Nasty bike on bike crash on LFP near 31st this morning

Biking north into work this morning I observed a racer dude and a guy on a mountain bike plow into each other. The mountain bike guy was heading south and the racer dude was going north. They both basically turned right into each other. Why neither one could get on their brakes is beyond me. The racer guy was on a TT type of bike and even had on a one of those TT teardrop style helmets. I suspect he was on his aerobars and was haulin' ass and didn't want to slow down. They both got up yelling at each other about one guy keeping on coming towards the other while the other guy was yelling about the other one turning in towards him. This incident occurred right where the path splits south of 31st, right near the basketball court. For some reason, the path splits there and the more western branch is labeled "Bike Only" with both signs and painted icons on the pavement while the essentially straight, northbound lane is now marked "No Bikes" with actual painted words on the pavement spanning the entire path. The dumb thing, is that the north end of this area of the LFP where the two paths merge back together (just a hair south of the new underpass at 31st), there is no painted markings telling bikes that they have to veer right onto the more western path when heading south. Apparently the guy on the mountain bike was headed south on the "No Bikes" path and TT-guy was heading north, intentionally disregarding the "No Bikes" markings. The guy on the mtb was swerving to his left thinking TT-guy was going to veer west onto the "Bikes Only" path. Neither one gave ground or speed and thus a collision. An ambulance was called for TT-guy who was rolling around on the ground rubbing his lower back and moaning a lot. Mountain bike guy seemed to be fine. I see several things that should be discussed about this situation.

1. TT-guy needed to slow down. There are too damn many people out on the path going balls out at 25+ mph, many of them on aero bars. The path, even in the morning at 7:20 AM is TOO CONGESTED to be going all out on a training ride. Ride fast and reckless like a dick and crap like this bike crash happens.

2. What the hell is up with this absurd "Bikes Only", "No Bikes" crap? I can understand where someone might have thought it was a good idea to segregate these two stretches of the path to maybe keep the pedestrians away from bikers and vice versa, but I can tell you it doesn't matter. There are plenty of bikers on the path they're not supposed to be on, and just as many peds as ever on the path that they apparently are not supposed to be on. Also, if the essentially more straight path, the eastern-most one, is supposed to be "No Bikes" why the hell isn't that painted on the northern edge so southbound cyclists will divert to the western-most path? Finally, why is there even this segregation of this part of the path? The little "Bikes Only" section is so short it's practically pointless not to mention it's a major access point for the skate park and the basketball court.

3. Final point - bike defensively. I'm always on my brake hoods when other bikes or peds are around and my head is on a swivel. I constantly anticipate that some other cyclist or ped is going to do something stupid so I don't ride balls-out when I'm around other people. I only open up and really increase my speed when I've got plenty of distance to react to anyone up ahead of me or when the path is more or less clear sailing ahead. How many times have we seen a thread this year regarding the aftermath of some collision between a high speed cyclist and a pedestrian or other cyclist? If you want to ride balls-out, take it easy until you get to Northerly Island and then do intervals 'til your little heart's content. Keep your high speed jackassery off the LFP when you're around other people.

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Permalink Reply by Jordan Koss (#440) on June 29, 2012 at 2:42pm
That area looks very dangerous. I came close to an accident there myself yesterday morning. I emailed Steve Vance about it, and he said he'd relay it along to his contacts at the Park District. They need better signage there and a less sharp turn onto the bike only path
Permalink Reply by jon on June 29, 2012 at 3:38pm

I think those paths should be for every day normal riders ... not people out there training/racing/going 30mph. Sooner or later, someone will get hurt past being able to get up off the ground. Then what? Enforce speed limits for bikers? Cops out there with radar?

They shouldn't be going that face with all the other bike and foot traffic out there. I'd be curious to hear the stats on how many people get injured on those paths every year due to bikers going too fast. 

If I ever get hit or injured due to some asshole riding like a clown thinking he's lance armstrong, I'll slap him upside the head. 

Permalink Reply by MagMileMarauder on June 29, 2012 at 4:27pm

Without needing to enforce much, I think well posted signs that have either speed limit, or "NO RACING/TT/etc" or both could be a good deterrent. More concentration of signs, say between Roosevelt and Fullerton. There are always going to be stray Lakefront Lances (probably outdated joke), but it might be worth the small investment from the Park district. My guess is that the majority of the TT crowd would be obedient and take their training elsewhere.

Permalink Reply by Zidaane on June 29, 2012 at 5:15pm

Here's my annoying tip of the day- when you want someone to know where you are going you just point your head and stare where you are going (exaggerated like). Leaning your head forward where you will go. Do not look at the person or bike, as that will freeze them and they will dart/turn right into you. Two people staring at each other is an accident. One person indicating where he's going is communication. You obviously can't be doing 30 miles an hour and expect this to work and you should never be biking 5x faster than any pedestrian anyway. Going that fast on a two way path is equally asinine.

I remember reading somewhere that humans where the only animal that has forward looking eyes with both a focused vision and a peripheral vision (albeit weak). Which, I think is pretty important when you bike. Not to go all nerd but, I always try and switch to a peripheral vision (not focusing on anything but movement), when I go through intersections or traffic/peds.

