BIKEPGH MESSAGE BOARD ARCHIVE

...in what officials dubbed a “share the road” campaign.

ok, now i want to hurt someone.

Scott or Erok, what's the deal with the Bike Ambassador's program there? Sounds like at least one bike advocacy group was on board with the campaign.

I don't have a problem with the campaign per say, but the 'share the road' name abSOlutely sucks. And I’m sure that not one driver ran that light in two hours…

Honestly, if this intersection is a particularly dangerous one and if that is partly due to actions of cyclists, I don't have a problem with it. Particularly if drivers have been or will be cited also.

Having said that somehow there has to be some greater understanding by law enforcement and drivers about why cyclists often do what they do. I actually got stopped on Negley by a cop one time who warned me about my riding. He was nice about it and I wasn't going to argue, but what I was doing was trying to pass a bus so I wouldn't get stuck behind it and thereby not be visible to drivers making a left.

It's sort of the same thing with red lights and stop signs. Most times I stop, signal, and obey the laws, but there are times I don't and those are primarily because I'm motivated to get the hell out of the way of drivers who I know are ticked off I'm going straight when they want to turn right (or something similar).

UJust a guess: if bicycles keep becoming more popular, there will be a rage for enforcing bike law violations.

Some of those rabid idiots that write about bike scofflaws every time a driver wipes out a cyclist are probably voters.

They used to go on campaigns enforcing laws for cars, too, like speed traps in front of Phipps and on Shady. I ahvent seen anything like that for years, now, except the drunk driving check points.

I would be pleased to stop at stop signs and red lights, if enforcement made cars not speed or violate stop signs and lights.

I am glad to see these were all warnings, and not BS tickets like the NYC crack-down. I think it sends a clear message to drivers that cyclists are being watched, without doing terrible damage to those that regularly commute. My guess is everyone will watch that intersection now, and continue the rest of their route largely unchanged.

If you really want to piss off drivers behind you - come to a both-feet-down-stop at all stop signs. I'm guessing they will soon want you to roll those signs. Of course I think there is a hugh difference between rolling through a sign/light and blowing through a sign/light. And I believe it's the latter situation that most motorist are upset at. It pisses a lot of us cyclists off too.

Not that you can tell from that shittily written article but I wonder if this intersection has an "all red" phase where the walk signs are on, and what the cyclists were *really* doing was riding during the walk phase, which is not exactly "running red lights".

I mean, if that's what's going on, and it's illegal, then so be it - sure, give cyclists tickets for violations. But, they'd better be out there giving tickets to motorists for failing to yield the right of way at the same time.

The article (full version) referred to the location as a "complex" intersection. In checking Google Maps, I understand a little better. It looks a little like the Doughboy Square situation.....a Y intersection where a fairly busy street "Ys" off another busy street. But, where Doughboy has only 34th Street as the cross street, this as a fairly busy cross street. I suspect much of the "red light running" is actually cyclists proceeding along one arm of the Y during the green cycle for the other arm (cross traffic is still stopped, but traffic may be merging from right or left).

I'm all for cyclists having laws enforced on them, but I hope they pull similar stunts on drivers ... proportionate to numbers of cars on the road. Chances are they don't, not enough cops in Illinois.

In this country, it used to be cool, or at least acceptable, to drive home from the bar totally drunk, run over the neighbors' shrubs (or dog), then tell people about it at the water cooler the next day to a chorus of laughs.

It is now no longer tolerated by law enforcement, drunk checks are a known and accepted part of most holidays, bars have DD specials, people now plan to avoid drunk driving. (well, a decent % of population, there are the outliers)

Why can't a similar marketing/enforcement campaign take place for other moving violations? Why cant we just copy MADD and apply to redlights, stop signs, and speeding? James Earl Jones doing a national PSA - "Red means stop." etc.

@Swalfoort, I was near that intersection about a month ago. Most of the bicycle traffic was coming from Grand and I would suspect either turning left onto Kinzie or right onto Desplaines... my guess is that they were busting the guys going south onto Desplaines when eastbound traffic on Kinzie had the light.

I was in Chicago for about three months making deliveries. From what I observed, bicyclists were pretty good about following traffic laws. I was pulled over (in a truck) once for a seatbelt inspection at a police blockade, so my suspicion is that the bike crackdown is just part of a larger safety crackdown.

