So What Can We Do To Make It Better, Specifically?

I always read the comments to stories about bicycle-vehicle catastrophes.  Right now, relations between cyclists and drivers in Chicago are tense and strained, to say the least.  The comments consist mainly of drivers attacking the conduct of cyclists and cyclists counter-attacking.  Certain themes emerge on both sides, but not much civil discussion.

This post isn't about who's right and who's wrong, or who is more aggrieved and put upon.  It's simply my personal take on how the bicycle-driver relationship in Chicago could be improved by bicyclists.  I write from that viewpoint because my philosophy is to do what I think I should be doing, regardless of what someone else is doing.  If you want to be a jerk to me on the road, go right ahead.  I will not retaliate.  I will continue to do what I think is safe and civil.  Based on my readings and discussions with drivers, here are some ways that we could improve the situation.  Reasonable minds may differ.  And this is not to say that it wouldn't be nice if drivers made some corresponding efforts:

     1.  Let's push the City Council hard to implement some form of the Idaho stop.  A million times over, drivers complain that cyclists illegally blow through stop signs and red lights.  Of course, they're correct about that.  (And of course they do similar things, but that isn't what this post is about.)  A solution would be to have an ordinance ratifying the existing behavior of cyclists, particularly with regard to stop signs.  There is ample evidence that the Idaho stop is safe.  We should work really hard to have it implemented in Chicago and Chicagoland.  I myself would not extend it to traffic lights.  Blowing stop signs makes drivers somewhat jealous and angry, but cyclists blowing red lights absolutely makes them livid, with considerable justification.  I don't buy the argument cyclists make that they are simply protecting their own safety by running through red lights.  As a driver myself, I think cyclists who run red lights disrupt traffic excessively and scare the bejeebers out of drivers who proceed with the light, only to have cyclists darting in front of them.  In Idaho there probably aren't too many intersections as busy as those here in Chicago.  If an intersection is so dangerous that you think you have to run a red light to survive it, then just get off your bike and be a pedestrian for a few minutes.  There's no shame in that.

With some variation of the Idaho stop being legal, drivers would still be resentful, but would grudgingly concede that cyclists were not lawbreakers for doing it.  In a strange way, I think this would help calm the situation.

     2.  Let's stop riding the wrong way, on both one- and two-way streets.  Again, I see this mentioned time and time again by drivers -- and they are correct.  Drivers have certain expectations about where they should be looking for other motor vehicles and bicycles.  Riding the wrong way makes for a lot of unpleasant surprises, often in the form or collisions or near-collisions.  I know that a long time ago, some people thought that riding the wrong way was safer for cyclists.  That was disproven a long time ago.  A cyclist riding the wrong way alarms and provokes drivers unnecessarily.  We should not do that.  Better to go carefully upon the sidewalk and annoy the pedestrians a little.

     3.  Let's stop riding between lanes of moving traffic.  If there is a long line of stopped cars, I can see, marginally, riding between them and the curb (or parked cars) with great caution.  However, cyclists should not, in the big city, be darting in and out of moving traffic and riding between moving traffic lanes.  Again, this scares the bejeebers out of drivers, and understandably so.  Plus, when you're maneuvering like that, drivers have to try to take into account take every sudden move you might make, not just the ones you are actually making.  Drivers are constantly thinking, "What if he....?"  This is completely nerve-wracking for them, and they are justified in being angered by it.  Plus, a small lapse in judgment by the cyclist and he are she are sliding into or under someone's vehicle.  Riding between lanes of moving traffic, regardless of how savvy you think you are or how many YouTube videos you've seen of messenger races in New York City, does not help the cause of cycling at all.

     4.  Let's use proper lights when riding at night.  In the city, they aren't needed so much to illuminate the way as they are to alert drivers to your presence.  Especially since as likely as not, you're dressed all in black and have no reflectors on your bike, either.  This is another complaint that comes up over and over in the comments, and it's perfectly valid.  Drivers are much better at having lights and turning them on than are cyclists, given an equal level of sobriety.  So gee whiz, spend the pittance it takes to make yourself visible to everybody.  Even Aldi every so often has inexpensive lights that would suffice.     

Maybe some or all of this will seem too conservative to some.  Maybe some will view me as a Neville Chamberlain-type appeaser.  Whatever.  Someone has to offer the olive branch and try to defuse the situation.  If it has to be me, even unilaterally sometimes, I'm willing.  I've never found berating or denigrating other people to be a solution for anything.          

 

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Chris Beukenkamp on June 23, 2016 at 9:48am

Why don't we have more split lanes?  Most of the lanes in Chicago go parking-bike-car instead of bike-parking-car.  Separate the distance a bit you get more safety, fewer bumps and a lil bit of distance to let people cool off.

