Captain Monkey

does anyone know who it was?

monkey

The owner of the army surplus store on chicago said the guys brains were all
over the street. Horrible. Buses and trash trucks are the worst to deal with.
Be careful out there.

mareesha

I've never seen more aggressive bus drives than the ones in Chicago. Do they even slow down for red lights?

Tangsooyuk

They actually run them. It has been standard CTA practice since I can remember. They stop to pick people up and if the light is yellow while they are STOPPED, they close the door and then run the red. You can only imagine the problem that brings for cars, lets not even think of a biker is going at a good clip, sees the green, and keeps going.

This is exactly why I said I rather have people on the the bus than in the street if it meant they would be safe in the other thread. Another biker has passed, a family mourns, and a ****head cop cracks a joke.

oytie

He reportedly had five kids. From the Tribune:

CTA bus fatally hits cyclist in West Town

July 8, 2006

CHICAGO -- A CTA bus struck and killed a 36-year-old Ecuadorean man Friday as he rode his bicycle to his West Town home, officials and family said.

Manuel Tenecota was pronounced dead near where he was hit at Throop Street and Chicago Avenue about 3 p.m., officials said. The medical examiner identified the victim as Luiz Tenecota.

The westbound CTA No. 66 bus hit Tenecota two blocks from his home in the 1600 block of Chicago Avenue, officials and family said.

The bus was immediately towed to the garage and the 36-year-old driver was given a drug and alcohol test as a routine part of the investigation, said Wanda Taylor, CTA spokeswoman. The driver, who has been with CTA since 1997, will not operate any vehicles until the investigation is completed.

Chicago police officials said the investigation is ongoing and no charges had been filed.

Friends and family described Tenecota as a loving husband and father of five who had moved to the U.S. four years ago.

A slight man, Tenecota rode his bicycle to his job at a River North restaurant, where he worked as a dishwasher, hoping one day to make enough money to bring his family to the U.S.

"I am sad, I am lost," said his friend Giovanni Pushi, who had come to the scene of the accident.

oytie

I too see busses running reds after the light turns yellow while they are picking up riders. One solution is to move the stop on the other side of the corner. They did this at Chicago and Noble (a couple of blocks from the accident), moving the stop from the west side of Noble to the east side, in front of the old the Eckhart Park library. Another and more obvious solution is for the drivers who do have a habit of running reds to stop.

Captain Monkey

ffffaaaaaaaaaawwwwwwwwwwwwwkkk!! my morning started off nice and now i feel like s***. i didn't even know the cat but i feel down-n-out. everybody, please be careful. peace.

absntr

On the north side they've done this all over the city for the most part. Bus stops are now just past the traffic light which is a smart move on the CTA's part in getting buses away from intersetions and corners. I think this started towards the end of last year, maybe in the Fall.

pitboss

I have seen those Police Intersection cameras nab a few buses before...I truly wonder what happens with those tickets.

visitordesign

go here:

https://www.chipublib.org/008subject/...#*****presents

find yr representative, assembly member and alderman. then mail them a letter urging stiffer penalties for reckless bus drivers and stricter enforcement of traffic regs. let them know that the red light thing is an ongoing issue and that the CTA drivers are failing to respect the safety needs of cyclists.

you can do what i did for a different set of problems in NYC. one person can write a letter and then post it with a list of pertinent addresses to bike advocacy group lists, etc. then who ever is interested can personalize the posted letter and send it off. even if just a few people send the same letter to council members, representatives, deputy mayors, etc...it'll get noticed. just try to target the recipients as intelligently as possible.

Tangsooyuk

^^^very good idea.

