Bicyclists not free to ride as they please
A police crackdown in the city's Lakeview neighborhood carries a warning: Traffic laws that apply to cars also apply to bikes.


By Kelly Kennedy
Tribune staff reporter

July 20, 2005

When bicycle police stopped Jacob Meehan at Roscoe and Halsted Streets in Chicago's Lakeview neighborhood, he immediately knew what he had done.

"I was going the wrong direction on a one-way," Meehan said.

"No, we caught him going through a stop sign," the officer said.

"Oh," Meehan said.

Police spent six hours Tuesday on bike patrol in Lakeview, giving out 37 warnings to bicyclists for running red lights, riding on sidewalks and, indeed, going the wrong direction on a one-way street. Next month, police will start handing out tickets, with fines that range from $25 to $250.

Members of Mayor Richard Daley's Bicycling Ambassadors, an educational outreach group, were also in Lakeview on Tuesday, passing out bike safety information and maps showing routes with bike lanes or wide streets. They'll be out again in Lakeview from 1 to 9 p.m. Wednesday.

"It's kind of annoying because I was trying to do my thing, but it's understandable," Meehan said about the police stop. "At least they were gracious enough to give me a warning."

Then he asked the officer if he should be wearing a helmet in Chicago.

Yes.

Bicyclists in the neighborhood agreed they tend to ignore the rules, and that it could lead to injury. Police decided to start on Halsted Street because business owners had complained about too many bicycles on the sidewalks, Chicago Police Sgt. Phil Greco said.

"We're not out to hurt anyone with a citation," Greco said. "We're just out here to make it safer."

Greco said a lot of bicyclists do not know that only children younger than 12 may ride on sidewalks or that the same laws that apply to cars apply to bicycles. But some of them do and ignore the rules.

Just after scooting through a red light, Josh Zaffino said police had no reason to patrol the neighborhood because most of the bicyclists are regulars who know the rules.

"Granted, there was a red light back there," he said, "but there weren't any cars."

As he spoke, another man drove his bike past on the sidewalk.

Zaffino said he sometimes rides his bike on the wrong side of the road, but that sometimes it is hard to get over to the correct side when traffic is heavy.

"But it's not a problem," he said. "If people are coming from the other direction, bikers always get out of the way."

Eve Jennings, program director for the Bicycle Ambassadors, said bicyclists need to obey the law because they cannot always be sure what everybody else is going to do. For example, a person opening a car door might look to the rear to make sure no one is coming, but not forward because traffic is not supposed to be coming from that direction.

And bicyclists need to be safer in general. Jennings said seven bicyclists died in 2003 in Chicago. "We want more people to bicycle," she said. "We aren't here to scare people, but they have to be safe."

Since she began in her position four years ago, Jennings said she has seen more people biking, as well as more bike lanes and programs for bicyclists.

And, cities known for being bicycle-friendly are calling her to ask about the ambassador program, she said. The program includes five full-time staff members and 10 part-time junior ambassadors who will attend 350 events this summer to talk about bicycle safety.

"Motorists are beginning to anticipate bicyclists and give them more space on the road," she said. "But it's not perfect yet."

Three blocks north of Roscoe, bicyclist Stuart Goodman said the heavy traffic on Halsted can be a problem for bicyclists.

"Cars driving in the bike lanes all the time scare the heck out of me," he said. "I think they speed up for bike riders to try to cut us off."

Then he said he has a tendency to drive through red lights on his bicycle.

"I guess it's too much like being a pedestrian, so I don't think about it," he said. "It's probably a good idea to give out tickets."

pooh!

if i couldnt ride as i please, i wouldnt ride a bike!

Society makes laws. Police enforce laws. What's news here?

thanks much for posting that. one of the girls at work told me she heard this on the radio this AM. I was about to make a post asking if anyone heard anything about it.

At least Y'all are getting warnings. Last summer on my way in to work one fine morning I got pulled over for running a stop sign. There were three cops half way down the block going to town on unsuspecting cyclists. It was like target practice. Two would write tickets while a third stood by and watched. They couldn't keep up with the Demand, so if you were lucky enough to run the stop sign while the two writing tickets were already attending customers you got a free ride through. It seemed to me at the time that they were just there to meet their quota.