Permalink Reply by Skip Montanaro 0mi on June 23, 2016 at 9:51am

That's not universally assumed to be true. In particular, bikes between parked cars and the curb are subject to intrusions by people exiting the right side of the cars (not used to having to look before opening their doors), and the parked cars hide bikes from the moving traffic, resulting in a greater change of right and left hooks at intersections.

Permalink Reply by Kara B on June 23, 2016 at 10:56am

I have been so discouraged about driver attitudes and bike-blaming lately, too, and I love the idea of doing something about it: specifically, putting a "bikes are here to stay, let's learn to get along" platform together, including all of the things listed above: Many of us are members of Active Trans,  maybe this is a campaign they can take on?

The Mayor doesn't have the highest popularity numbers right now but he has been good for bikes, even though the comments sections would suggest that's not always popular: maybe he'd be willing to behind some of these recommendations? 

Permalink Reply by Paul Lazzaro on June 23, 2016 at 11:28am

Because most people drive but do not cycle, cyclists are for them the 'other'.  They need to be won over to the notion that cyclists are people, too, with families, jobs, etc., who also just want to get from A to B without being killed.

Permalink Reply by BikeScnhook on June 23, 2016 at 1:05pm

Man, I could have written that post myself. Thank you for putting it much more eloquently than I probably would.

I think the best advice I've ever seen: always ride your bike as if nobody can see you. Been two years since, as a driver myself, I went against everything I believed and got myself a bike. I have a nine-miles-per-way bike commute to work, and so far I've been pretty lucky. I always err on the side of being over-careful. I had one accident and it was *totally* my fault (I was dumb enough to think that my barely-working brakes could hold up for me to get to work and I rear-ended someone who turned in front of me...thankfully I wasn't hurt, the bike was fine, and the driver was really, really nice.), but other than that it's been pretty smooth cycling across Chicago.

Permalink Reply by Yasmeen on June 23, 2016 at 1:09pm

+1 I was told the same i.e. act like you are invisible. Thanks for sharing. :-)

Permalink Reply by Douglas Knapp on June 26, 2016 at 10:05am

+1 especially on Idaho stop and the general idea of being responsible for one's own behavior. A little courtesy goes a long way.

I disagree with #2. I do occasionally ride the wrong way on a one way street, but only for short distances (i.e.: a block or less) and I take extra care at intersections since I know someone may not be expecting me to be coming from that direction. I am much more comfortable with that than riding on the sidewalk.

Also, don't forget pedestrians. I often see comments from pedestrians that they are more afraid they will be hit by bikes than cars.

My motto when riding is Safety, Courtesy, Efficiency.

Permalink Reply by Mark on June 27, 2016 at 9:12am

I love taking Kingsbury north out of the Loop, and would often ride that 1/2 block, one-way SB section north from Kinzie in front of the East Bank Club.  Then one evening as cars were lined up southbound waiting for the stop sign at Kinzie, I hear a high rev and the next thing I know I see the hood of a red Porsche pulling out of the EBC lot trying to get around the line of stopped cars.  In an instant, I was sure I was about to be a hood ornament on some lawyer's sports car and how I am totally screwed legally because I was riding the wrong way down that 1/2 block.  Then as I looked down, the Porsche's bumper stopped literally an inch from my pedal and I continued on my way.  That is the last time I ever rode the wrong way down a street.  It's just not worth it.

Permalink Reply by Irvin Steinert on June 28, 2016 at 3:21am
  1. I think the key is motorists really and truly understanding cyclists and accepting them as part of normal traffic. We need to find a way to educate to the point of empathy.
  2. There will always be rogue drivers and cyclists and we should all understand that they are the fringe and not representative of the whole.
Permalink Reply by Skip Montanaro 0mi on June 28, 2016 at 3:29am

Regarding #1, I wonder if this is something which will require a generation to completely assimilate into the culture. I suspect people will be more accepting of bikes if they've seen them in traffic for their entire lives, rather than as a recent intrusion on their domain.

Permalink Reply by David Barish on June 28, 2016 at 5:30am

I think you have given us some  good perspective. The question is where we are in that generation. I look back to the late 70's and early 80's and see how far things have come since then. There are still miles to go but we are not at the start of this ride. I see the culture  currently at a flash point where the reality of many more bikes on the road is apparent and everybody is figuring out how to deal with that reality. There is conflict and danger but there is also hope and clear signs of progress. I think the acceptance of  bicycles is much like  the acceptance  of a lot of other realities in that  it is much farther along in the city, a little less so in the suburbs and sometimes still in the 1950's in some rural areas.

Permalink Reply by Irvin Steinert on June 30, 2016 at 2:13am

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