I'm a believer that any accident is your fault no matter what initiates it. So, both dudes are in the wrong.

Permalink Reply by MagMileMarauder on June 29, 2012 at 5:36pm

I agree with that to a certain extent. Both dudes in the wrong doesn't mean to me 50-50 guilt.

When somebody is racing at 25mph, they won't have the time to react to somebody else's stupid mistake, and it will be much worse than two people that aren't racing  (for example, in opposite directions) that make stupid mistakes. We're talking about a much larger collision that generates a lot more kinetic energy, inflicting major damage.

I'm a believer that any accident is your fault no matter what initiates it. So, both dudes are in the wrong.

Permalink Reply by Zidaane on June 29, 2012 at 6:49pm

Yeah, the last part came off wrong. I was thinking from a personal perspective. If I was either person I would blame myself equally. It wouldn't really matter to me if some guy was racing, a person spaces out or a car decides to try and go through me. Any accident is my fault. It means I put myself in a bad situation. I'm solely responsible for me. I don't really believe in situations beyond your control. The best example of that is people getting doored. There is no reason in the world you should ever get even close to being doored on a bike. Every situation is avoidable. Sure, the fun is in taking calculated risks but you do that on your own terms. I enjoy a nice ride down Lake Street with no brakes during rush hour just like the next person.

Permalink Reply by Michael A on June 29, 2012 at 7:15pm

It takes a very strong rider to hold a sustained 25 mph pace, let alone 30 mph. This kind of strength comes from many hours of training, and many thousands of miles . Anyone who trains that much can probably handle a bike way better then your average commuter. I was not there, but if you can judge  the speed of a person on a mtb  going 12-16 mph and someone on a tri tt bike going 25 mph while both traveling in opposite directions you should be awarded a medal of some sort. An accident happens in a split second, you described this like you were sitting on a park bench right in front of where it occurred with the benefit of multiple video cameras and slow motion instant replays. The fact he had on a TT helmet makes him guilty for sure, god forbid he was probably wearing spandex too. Did the mtb rider have a fox jersey on? Lay off the stereotypes, two people crashed, who's fault was it? BOTH OF THEIRS ! It is a multi use path full of people who all have the same right you do to use it. There is no speed limit posted or otherwise.  

Permalink Reply by Vondo on June 29, 2012 at 10:16pm
All those hundreds of hours of training, and all those thousands of miles and bike handling skills, yet missing the common sense to refrain from going that fast on the lfp makes someone even more dangerous, not less.
Permalink Reply by Michael A on June 30, 2012 at 12:25am
My point was the OP has no idea how fast he was going.
Permalink Reply by Anne Alt on June 30, 2012 at 12:29am

In some situations, it can take good bike handling skills on both sides to avoid an accident.  It sounds like this may have been one of those situations.

I agree with Vondo's point about common sense, or the lack thereof. Sometimes people get so focused on speed or where they're going that they lose awareness of the fact that it's a shared path with other people.  That's true of many types of path users, not just the fast ones.

Michael A said:

It takes a very strong rider to hold a sustained 25 mph pace, let alone 30 mph. This kind of strength comes from many hours of training, and many thousands of miles . Anyone who trains that much can probably handle a bike way better then your average commuter. 

Permalink Reply by Tony Adams on June 30, 2012 at 1:55am

Yep. Vondo nailed it. 

Can someone remind me what TT stands for again?

I finally got around to visiting the new 31st st harbor last week. Overall it is pretty amazing and beautiful and fills me with encouragement about the Park District and our city in general. But on our way out onto 31st it seemed like we ended up on the street/LSD offramp somehow. That was kind of weird. 


Anne Alt said:

In some situations, it can take good bike handling skills on both sides to avoid an accident.  It sounds like this may have been one of those situations.

I agree with Vondo's point about common sense, or the lack thereof. Sometimes people get so focused on speed or where they're going that they lose awareness of the fact that it's a shared path with other people.  That's true of many types of path users, not just the fast ones.

Michael A said:

It takes a very strong rider to hold a sustained 25 mph pace, let alone 30 mph. This kind of strength comes from many hours of training, and many thousands of miles . Anyone who trains that much can probably handle a bike way better then your average commuter. 

Permalink Reply by Michael A on June 30, 2012 at 2:18am

TT stands for time trial, a certain type of race where your only opponent is the clock... no drafting is allowed.. It is way more then likely that the person that was involved in this accident was a triathlete.

Once again you have all missed my point.

I am not trying to defend anyone, I just do not like the fact the OP put the blame on the "racer's" speed. He had no objective way to judge his speed. He said he suspected he was on his aero bars. If the OP saw this all so well he would not have to wonder if he was in his aero position or not. My only point is I am tired of the way the riders in spandex are constantly bashed on this board. Maybe I should go on about people riding fixed gear bikes with no brakes, or wearing flannel shirts and skinny jeans in the summer.

This accident probably happened because one or both of the riders were not paying enough attention. Not because of what they were wearing or what kind of bike they were on.

To be helpful maybe the post should be warning the readers of the chainlink about the poorly marked path in that area, instead of the dangers of pathelete's.

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