abc7 Special Segment: Riding on the Edge "It's a complete ego thing"
http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news/special_segments&...
(Link safe for work. Includes video)
For those who cannot click link:
By Eric Horng
October 31, 2010 (CHICAGO) (WLS) -- Bicyclists on the streets of Chicago face many dangers, but they may put
themselves in that position and frequently frustrate others on the
road.
By law, bicyclists have to obey the same traffic lights and signs guiding drivers. In fact, the Secretary of State's office distributes
out a pamphlet spelling it all out. But many bicyclists in Chicago
follow their own rules.
In downtown Chicago during the afternoon rush, the lights and signs at several high-traffic
intersection that prevent chaos are ignored by bicyclist, after
bicyclist, after bicyclist.
"They kind of do what they want," one person said.
"It almost seems like they view themselves as above the law," said another.
Over the course of two days, ABC7 witnessed dozens of bicycle traffic
violations, from riders blowing through stop signs to bicyclists
ignoring red lights and snaking across traffic.
"They will cut in front of you. They will especially never stop at a stop sign," motorist Audrey Middleton said.
Bicyclists could also be seen riding in oncoming lanes, going the wrong
way down one-way streets, as well as riding on busy sidewalks and
failing to stop for emergency vehicles. Some also took up entire lanes
of traffic, all without signaling.
Pedestrian Carole Romano indicated she rarely saw bicyclists giving the appropriate hand signals.
"Oh, no, no," she said.
In some cases, it's not that bike riders won't stop. Sometimes, they
can't. Growing in popularity are fixed-gear bikes, which have no brakes.
The fact that they are illegal is part of the allure.
"It's a complete ego thing," one rider said.
Some bike riders speaking with ABC7 seemed less than concerned.
"I don't mean to break any laws or anything like that. That's just the way I ride my bike," bicyclist Marcos Orta said.
"We gotta get from point A to point B, and sometimes, no, we don't obey
the law because we're trying to get from point A to point B," rider
Bertram Davis said.
Chicago has long touted itself as bicycle-friendly, and Mayor Daley's administration has added miles of
bike lanes and expanded city bike programs. However, as the number of
bicyclists have grown, so have the number of accidents: from less than
1,200 in 2003 to more than 1,700 in 2008, according to the Illinois
Dept. of Transportation. That's a nearly 50-percent increase.
A leading bicycle advocacy group says bike riders are not to blame.
"Education and enforcement should be focused on where it can have the
greatest impact for everyone's safety, and that is obviously more
focused on motorists," said Ethan Spotts, Active Transportation Alliance
spokesman.
But not every bicyclist agrees.
"It's about bicyclists having equal rights but not special rights," Philip Martin said.
Martin is a former board member of the Chicagoland Bicycle Federation. He
says out-of-control behavior threatens the progress the bike community
has made.
"Cyclists need to become more responsible for themselves. Otherwise, we risk losing the support that we need to expand our programs," Martin said.
Bike riders can be ticketed just like drivers, but Chicago police and the Cook County Circuit Court
Clerk's Office could not determine for ABC7 Chicago, based on their
records, how many bicyclists have been ticketed in recent years.
In fact, ABC7 is told by the circuit clerk's office that there isn't a
separate bicycle ticket form and the standard ticket doesn't have a
section or category for bicyclists.
http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news/special_segments&id=7757396
Views: 170
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Michael Perz on
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Yellow never looks good on journalism.
Oh, lordy! Bicycle accidents have gone up nearly fifty percent? Lock up your daughters! Nevermind the rate at which the popularity of cycling has grown for that same period, because factoring that in might make the accident rate appear flat or even reversed.
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At least they made the obligatory fixed gear mention. I imagine that it plays well to the frightened-senior-citizen-at-home-on-a-Sunday-night demographic.
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Permalink Reply by Tank-Ridin' Ryan on
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"I don't mean to break any laws or anything like that. That's just the way I ride my bike," bicyclist Marcos Orta said.
"We gotta get from point A to point B, and sometimes, no, we don't obey the law because we're trying to get from point A to point B," rider Bertram Davis said.
Congrats, now neither of you can say a damn thing when motorists speed past with less than three feet clearance. Maybe that's just "how they drive their cars" or "they're trying to get from point A to point B."
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Permalink Reply by your duncle on
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I watch ABC7 news once in awhile and this is just their usual perspective. They find a topic that is hard to defend. Then they apply their slant, and it's tsk...tsk...tsk, you naughty whoever's.
But the dude on the cruiser who was about to cut off the ambulance at NorMilDam makes it hard on anyone trying to give a good excuse why running a red ain't so bad on a bike.
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Permalink Reply by Duppie on
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"It's about bicyclists having equal rights but not special rights," Philip Martin said.
Martin is a former board member of the Chicagoland Bicycle Federation. He says out-of-control behavior threatens the progress the bike community
has made.
"Cyclists need to become more responsible for themselves. Otherwise, we risk losing the support that we need to expand our programs," Martin said.
Really about the only sensible statement in the entire article.
The cyclists that Ryan quotes do absolutely nothing to improve the image of cyclists
Tank-Ridin' Ryan said:"I don't mean to break any laws or anything like that. That's just the way I ride my bike," bicyclist Marcos Orta said.
"We gotta get from point A to point B, and sometimes, no, we don't obey the law because we're trying to get from point A to point B," rider Bertram Davis said.
