The Chainlink

Please stop riding in the wrong direction on Wabash.

It's getting absurd. On average about 3 times a week since the weather has gotten warmer, I've had run-ins with people ridding North on Wabash. Mostly in the turning lane areas or right before as I am trying to turn East onto Madison and etc. I'm not into playing "chicken" on my way to work or thrilled about having to swerve back into traffic to avoid you because you are going the wrong way.   On Tuesday, A guy on a bike ran a red light and plowed into me as I was going West on Madison.

Please start following common sense and the rules of the road. Please.

I am all for everyone biking, but this spring/summer seems worse than normal all over the city as far as fellow cyclists being completely inconsiderate to each other, pedestrians and vehicle traffic.

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Permalink Reply by Skip Montanaro 0mi on June 21, 2013 at 3:29pm

Well, no.  I did see the other discussion.  I was working my way through Google Maps and came to the same conclusion about other routes.  The thing I hadn't seen (or missed) was that there is this bike lane to nowhere (sort of like staircases at the Winchester Mystery House) that seems to be the root cause of the problem.  If that can be fixed, then perhaps salmoning will be reduced.

Permalink Reply by Tony Adams on June 21, 2013 at 3:49pm

"Skip" is living up to his name!

h' 1.0 said:

Somebody skipped reading most of the discussion :-)

Skip Montanaro 12mi said:

Is it possible to bring this discussion back to the topic of why someone would ride against traffic on Wabash in the first place?

I never ride on Wabash, but I can see why people would.  It appears to be the best way into the Loop from the south.  It looks like there is a dedicated bike lane between Cermak and Harrison, which just ends there, not connecting to any other bike-friendly streets. I'm not sure what the bike lane designers were thinking. If Google Maps is correct, it appears that Wabash is two-way south of Harrison.  If you ride northbound in that vicinity, there don't appear to be any great choices, hemmed in by State and Michigan as it is.  The best option looks to me like 9th -> Plymouth -> Polk -> Dearborn, or maybe make a left on Harrison, then go to Dearborn.  Not sure how bike friendly Harrison is...

I don't see any salmoning on Wells, a street similar to Wabash (one-way s/b, running under the train tracks), so my guess is that the traffic engineers just flubbed on Wabash.  ATA, this looks like another small lobbying effort for you (as if you don't have enough on your plate already).

Permalink Reply by Crazy David 84 Furlongs on June 21, 2013 at 3:59pm

Sigh.   Either you don't get the point or you don't care about the rest of us...

The problem isn't Bicycles riding the wrong way hitting bicycles riding the right way.  Its a much larger problem.  In order for riders to be safe, drivers have to anticipate that Bicycles are on the street and in  known and predictable places.  This is a question of training drivers to look.    Riders in unusual and wrong places sets back this training.   Not all of us have your cat like reflexes and instantaneous judgment.   We need the cars to know where we are and play along.

Its hard to track exactly where the injury caused by this will happen.   But it will.    Bicycles should NOT Salmon upstream particularly on busy streets.  It is a bad practice that hurts all of us.   And I hope to heck this is one of the ticket target priorities for the City.

h' 1.0 said:

Well, Dan Korn does this much better than I.... but I hope someone almost opens an almost-hospital soon for all of the almost-injured cyclists who are almost hit by cyclists travelling upstream on the stretch of Wabash in question.

Permalink Reply by h' Zerocats on June 21, 2013 at 4:11pm

I definitely believe that cyclists riding counter to traffic flow are an increased safety risk to themselves and other cyclists. I think you're kind of "out there" in your characterization of it as a larger problem affecting primarily motorists, but I'm willing to listen based on whatever stats you can provide on motorist crashes due to wrong-way cyclists.

David crZven 10.6 said:

Sigh.   Either you don't get the point or you don't care about the rest of us...

The problem isn't Bicycles riding the wrong way hitting bicycles riding the right way.  Its a much larger problem.  In order for riders to be safe, drivers have to anticipate that Bicycles are on the street and in  known and predictable places.  This is a question of training drivers to look.    Riders in unusual and wrong places sets back this training.   Not all of us have your cat like reflexes and instantaneous judgment.   We need the cars to know where we are and play along.

Its hard to track exactly where the injury caused by this will happen.   But it will.    Bicycles should NOT Salmon upstream particularly on busy streets.  It is a bad practice that hurts all of us.   And I hope to heck this is one of the ticket target priorities for the City.

h' 1.0 said:

Well, Dan Korn does this much better than I.... but I hope someone almost opens an almost-hospital soon for all of the almost-injured cyclists who are almost hit by cyclists travelling upstream on the stretch of Wabash in question.

Permalink Reply by h' Zerocats on June 21, 2013 at 4:15pm

Gotcha... it seemed like you were presenting it as the first one to bring it up or offer that particular route in the course of this discussion.  I guess, the question is, how many different individuals need to point out the same root cause of this problem, and the need for 'someone' to do something about it, in the course of a Chainlink forum discussion before we find it all fixed one day? Let's find out...

Skip Montanaro 12mi said:

Well, no.  I did see the other discussion.  I was working my way through Google Maps and came to the same conclusion about other routes.  The thing I hadn't seen (or missed) was that there is this bike lane to nowhere (sort of like staircases at the Winchester Mystery House) that seems to be the root cause of the problem.  If that can be fixed, then perhaps salmoning will be reduced.

Permalink Reply by Julia 3.5/7.5 mi on June 22, 2013 at 8:20pm

Saw this article today: http://gothamist.com/2013/06/21/in_defense_of_salmoning_on_a_bike.php 

I don't salmon streets myself and I generally get pretty annoyed when others do - I prefer to take the lane on State street to ride up to State/Jackson. This article actually made some points that I consider valid - and I can see the attractiveness of salmoning to the author. Then again, if you're only going a block (like the last route the author posted) can't just you walk your bike on the sidewalk???

Permalink Reply by Anne Alt on June 22, 2013 at 10:58pm

Darwin Award candidate - guy salmoning on Kedzie south of 119th this a.m. (40 mph speed limit, drivers often faster, narrow lanes). Riding on this section of Kedzie with the flow of traffic could make this guy a candidate. Salmoning increases his chances on this bike-unfriendly street.

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