look like normal, rational people that deserve empathy.

http://chicago.cbslocal.com/video/8858674-mayor-seeks-bigger-fines-...

Permalink Reply by Justin B Newman on May 9, 2013 at 8:01am

Just remember, if you're an Alderman, the law doesn't apply. 

Permalink Reply by mike w. on May 9, 2013 at 8:08am

R.H.I.P.

(Rank Hath Its Privileges)

Justin B Newman said:

Just remember, if you're an Alderman, the law doesn't apply. 

Permalink Reply by Gene Tenner on May 9, 2013 at 8:43am

You did great, Will. I have worked with people to prepare them for interviews and after many trials with both success and failure I just tell them to relax and tell them what you know, like you are having coffee with a friend. It always comes acrross far more sincere and rational - just how you appeared - than prepared and stiff. What appeared after editing was sound and reasonable, exactly what our image needs. Thanks, Mr. G, for your service to the biking community.

Will G - 10mi said:

I did my best to make cyclists look like normal, rational people that deserve empathy.

http://chicago.cbslocal.com/video/8858674-mayor-seeks-bigger-fines-...

Permalink Reply by David P. on May 9, 2013 at 9:33am

I don't think it does anyone a service to minimize the danger that a moving bicycle can pose to a pedestrian. The kinetic energy differential between a bicycle doing 15mph and a pedestrian walking at 3mph is roughly a couple of orders less that between the bicycle and a car doing 30mph, but it is still significant. Respect everyone less vulnerable than you are!

Permalink Reply by Jason W on May 9, 2013 at 10:10am

And it's alderman like this who will later use this law because they think bikes are a "menace" and set up some cyclist stings in his ward handing out $200 tickets.

mike w. said:

R.H.I.P.

(Rank Hath Its Privileges)

Justin B Newman said:

Just remember, if you're an Alderman, the law doesn't apply. 

Permalink Reply by Juan Primo on May 9, 2013 at 10:18am

How many dooring tickets were written?

Active Transportation Alliance said:


Here are dooring and ticketing stats from CDOT:

Dooring crashes

2011 – 309

2012 – 251

 

Bike crashes

2011 – 1434

2012 – 1398 (Chicago Police Dept. estimates)

 

Tickets Issued for Cyclists

2011 – 1508

2012 - 1267

Permalink Reply by S on May 9, 2013 at 10:21am



Chi Lowe 12.5+ mi said:

S said:

Uh...not quite.  Although it's rare, there are cases where cyclists have killed pedestrians.

There are cases where chunks of falling ice have killed pedestrians.  Citing cases where cyclists have killed pedestrians may lend some support the idea that there is a kind of equivalence, but it does not change the physics.

If you're going to argue physics, you need to get more detailed then just calculating the momentum.  Even a slow moving object can be lethal if it's the right shape.  But that's beside the point, you seem to be minimizing the possibility of any injury when a bike and ped collide in order to justify cyclists disobeying traffic laws. E.g. "when a cyclist makes an error in judgement and hits a ped, the ped gets... mad.  *Maybe* injured."   I'm just pointing out that that's not accurate.

Don't take my word for it though, instead, read the stats of car vs. bike and car vs. pedestrian collisions.  Here's a stark one - statistical chance of a rider being killed or having incapacitating injuries when a car hits a bike: a little better than 10%.

We're discussing bike vs ped injuries.  Throwing up car vs ped and car vs bike stats don't really apply here.

Frankly, I think it comes down to the perception of fairness for everyone.  

Perception matters, but I'd add that anyone discussing "fairness" needs to incorporate the physics into the equation.  Doing so dramatically changes what it means to "run" a stop sign on a bike.

You keep talking about physics but have a rather simplistic model.  It's not just a matter of how much momentum an object has that affects the potential for injury.  Getting hit by an unplugged bullhorn on a bike going 12 mph is going to hurt a lot and quite possibly result in serious injuries. It's willfully ignorant to pretend that bikes don't have the potential to seriously hurt pedestrians.  

Drivers are not going to be open to sharing the road if it seems like cyclists are willing to flout the laws and it takes just a few cyclists to tar the broader community at large.

I can't speak for all cyclists, but I'm not a supplicant who yearns for a day when drivers will be "open to sharing the road" that I already have equal rights to use.  Further, the "flout the laws/hurt the cause" mantra is something of a non sequitur in the context of my original post.

Cyclists have equal rights currently yes, but if drivers start becoming actively hostile to cyclists then commuting by bike becomes much more difficult and those rights may end up being curtailed if enough voting drivers start making a fuss.

Permalink Reply by S on May 9, 2013 at 10:24am



mike w. said:

In California, drivers STOP whenever a ped steps off the curb. If a ped even looks like they're maybe possibly beginning to think about stepping off, traffic comes to a halt.

 Whenever my sister- a 35+ year CA resident- visits us and drives anywhere, i have to caution her to not slam on the brakes for peds lest she get rammed by the guy behind.

i think in CA the fines for not stopping and waiting for a ped must be pretty high. Whenever i go there, i'm often embarrassed by this enforced courtesy by drivers- i've grown up expecting to have to wait for them to drive by.

I think the drivers are much more considerate out west.  I remember going home a llttle while ago and seeing 4 lanes of traffic get a green light and then all stopping a block later to let someone cross the street in a crosswalk.  I doubt Chicago drivers would do something like this, more's the pity. 

Permalink Reply by Active Transportation Alliance on May 9, 2013 at 10:35am

Jason, Juan, I'm looking into the dooring ticket statistics and will let you know what I find. As I said, good question, and we're working to tracking that down.

I'm guessing this thread will be on the 8th or 9th page before I have more information (smile). But, please know that I'm working on it.

Thanks much,

Ethan, Active Trans

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