Salmoning poll

I ended up in West Town during the tail end of rush hour tonight, and saw a ridiculous amount of salmoning on the way there.... just wondering on average how often folks experience a rider coming at you going the wrong way.

How many times have you experienced it in the past week/month, and is there a place and time where you think you're more likely to encounter it? Have you noticed repeat offenders? Are there folks who seem to be doing it deliberately to endanger/scare the right-way riders?

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Permalink Reply by Len Krietz on June 15, 2013 at 12:38am

Are you including riding the wrong way on one way streets?  If so I can't recall how many times in a week (I live on a one ways street). Salmoning in a bike lane is less frequent.  I only encounter it abut once or twice a week.  I do have to confess I salmon on a sidewalk every morning for 100yds on my commute to get from Kingsbury to the Cherry St bridge.

Permalink Reply by millenial removing Bernie tattoo on June 15, 2013 at 2:05am

About half my commutes while on Lawrence.  Always Mexicans.

Permalink Reply by Lanterne Rouge on June 15, 2013 at 2:31am

On mountain bikes with grocery bags of their belongings hanging from the handlebars?

To validate your claim, that may be a regional thing. At my last job, I worked with many, many Mexicans who had very recently immigrated to the states. I was disgusted by how often they left trash everywhere or just threw trash on the street instead of trash cans. When I asked some of them about this, they were a little confused and said that in Mexico, they pay taxes to have government or a private company deal with the trash on the streets, sidewalks, etc. So they figure it's OK to do that since someone will swiftly be around to deal with the problem.

My little anecdote is just to say that maybe in Mexico, they're still being taught to drive against traffic. 


envane (69 furlongs) said:

About half my commutes while on Lawrence.  Always Mexicans.

Permalink Reply by Dovah Cat on June 15, 2013 at 2:49am
It's definitely common in Little Village and Pilsen, but it's been mildly annoying around UIC lately. It isn't usually a problem until we're playing chicken in an already narrow bike lane and a door opens or a bus passes.
Permalink Reply by Fran Kondorf on June 15, 2013 at 3:02am

 I recently lived on the corner of two one-way streets sort of between Bucktown and Logan Square. We had a great view of the traffic from our 2nd floor windows and saw cyclists salmoning daily, mostly white kids in their 20's and 30's.

 Usually during the evening rush hour and certainly not threatening. Just dumb I suppose.

 

Permalink Reply by Juan Primo on June 15, 2013 at 3:32am

What, were they waving Mexican flags or something?  Could they have been Guatemalan, Honduran, Dominican, Costa Rican?

envane (69 furlongs) said:

About half my commutes while on Lawrence.  Always Mexicans.

Permalink Reply by JMG on June 15, 2013 at 3:50am

I live on the north side on Wolcott (a one way) and ride down to Montrose and back almost daily. In the one mile trip from here to Montrose it's not unusual to for me to play chicken with 5 or more wrong way (non-hispanic) riders. I usually take Ravenswood on the way back and it's often the same story there. I've also noticed a LOT more people riding on the sidewalk these days, not sure what's up with that.

Permalink Reply by Doug Haynes on June 15, 2013 at 4:01am

I see quite a few, at least one a day commuting through the West Side.  However once I get to Oak Park I almost never see a salmon in the street because everyone out there rides on the side walk.

Permalink Reply by Dovah Cat on June 15, 2013 at 5:51am

+1 

Juan Primo said:

What, were they waving Mexican flags or something?  Could they have been Guatemalan, Honduran, Dominican, Costa Rican?

envane (69 furlongs) said:

About half my commutes while on Lawrence.  Always Mexicans.

Permalink Reply by David P. on June 15, 2013 at 6:26am

I can't comment to Jim's specific situations, but statistically, in most parts of the city if you see someone who is "hispanic" (the way this term is usually used sort of annoys me, so by this I mean, more or less, mestizo - I'm Latin American but I'm also white and I look and sound like just another anglo white guy) they are a lot more likely to be Mexican than those other nationalities. Some of my other LatAm neighbors (Avondale) are Dominican and Puerto Rican, but most are Mexican.

Anyway, IME the majority of the people I see salmoning are people who I would categorize as people who don't know any better. They're not "bike people" in any of the myriad senses of that word (with the class implications that it suggests) and seem to be going on the possibly-instinctive feeling that it's safer if they can see cars coming at them; generally they are removed from environments where there are people who would tell them otherwise.

Juan Primo said:

What, were they waving Mexican flags or something?  Could they have been Guatemalan, Honduran, Dominican, Costa Rican?

envane (69 furlongs) said:

About half my commutes while on Lawrence.  Always Mexicans.

Permalink Reply by Tony Adams on June 15, 2013 at 6:46am

Riding the wrong way on a one way street isn't salmoning. The only reason those streets are designated as one way is because there isn't room for cars to travel in both directions. (Usually due to drivers parking their private vehicles on the public way.) We should not be bound by rules soley designed to accomodate the shortcomings of the automotive death machines. I'm not saying it is legal or safe, but I do it more often than I can count also. I too live on a one way street.

It seems like I'm encountering less salmon these days, although it still occurs - perhaps twice a month? I wonder if the greater numbers of (non-salmon) riders is educating the salmon by example?

2. I almost always politely ask the salmon to ride on the right side of the street, to which I point.

 


Len Krietz said:

Are you including riding the wrong way on one way streets?  If so I can't recall how many times in a week (I live on a one ways street). Salmoning in a bike lane is less frequent.  I only encounter it abut once or twice a week.  I do have to confess I salmon on a sidewalk every morning for 100yds on my commute to get from Kingsbury to the Cherry St bridge.

Permalink Reply by Julia 3.5/7.5 mi on June 15, 2013 at 7:08am

Sure it is. Doesn't matter if it's a "shortcoming of automotive death machines" - you're still going against the traffic flow and it's still dangerous. 

I live near a pretty popular Logan Square bar. Almost all of the streets around me are one-ways. People salmon my street all the time - though most have the common sense to move aside for oncoming traffic and the wherewithal to realize they're approaching a major intersection rather blindly. I haven't seen anyone hit yet, but probably a dozen or so close calls since the weather warmed up.

Salmoning in bike lanes - I see maybe 1 a week? It's pretty hard to salmon Milwaukee or Elston, but every now and then someone manages. There was a guy salmoning Desplaines yesterday that nearly caused a collision. The ones I spot salmoning in terrible spots seem to be oblivious to more than just the fact that they're the only one going the wrong way...

Tony Adams 7 mi (dirtbag hipstr) said:

Riding the wrong way on a one way street isn't salmoning. 

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