I'll probably get them

useless127

++1

partly my own fault, but my rear wheel was run over by a bus. but on roosevelt, this always happens, the busses always swerve around me and such. i yell at them as much as i can and smack the bus window. since i have been decommisioned for another few weeks, i have been reduced to taking the roosevelt bus a lot. yesterday, i was on the bus and watching the road as i sat helplessly. the driver was a complete dick and nearly ran every cyclist off the road and drove in the bike lane the entire way from wabash to western. i hate the CTA.
does daley really think that his bike 2015 plan will do much of anything to educate drivers (bus and cabs included) about bike safety and who really thinks that drivers will listen?

monkey

we need real bike lanes like in Amsterdam, seperated
from the street by concrete curbs.

nothing

Just 1/2 a mile from my house, damn. I've had a couple near misses with the 66, when I used to work downtown I would sometimes take the #66 in the winter and be amazed at how reckless some of the drivers are.

eddiebrannan

word up. be careful everyone

ChicagoxBoston

I saw this too; really sad. Makes me realize you can never be to careful out there. Be safe everyone.

highpants

the reason i called it an accident is because i wasn't there, and critical thinking skills allow me to avoid placing blame in a situation that i did not witness.

i know how i ride, and i'm glad that i'm not a bus driver having to look out for me. i think if most of us are honest we'd say the same.

$0.00/Gal

Rip

humancongereel

i'm glad i'm not a driver looking out for me, which is why i look out for everyone else.

highpants

thank you. that's all i meant. and true enough, maybe this rider was looking out, i just don't know.

i get tired of the reactionary tendency of this community to immediately villify anyone having to do with anything motorized.

i guess i hope that this incident can remind those on both sides of the bumper of the need to be extremely careful.

cavit8

Hope I didn't sound like I was jumping down your throat or anything. I 've been influenced by this citation https://tinyurl.com/nsbk7 (which I should add not everyone agrees with). Rather than using it to attribute blame, I find it a useful to term attribute (hopefully) preventable cause. I did use the term regarding the trucking industry, which is a local issue and doesn't apply, necessarily, to this circumstance.

For example, someone might say that getting doored by a passenger exiting from the driver's side rear door is an accident. For me, it's pure poka yoke. Remove the inside door handle on that side. Labelling as accidents, in semantic terms, means it's unavoidable. It's a convenient label. In Toronto, we've certainly seen that language for the last few people that have been right hooked and crushed by heavy trucks. Instead of looking at improving side visibility or adding side bars to heavy vehicles to prevent the drawing in of people when hit by the side of the truck, political response, until very recently has been "Sh** happens".

Markle Sparkle

Sad stuff.

rocks in head 

I am a bus driver, or at least used to be.
I drove busses for a university, where people ride all over the place, walk all over the place and run in the dark wearing all black. It teaches you to look out, and be careful.
It's very true that the bus is has a big blind spot... ALL of the spots are blind, as the mirrors are pointed at your wheels, to make sure you don't run over anything. I think that's pretty standard. NEVER overtake a bus on the right, and be EXTREMELY careful about overtaking a bus on the left....

If a busdriver is being a dick, there's a cut-off switch for the engine in that panel on the back of the bus. When the bus is safely stopped after cutting you off/nearly killing you, just open that panel (it's unlocked) and turn off the engine. The busdriver will not know what happened (since that area is blind) and you'll get your payback!!!

(of course, I don't acutally reccomend that because then YOU'D be a total jerk for delaying all those folk who need the bus)

I am sorry to hear about this, but not too surprised. Everybody please be careful

oh, and by the way, the redlight thing (within reason!) is pretty standard for busses. And bikes. I've seen that more often for bikes than busses, acutally.

highpants

thanks, i get what you're saying. sounds like we're both talking advocacy.

doggo

Poor guy. I got run over by a CTA bus when I was 9. I was on my bike at Devon & Sheridan trying to get my bike up the curb. The bus made the turn, caught my back tire and knocked me down pinning my feet under the wheels. Then stopped. I lay there yelping trying to pull my feet out while bystanders yelled at the bus and tried to help me. The bus finished the turn, stopped halfway down the block at a bus stop. Let some people off and kept going.