There are still something north of 1 million DUI arrests per year, and I guarantee that's still a small fraction of people driving drunk. So, I don't think it's a great model; if anything it only illustrates the futility of trying to change bad driving habits.

on a side note, can i just say that i hate pittsburgh lefts? ugh.

i see motorists not even stop on red before making a right on red. they only slow their vehicle down enough to make the turn (see ARB outbound at nadine road). they don't treat it even like a yield, let alone a right on red. on my bike, will slow at stop signs if it is 6am and there is not a vehicle in sight. i will stop at lights in east liberty and then go if there is no traffic.

it really really pisses other motorists off if you come to a complete stop for three seconds at a stop sign in your car. also if you drive the speed limit. i can't tell you how many people ride my ass and try to pass me going up one wild place toward highland park from ARB when i have to drive to and from monroeville.

i made a post about this on facebook, but i will tell it here. the other night, cburch and i were going through shadyside on the the way home. we were on alder outbound going toward highland. he came to a stop ahead of me and was about to go, when some douche in a landrover, who was texting, just rolls through his stop sign and cuts cburch off. so he yells at the dude in his car to "stop texting a drive". the guy heard him, stopped his car, and got out, and screamed "what did you say, faggot!?" as we kept riding down the block i yelled back to him and again told him to stop texting and drive. the guy said "YOU NEED TO WATCH WHERE YOU'RE GOING!" so i told him that HE needs to watch where HE is going. then i called him a dick. but really, the whole faggot thing and stopping and getting out of the car was uncalled for. cburch wasn't threatening him or swearing at him. his windows were up, so my husband yelled loud enough to get his attention. i hate people sometimes.

and on the same ride home, a cyclist almost ran into me on the hot metal bridge. she just wasn't paying attention. last night i saw a bunch of ninjas (no lights) and the only reason i saw them was because my bright headlights reflected slightly off of something on their bikes. i see people on ellsworth jumping from road to sidewalk, crossing over the yellow and riding in opposing traffic for a half of a block. argh.

i think there needs to be more education for everyone. there are a lot of stupid, impatient, unskilled, angry, selfish people out there. i wish more money could go into education regarding these subjects for everyone. i still stand by my opinion that i think that everyone should have to ride a bike in traffic in rush hour at least once so they understand that cyclists don't ride right up against parked cars for a reason, or that we take the lane in certain areas for a reason, etc. i think it's good that the cyclists were being warned. maybe some of those people were doing dangerous things and they will learn from their mistakes. but i find this hard to believe:

"“Most everyone was been pretty nice,” Maher said. “A lot of the bikers we stopped simply said they didn't know you cannot blow through a red light.”"

how can you think it's totally safe to blow a red light?? especially when it is a complex intersection.

you forgot to add the idiot who nearly ran me over at the next 4 way when he made a 10mph rolling right and then did the same thing 10 seconds after apologizing profusely to me at the light on highland.

Props for not engaging the guy Colin.

I occasionally chase after cars and then am glad I didn't catch up because I probably wouldn't have done anything constructive if I did.

i figured letting a WOMAN berate him would be more insulting. had stef stopped moving or he approached her it would have had a very different ending.

stef - "a lot of the bikers we stopped simply said..." it's easier on the psyche (and perhaps more effective) to plead forgiveness for ignorance than for intentional violation. How many times have cops issued warnings to people who have said "of course I knew that was wrong, I simply chose to operate my vehicle illegally!"? That may explain the 1 ticket compared to 240 warnings, there's only one pathologically honest person amongst them (or perhaps one guy who's a jerk to cops or whatever).

And a reminder: legal, safe, and ethical are three independent adjectives whose scopes for any give activity may or may not overlap.

edited to add: possible (can vs. cannot) is a fourth independent adjective. - "can" vs "may", the perpetual bane of the children of grammarians.

@brian j. the ambassador program used to be named Mayor Richard M. Daly's Bicycle Ambassadors. I believe it was paid for by the mayor's office, but ran out of Active Transportation Alliance (formerly Chicagoland Bicycle Federation). Not sure how it is working under Rahm. I'm guessing it's working in much the same way.

I'm also guessing that this is happening because the City of Chicago is about to invest a ton of money in reconstructing Kinzy with a physically separated bike lane and they're staying ahead of the negative blowback. I might be wrong though.

Are there bike lanes for Chicagoans as there are for New Yorkers?

^^!!!

Best video ever.

Holy crap that is great.

This video/blog I saw online exposes well the issues of re-educating the differences between cyclists, pedestrians, and cars....

it is crazy!!!! Between bad driving, attention-less pedestrians, and daredevil-cyclists, it is a bad combination. Re-education is key!!!

"NYC GOES 3-WAYS"

By summer 2010, the expansion of bike lanes exposed a clash of long-standing bad habits — such as pedestrians jaywalking, cyclists running red lights, and motorists plowing through crosswalks. The old habits exacerbate attempts to expand ways to use our streets; existing disfunction makes change more difficult.

My master's thesis project at SVA focused on one intersection as a case study. The video aims to show our interconnected role in improving the safety and usability of our streets. The campaign is named '3-Way Street' and is made up of a poster series, a video and website."

This is great..... Pittsburgh is too becoming a 2-3 way city!!

http://vimeo.com/24572222