Riding in Barrington Hills - update

While I saw a few comments and earlier posts about traffic enforcement in Barrington Hills, I wanted to share a few thoughts (many from the officer) after I received a $50 ticket last week and just spoke with an officer today.  My apologies in advance if any of this has already been covered.

  • B-Hills residents view cyclists as a nuisance and don't want them there
  • In short, since there are no restaurants, coffee shops, bike shops, etc. in B-Hills, they see no positive economic impact in having cyclists there
  • They are tracking how many tickets are written to cyclists so they can report back to residents
  • The officer said that, while you don't need to unclip or put a leg down, you better come to a near stop to pass his test
  • Since B-Hills does not have a court, it's a hassle to argue the ticket.  The requires going to Rolling Meadows to change it to a state ticket.

I've been riding a few times a week for 8 years and this is my first (hopefully last) ticket.  Clearly this is a resident versus cyclist thing.  In addition, the officer cited a number of examples of rude behavior by cyclists to B-Hills residents and cars. That hurs us big time.   Sadly, I've seen that a few times too.

Since I'm very pro-cyclist, I'd propose:

  • Ride single file or near single file as much as possible
  • Give residents and officers no reason to ticket
  • Keep riding these roads.  Even though some (like Otis Rd) are somewhat beat up from the weather, they are still some of the best roads around.

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Tricolor on August 5, 2014 at 9:16am

Don't pee on their lawn?

Permalink Reply by Tank-Ridin' Ryan on August 5, 2014 at 9:17am

Why did they write you a ticket?

Permalink Reply by skyrefuge on August 5, 2014 at 9:34am

Completely agreed on all three of your points. I always ride single-file anyway, and never "blow through" stop signs, so while it's a little annoying now to have to actually come to come to a complete stop when there is no other traffic (besides an immobile police vehicle!) it's certainly a small price to pay for the privilege of riding on the roads in Barrington Hills. Thanks for "taking one for the team" and then passing along the details you learned, especially the criteria that at least that particular officer uses.

At the 2014-07-28 Board of Trustees Meeting, the police chief reported that since the beginning of 2014, they had issued 91 $50 compliance citations to bike riders in the village, and 6 warnings, most for blowing through stop signs. 85% have been paid (which elicited a "wow" from a trustee). There was then several laughs about whether they needed to raise the fine, with someone suggesting that could be the method by which they could pay for repairing Haeger's Bend Rd. (since the proposal to get federal funding is now completely dead).

Permalink Reply by Dan Feely on August 5, 2014 at 9:35am

I did not slow down at a 4 way stop at this very busy intersection (see below)



Tank-Ridin' Ryan said:

Why did they write you a ticket?

Permalink Reply by mike w. on August 5, 2014 at 12:45pm

Looks like the same one where an officer was lurking a couple of weeks ago when our local ride went through on a sunday morning. He had been sitting at the other end of that road earlier. We were warned about his presence by an oncoming rider. Said officer had earlier stopped the first group of our ride to warn about single-filing (someone had doubled up on a downhill to avoid a collision -also as the group was being passed by a car that was going over the limit, but i digress...) 

  Two sundays running we were aggressively close-passed by the same pickup along the same stretch of road and i get the feeling that guy is just out  trolling to harass cyclsts. i also note that most of the friction occurs north of Lake-Cook road. 

Dan Feely said:

I did not slow down at a 4 way stop at this very busy intersection (see below)



Tank-Ridin' Ryan said:

Why did they write you a ticket?

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