Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Tony Adams on October 9, 2009 at 6:45am

Wow. Often I'll ride up to a cross-walk to find pedestrians waiting for me to pass. I guess some of the time they are trying to be nice, but I'm guessing that they are also sometimes feeling "trained" that they can't trust us to do the right thing. It is appalling that one of the outcomes of the great increase in bike riders is that some pedestrians are now scared of us.

Bill,
Sorry to hear about the crash. Heal up soon!

18th St. is not a very confidence inspiring bike lane. I wonder if for some drivers it has just become a buffer zone into which they feel they can start to pull out before checking for traffic behind them?

h3 said:

Cyclists treating pedestrians like cones bothers me immensely as well.
Still glad they're on a bike rather than in a car, but barely . . .
The other day I saw the most idiotic thing I've ever seen-- a kid (couldn't tell if they were male or female) doing a trackstand on the train platform and otherwise trick riding around, obviously trying to make anyone watching think they were about to accidentally fall into the tracks-- when the train pulled up they rode on and proceeded to ride past people sitting and then continued with the track stand on the train in close proximity to people's legs/feet.
When they finally took a seat there was a woman in a CTA uniform apparently giving him/her a look, as s/he loudly asked what she was looking at . . . I can't be responsible for the behavior of everyone out there who rides a bike, but it's hard not to be ashamed at times.


Rosa Diaz said:

We do have to be more careful, we can't always trust drivers. However, many cyclists are reckless, I am not saying Bill specifically, but cyclists overall. Many cyclists disregard pedestrians the same way drivers disregard cyclists. I constantly see cyclists running the red-light/stop sign while people are crossing.
Countless times, I have seen people dodging cyclists that almost ran them over. Then these are the same cyclists who get pissed off at drivers who are reckless to them. Cyclists can be pretty dangerous to pedestrians.

At the end, many cyclists in a sense are hypocrites.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Brendan Kevenides on October 9, 2009 at 8:21am

If your roommate has a car and his own auto insurance he can look to the uninsured motorist provision in his own policy for coverage. I'm an attorney and I'd be happy to talk to him about it when ever he feels up to it. My office number is 312.236.2522.

Brendan Kevenides

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by JFred4 on October 9, 2009 at 12:25pm

Last weekend I was driving my wife's car (again realized how much I hate driving in this city) and I pulled into a spot on Lincoln Ave south of Belmont. There were about 3 spaces open so I didn't need to parallel park, just pulled straight in and jumped right out of the car AFTER checking my side mirror for bikers in the bike lane. I quickly got out of the car and shut the door since it was raining. All of a sudden a biker pulled up next to me and yelled " What? YOU didn't see me coming??" I quickly apologized and told him sorry and he went on his way.
I started thinking as I walked away; 1) He was nowhere near my car when I pulled in the spot or got out. Where the hell did he come from?? 2) He must have seen ME when I pulled in and had my lights on (middle of the day but raining) Why didn't he slow down??
3) As a fellow biker, I am always SUPER conscious of the bike lane area vs. people pulling in and out of spots. I always don't ride as fast as I can on busy streets in the middle of rush hour. In the rain!!

I think as bikers we are responsible for being in our bike lane too, no matter what the law says.
Say a ghost bike today and had to describe to my wife what it was without her freaking out about me riding so much. Super depressing

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Doug Haynes on October 9, 2009 at 1:37pm

Did you shoulder check? Cars canhave a big blind spot in the mirrors.

JFred4 said:

Last weekend I was driving my wife's car (again realized how much I hate driving in this city) and I pulled into a spot on Lincoln Ave south of Belmont. There were about 3 spaces open so I didn't need to parallel park, just pulled straight in and jumped right out of the car AFTER checking my side mirror for bikers in the bike lane. I quickly got out of the car and shut the door since it was raining. All of a sudden a biker pulled up next to me and yelled " What? YOU didn't see me coming??" I quickly apologized and told him sorry and he went on his way.
I started thinking as I walked away; 1) He was nowhere near my car when I pulled in the spot or got out. Where the hell did he come from?? 2) He must have seen ME when I pulled in and had my lights on (middle of the day but raining) Why didn't he slow down??
3) As a fellow biker, I am always SUPER conscious of the bike lane area vs. people pulling in and out of spots. I always don't ride as fast as I can on busy streets in the middle of rush hour. In the rain!!

I think as bikers we are responsible for being in our bike lane too, no matter what the law says.
Say a ghost bike today and had to describe to my wife what it was without her freaking out about me riding so much. Super depressing

• ▶ Reply

• ‹ Previous
• 1
• 2
• Next ›
• Page