I think they should try a little harder to get cars to follow the rules of the road.
Just barely avoided getting hit 3 times this week, and it's only Wednesday! One blown stop sign, 2 cars turning right from outside the turn lane with no signal.

Hey the laws are there. I know when I'm breakng 'em so I'm not going to complain if I get caught.
You can still ride as you please. Imagine if a driver wanted to hog the bike lane just because he pleased.

thanks for the permission!

whee! now i'm off to ride my bike!

this is being discussed on the chicago critical mass email list.

seems to be logical as there are more people biking, eventually they will have to follow the rules. if there were only bikes, it would have to be like driving as far as following the rules or road and likely ... never mind i'm not going there.

i think the main issue is constancy and relative fairness. if they are going to enforce traffic rules for bikes first thing should be riding in the right direction.

there also has been a change of staff at the department of traffic (is that the name???). they are making pro car / anti pedestrian changes to traffic, crossing lights are only going to be shortened, right turn lights to let 5-7 cars turn vs current 2-4, and the cross walk from burnam(sp?) fountain to the lake front is closed with not subtle fences blocking it.

and arn't the tickets only in lakeview? sounds like an alderman at work.

i also agree that getting cars to follow basic rules of the road should be the first hurdle. A bike make s a mistake, they are hurt, a car makes a mistake someone could be killed.

bike=20lbs of steel
car/truck=2000-4000lbs (?)

but i guess preaching to the choir doesn't really mean that much.

I agree completely here. Its illegal to jaywalk and while they give tickets to people for it sometimes, it really isn't often and its not particularly well received by society. I equate jaywalking and a cyclist going on red more than i equate a car going on red and a cyclist. It isn't safe for a ped to jaywalk either. so safety of the person doing it can't be the deciding factor. And there is a difference in behavior between a cyclist and a pedestrian as well as right of way rules between the two that have to be (and largely are) followed. but to hold cyclists to the same road rules as cars seems absurd to me.

F@CK COPS,
F@CK FUROR DALEY,
F@CK TOM TUNNEY,
F@CK BICYCLE AMBASSADORS,
F@CK THIS COMMUNIST SH$T.

PROPS FOR DUI'S on bikes, blowing stop signs, bag's of pot in your pocket and saying "f@ck the pigs to them". They still can't ride faster than a 12 yr old.

{HOLDS A FIST TO THE SKY}

running a red or sign on your bike: is that a moving violation that goes against your car insurance as well?

Car insurance for what? ;) I dont expect this to last too long before we can run lights, blow signs, and fly through the streets of lakeview again without a care in the world.. oh wait i dont care as it is.

it's tough because i completely understand wanting to keep bikes off the sidewalks, especially as far as business owners and pedestrians are concerned, but that seems a different animal to me than running red lights.

i mean seriously, who stops for red lights unless there's cars coming? anyone?

i have gotten in the habit of stopping at lights on my way to work, slows me down and keeps me from over heating. I might be imagining it, but it seems to give the me a bit more respect as a vehicle than if i was going where ever.

but my general rule of thumb now is, if i would j-walk ill blow the light, ie if there are no cars coming towards the intersection on the next block.

my question is, honestly, who get's caught by a cop when they are on their bike? i know that if i were riding down the street and a cop attempted to stop me, and i would an overwhelming urge and definate ability to blow by them and not get caught.

Last night as I approached a four way stop an SUV stopped at the stop on the right and waited, and waited.
I didn't know why he sat there, but when I got to the stop and he still hadn't moved so I signaled left and started into the intersection.
At that moment he accelerated foward, blocked my path, rolled down his window and said, "ya gotta stop just like cars."

license plates for bikes next? i guess.

you are free to do whatever you want, so long as you are willing to accept the consequences for it.

evanyc: there are always more cops, and cops have radios. if they want you, they'll get you, and then they'll charge you with whatever the original infraction was, plus running from the cops. sure, they've got better things to do, but if an officer of the law asks you to stop, and you've done something wrong and know it, you should accept the consequences. rent-a-cops and your standard pedestrian, however are different animals entirely.

