What's this doing in the bike lane?
Share your pics, videos, streets, stories of what you find in the bike lane of the non-bike variety that has an impact on your ride and/or your safety. I've decided to keep it a little more open ended - cars, snow, buses, garbage, cabs, etc. If they shouldn't be in the bike lane, go ahead and add it to this thread. Please be safe if you are taking pics or video! :-)
My hope is that we can collectively build some evidence of what we see when riding in the city with the overall hope of better enforcement of "bikes only" and improving maintenance.
Update: More Hashtags to Capture Vehicles in the Bike Lane
With popular hashtags:
#BikeLaneShaming
#LaneSpreading (Chicago Bike Selling)
#ClearTheWay (ActiveTrans), there are many options to capture violations.
We think you should use ALL of them AND post your photos on The Chainlink. ;-)
Views: 83837
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Cheryl on
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Thanks for doing that! A little targeted enforcement could get the message out that drivers can't assume there will be no repercussions for parking in bike lanes. Long term, it would be great if they could deputize us or something so we could issue tickets.
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Permalink Reply by Bruce on
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The missed opportunity.
How come I can never come up with a good, snide remark in the moment and it only comes to me 20 or 30 minutes later?
So, the story goes like this. Last night (Tuesday) I had a really nice ride on the CHILFT from downtown to Promontory Point at about 9:30 PM. It was a quiet night; a nice tailwind made me feel free and easy and added to the sense of calm and serenity. For much of the ride the only sounds I really heard were the waves crashing against the sea wall. I didn't see another cyclist, and at 31st street I glimpsed a group huddled over by the parking lot. I have no idea what they were doing but it looked like maybe a seance.
That all sounds idyllic, right?
The fun part was 20 minutes earlier, before a quick sojourn at TJs to pick up a bottle of wine. As I was heading east on Harrison to get from UIC to the loop, I passed the obligatory car parked in the bike lane in front of the post office. I looked over my shoulder and was able to squeeze into the lane of traffic without getting killed. As per usual I rode right in the middle of the lane so no jerk would try to squeeze me up against the parked car. Plus, I do admit, I like to make a point that I am being forced into the lane due to the illegal behavior of a driver, so those drivers behind me should see and fully appreciate the situation.
Did I stay out in the lane a little longer than necessary? Was I perhaps being a little too passive aggressive? I plead the fifth. Be that as it may, soon enough a car was slowing down as it passed me (having of course crossed over the yellow line and invaded part of the opposing lane--good thing there was not any westbound traffic at that point) and I notice that he's (a) pretty darn close to me and (b) driving along with his passenger window open and trying to engage me in conversation.
"What"?" I said.
He holds up, for my benefit I guess, some sort of badge or shield, although it was fairly indistinguishable in the dark. "You know they built the bike lanes for a reason!" I hear him shout. Unintimidated by his stupid "shield," I shout back "You know somebody is parked in the bike lane for no good reason!"
What was the missed opportunity? I should have calmly said something like "Yes, they were made for paring, right? That's how I see them being used all the time."
JERKS!
He said something else I couldn't hear and sped off. I nearly caught up to him at Wells but he turned right and I continued straight.
Fortunately, the wine I picked up at TJs complemented my supper quite well and I enjoyed the rest of my evening, trying not to feel annoyed at my poor response. But, I do think I'm getting better. I'll just have to keep practicing.
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Permalink Reply by Tom A.K. on
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Bruce, I recommend checking this link out from mplsbikewrath.
And the 31st seance people could have been The Chicago Astronomy Group holding a celestial viewing party.http://www.thechainlink.org/forum/topics/confidently-asserting-cycl...
A blog sample from mplsbikewrath's 'On assertive advocacy, mindfulness, and anger management'.
"Be prepared to confidently defend your decisions. Remember that for many, many situations, "because it was safer for me" is a perfectly defensible position for a cyclist."For example: "Why were you taking up the whole lane?"
"Because being more central in the lane makes me more visible and removes me from the door zone. It gives me more room to maneuver in case of emergency. It discourages close passes. It makes me better able to see cross traffic and pedestrians at intersections. And the law says I can, so you can just slow the *uck down and wait for a safe place to pass, *other *ucker."
And if someone ever waves a badge at you again, ask, "sir, can you clearly identify yourself in a more public way?"
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Hi Tom, I really appreciate your reply. I will check out the blog. Indeed, mindfullness is exactly what I am trying to work on. I agree that it is important to be able to "confidently defend my decisions" and do so in a self-assured manner and that's my goal. And I do need to practice!
Your suggestion re: the badge is interesting. In this case, as I say, he zoomed off in pretty short order and I don't think he was really available for a prolonged engagement. Over the last year or so I have engaged police in uniform in conversation quite a few times regarding bikes and street safety and similar issues. I've done this when riding on the LFT and encountering them on "patrol" at places such as 31st street beach, under the new pedestrian bridge south of there, around 47th or Promontory Point (Hmm... I've never done so on the north side). I'm working on understanding their point of view more than getting them to understand mine.
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Good luck, and be careful Bruce.
A bit more from mplsbikewrath's blog on practice;
"Argue for fun, practice by arguing with people in low-stress environments. Work on two things:
Improving your rhetoric - Always look for better ways to explain complicated road situations or statutes. Look for quicker ways to shut down common rebuttals. Get your insult game on point.Monitoring your anger response How easily do you get angry at trolls who employ this vs. that argument? What other things are going on in your life on the days that things piss you off that wouldn't otherwise piss you off? When your ego gets in the way, can you return to the place where you remember that this isn't about you, but rather about people's lives
Last but not least, and I'm bad at this myself, but in all parts of the above process and theory work, spend effort on giving yourself permission to make errors. Even in a controlled environment, you're going to f*** up sometimes, so of course when you confront drivers out in the real world, you're gonna f### it up there, too, and likely more often. It's a stressful situation and your body and mind will sometimes behave like it's a stressful situation even when you do your best to prepare yourself."
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Permalink Reply by Juan 2-3 or more mi. on
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Mindfulness, yes that's what I need to work on when S.U.V. drivers cut me off on Randolph as I'm trying to go straight. Makes me wanna chase them stupid cagers down and rage so badly :P
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