Congrats, now neither of you can say a damn thing when motorists speed past with less than three feet clearance. Maybe that's just "how they drive their cars" or "they're trying to get from point A to point B."
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Permalink Reply by Chris B on
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Why don't they actually look up police statistics on who causes the accidents? Such as the Toronto study a couple years ago?
For some reason interviewing some nobody biker and driver to get quotes means something?
Or am I just fooling myself into thinking Horng was actually trying to investigate and report on issues of importance?
Is this the same guy that whines about having to sit in his car longer the last friday of the month?
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Permalink Reply by dan brown on
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I saw it too and give it the usual D- grade.
I don't think it accomplished anything and certainly was not 'news' in any fashion.
they make cyclists that disregard rules of the road look like criminals - sheesh.
I'd like to see a piece on distracted drivers (much more common and dangerous than the above)
and how much more dangerous they are.
Dan
end of rant
Chris B said:Why don't they actually look up police statistics on who causes the accidents? Such as the Toronto study a couple years ago?
For some reason interviewing some nobody biker and driver to get quotes means something?
Or am I just fooling myself into thinking Horng was actually trying to investigate and report on issues of importance?
Is this the same guy that whines about having to sit in his car longer the last friday of the month?
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This post highlights once again one underreported value of the chainlink: I required me to lookup the word Yellow Journalism
Michael Perz said:Yellow never looks good on journalism.
Oh, lordy! Bicycle accidents have gone up nearly fifty percent? Lock up your daughters! Nevermind the rate at which the popularity of cycling has grown for that same period, because factoring that in might make the accident rate appear flat or even reversed.
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Permalink Reply by Davo on
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"Some also took up entire lanes
of traffic, all without signaling.
Pedestrian Carole Romano indicated she rarely saw bicyclists giving the appropriate hand signals.
"Oh, no, no," she said."
How often has anyone been cut off by a car that doesn't use their signals? I wonder how many drivers even notice if a cyclist is giving a signal. And the part of taking up the whole lane, well sometimes you have to do that. ABC what a great news source. They need more stories about keeping kids off the lawn and how great things used to be. This is why I like WGN, they at least have fun at doing news.
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Permalink Reply by garrett on
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So this may be addressed in another forum but I was just wondering.... How do you all deal with stop signs? Do you think it is a reasonable behavior to ride through when you are going to reach the line before any car can reach the line? This is the way I have done it for a long time and it seems to work pretty well.
One issue is that you have to assume that every car will stop or at least slow down when approaching the sign.
One drawback is that oftentimes a driver will wait to find out what you are going to do if you are both approaching at the same time or they are already stopped. I have found that if I do not make eye contact, I can minimize this effect and the driver will do what he or she would normally do faced with a car in my location instead of a bike.
I am not a strict adherent to the rules of the road while riding because the rules are not written with me in mind. Please do not interpret that to be a "complete ego thing" it is just not viable to come to a complete stop in many situations
In Austin, if a police officer is around, you can be ticketed if you do not put one foot on the ground and stop the wheels from moving. You can imagine how annoying that is. These types of rules are enforced *vigorously* and I believe the motive was more likely revenue than conditioning or changing the behavior. There was a lively discussion about the "foot rule" at an advocacy meeting this past spring where an individual who rode a double frame was trying to argue against the rule with the chief of police : )
There is no need to reiterate how awful this story was but my question is:
Is it reasonable to intentionally disobey the laws if they are not practical. I would gladly accept a link to the thread that contains this discussion if we do not want to have it here.
As far as my own behavior is concerned, my operating principle is that if my actions do not impede traffic they should be accepted.
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I sence somone posting the Idaho stop thing again soon.
garrett honke said:So this may be addressed in another forum but I was just wondering.... How do you all deal with stop signs? Do you think it is a reasonable behavior to ride through when you are going to reach the line before any car can reach the line? This is the way I have done it for a long time and it seems to work pretty well.
One issue is that you have to assume that every car will stop or at least slow down when approaching the sign.
One drawback is that oftentimes a driver will wait to find out what you are going to do if you are both approaching at the same time or they are already stopped. I have found that if I do not make eye contact, I can minimize this effect and the driver will do what he or she would normally do faced with a car in my location instead of a bike.
I am not a strict adherent to the rules of the road while riding because the rules are not written with me in mind. Please do not interpret that to be a "complete ego thing" it is just not viable to come to a complete stop in many situations
In Austin, if a police officer is around, you can be ticketed if you do not put one foot on the ground and stop the wheels from moving. You can imagine how annoying that is. These types of rules are enforced *vigorously* and I believe the motive was more likely revenue than conditioning or changing the behavior. There was a lively discussion about the "foot rule" at an advocacy meeting this past spring where an individual who rode a double frame was trying to argue against the rule with the chief of police : )
There is no need to reiterate how awful this story was but my question is:
Is it reasonable to intentionally disobey the laws if they are not practical. I would gladly accept a link to the thread that contains this discussion if we do not want to have it here.
As far as my own behavior is concerned, my operating principle is that if my actions do not impede traffic they should be accepted.
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I thought it was because the reporter looks asian but this makes more sence.
Duppie said:This post highlights once again one underreported value of the chainlink: I required me to lookup the word Yellow Journalism
Michael Perz said:Yellow never looks good on journalism.
Oh, lordy! Bicycle accidents have gone up nearly fifty percent? Lock up your daughters! Nevermind the rate at which the popularity of cycling has grown for that same period, because factoring that in might make the accident rate appear flat or even reversed.
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