seriously, does it make people feel tougher, or more "hardcore" to run lights and stop signs? it doesn't take that long to wait for most lights to turn green. if you want respect on the road, you have to give respect, and that means respecting the traffic laws, even if most of them "shouldn't apply to bikes."

the last few blocks before my house have 4-way stops at all of them. i see cyclists and motorists alike run them like they don't exist. i stop for them because i don't want some a-hole in an SUV to blow the sign and run me over. chances are, they wouldn't stop, and no one would care, and someone would steal my wallet and bike before an ambulance or police came.

with everyone getting all up in arms about cyclists getting hit on the road and dying, you'd think more people would want to respect the laws and do everything in their power to make sure it doesn't happen to them. stopping at a stop sign when you don't see any cars around might just save your life.

this presented a great oppertunity to fire a nice wad of spit onto his nice leather seats and then smile in contentment. just sayin...

I usually stop at lights almost all the time because I'm usually riding somewhere in heavy traffic and there's no way to try to run a light without being killed. I also respect the stop sign but only slow to a crawl and if I have to, trackstand a little before it's my turn.

Having had my third accident in six months which resulted in a separated collarbone because a car decided to sneak behind another car at a stop sign and thus blew it and caused me to slam hard on my brakes to avoid getting run over, I'm okay with enforcing the law.

As it is, I'm always irked by riders who are coming towards me on the wrong side in opposing traffic and there are plenty of very silly riders out there who blow lights and whatnot oblivious to the almost accident that occurred as they passed nonchalantly by.

This is the issue I was going to raise: what if you ran? Putting aside considerations of whether or not it's a good idea, what would happen if you ran? Obviously, as the cliche goes, no one outruns Motorola, but I figure on a bike you can make a better go of it than in a car or on foot.

Seriously: in my town, bike cops are fat men on dual-sus mountain bikes, packed down with rack-bags and first aid gear and such. They don't stand a chance. Cars are easily defeated - how many cops would follow you doing 40 km/h the wrong way down a busy one way? Cops on foot - they'd have to deploy a net to stop you (which, thinking about it now, is a frigging funny idea). I think the most dangerous foe to the miscreant bike rider would be a cop on horseback, but depending on the terrain and traffic, the bike would have the advantage there too.

So I put it to the forum: the pigs vs. fixies. evanyc and I can' t be the only ones who think about booting it from the cops.

two thoughts relevant to this conversation:

1. cops here in portland, oregon don't seem to give a crap what bikers do. i run reds and do stupid crap in front of them all the time and they just watch me go by. which is pretty sweet.

2. in the same vein, i completely agree that if you're going to do something stupid, you should be willing to accept consequences. sometimes i wait for lights and ride like a car (mostly when i'm tired) and i seem to get a lot more respect when i do that. and then other times i just say screw it and do whatever i feel like. i then have to expect that i'm a lot more of a target to cars on the road, which is fine. that mentality is reflected in my riding - i generally give cars a lot wider berth when i'm doing something stupid.

$.02

I think they did do this at the RNC critical mass. Can anyone corroborate?

I have been reading the looong list of replies on the CM list as mentioned earlier. I live in Lakeview and think it sucks they are focusing on this area as opposed to others. But when it comes to the issue of adults riding on sidewalks I have to say I think they above all others should be first to get a ticket. I walk my dog two miles or so a day and on Broadway a lot of casual cyclists ride by the opposite direction going fast. Me and/or my dog have almost been run over or knocked over by these idiots many times. Most of these people ride like they haven't touched a bike in years. Swerving back and forth etc. It is very unsettling to see an unstable yuppie on a new mountain bike coming at you.

As far as the other issues. Most cars don't stop on back streets in my area at stop signs. Even when I do stop at a four-way stop and take my turn to go. The other cars just go right in front of me since I "am just a guy on a bike". So you can't win for loosing. Plus all the back streets are one way a lot of times.

I posted on another thread that if they try to get me I will start an OJ style low speed chase. They'll have to put those spikes across the road to stop me! ;)