Comments on Mayor Proposes Huge New Fines on Drivers that Endanger Cyclists

coming to close to cyclists?

Please fix this transgression immediately...

Already done, Mike.

no way our fat ton of lard mayor will step into the cycling shoes of his citizens

So in Chicago in the winter do the bicycles have skis or ice skates? Just curious.

oh my god, i would pay serious, SERIOUS money to see nickels pumping it up pike in full traffic

forget huge fines for drivers - we'd see an entire regrade operation to flatten the hill after he has a coronary 1/4 of the way up.

Those fines aren't huge. They're trivial, barely more than parking tickets. If you account for inflation, I'll bet they're lower than most driving infraction fines in the 1970s. He needs to add a zero.

Greater fines in criminal cases. Also, in civil cases there should be a quick suspension of the drivers' license in appropriate cases. I believe some nations have greatly reduced accident rates through this mechanism, akin to the rules on drinking and driving in Sweden.

Yes, and while other places are talking about banning or taxing plastic grocery bags, Mayor Daley thinks a recent proposal to require chain grocery stores to accept plastic bags for recycling "goes too far."

It's awfully nice to have Daley as mayor when you agree with him, because he gets things done, but it's not quite as nice when you think he's being ridiculous.

@4. There was just a whole article in one of our local papers about winter cyclists. There's apparently a whole movement. Of crazy people.

I'm all in favor of fining drivers for their bullshit behavior, so long as cyclists get fined for theirs (running red lights and stop signs, riding in the middle of the street, riding on sidewalks, etc.).

Uh Fifty-Two-Eighty riding on sidewalks is legal here. We don't really care about CO

so is riding in the middle of the street cyclists have just as much of a right of way as an auto

If we couldn't ride on sidewalks, riding in many parts of this city would probably be too dangerous to take seriously. Do you really want to drive up a hill behind a biker on a 2 lane road, when there is a perfectly underused sidewalk just to your right?

Well, how about just running red lights and stop lights then?
Oh wait, and speeding (when cyclists FLY down all the hills here) and the cyclists that almost hit pedestrians (sometimes on the sidewalk, sometimes not), oh and what about the ones that won't use the bike lane so that there is no way cars can be anywhere BUT too close? Oh geez, I forgot about the ones that cut through traffic, getting really close to cars - if another one of those guys gets really close to my car as he/she is weaving in and out am I gonna get a fine?

Seriously, I have a bike that I still like to ride, and I have been a bike commuter at many times in my life, but I just can't stand some of this shit, and I would never do it. Sorry. Ugh.

I just moved to Chicago, and for all these rules and shit and how great it is to bike here (supposedly)

The drivers are so much worse and fucked up to Bicyclists then ANYONE I've ever been.

WINTER CYCLING IN CHICAGO!

I commuted by bike year-round the whole time I lived in Boston -- five winters. It's not that bad. Snow is a piece of cake if you have the right tires. The deadly stuff is smooth ice, and worst of all, leaves in the fall. The cold isn't an issue if you have decent rain gear, booties, gloves, and a balaclava.

@14,

How about drivers stop running red lights and stop signs, hitting pedestrians, weaving in and out of lanes, driving the wrong way down one way streets, and blasting through sidewalks on their way into or out of parking lots and alleyways.

I know! Let's put a lane for bikes within two feet of the driver's doors of all the parked cars! What could go wrong?

Also! Lets have bikes go straight through intersections while letting cars turn right into their path. In fact, if bikes can do it, why not let all traffic turn either left or right from any lane! What could go wrong?

If that works, let's allow bikes on the freeway. And kayaks on the Burke-Gilman trail.

I know these ideas seem stupid, but you can patch over any defects by threatening drivers with big fines, and by making lots of public service announcements. Lots and lots of PSAs.

You are preaching to the choir 17. I don't do any of those things while driving a motor vehicle and in my perfect world, no drivers would. The shitty drivers out there give the rest of us a bad name. Unfortunately, there seems to be this attitude that cyclists can and should get away with this behaviour as their vehicle likely wouldn't cause the kind of harm a motor vehicle does. But how many times have I almost had a heart attack because a cyclist blew through a red or a stop sign in front of me? Or when I am trying to walk around my vehicle to get in and almost get hit by a cyclist who is coming so fast and it is pouring down rain and dark, that I can't even see them coming until they almost kill me?
I don't know why I bother asking anyone to drive properly. No one seems to care, car or cyclist.

MOTHERFUCKER!

If this is what it takes to get SOME SORT OF ACCOUNTABILITY on behalf of drivers in a city, will someone please chain Nickels' ass to a bike and make him ride around for just a couple of days then!!!!!

Also, cyclists in Seattle need to stop fucking around. Follow the fucking traffic rules, already. I ride my bike every day, and for some reason, I have no problems stopping at stop signs, red lights, and not making illegal turns and passes. IT'S NOT DIFFICULT!

Also, if a cyclist wants to commit suicide, that's fine. Try pills. Don't force me to be the instrument of your death. Making me kill you is an appalling invasion and imposition. Plus I'll get sued even if it is your fault.

@ 19)

Having a "Heart Attack" because you were startled by a cyclist who you didn't notice before and suddenly "just came out of nowhere" is astronomically different from getting creamed by a furniture truck at Eastlake and Fuhrman ... both of which have happened to me.

Trust me.

HUGE difference.

Instead of a fine, they should offer it as a bounty. 300 bucks each time I cream a bicyclist. I am helping rid the city of a pest problem, just like those rap traps all over Cascade.

You can sponsor my car if you want.

@19: no, you are preaching to the choir. as a bicyclist i follow the rules of the road. does that absolve all bicyclists? if not, then neither does your comment absolve all motorists.

motorists are more of a problem than bicyclists. they break laws more frequently, endanger more lives, and cause more environmental harm -- even if only because motor vehicles are larger and there are more of them.

What about castration? Can we include that as an alternative to fining? Prison time?

I hope nobody thinks I'm joking. Asshole drivers deserve no better.

Watching a bicyclist run a red light - while not totally pardonable - is about as serious a threat to public safety as tearing the tags off my mattress.

Big fines are a start, but like anything, enforcement is more effective than legislation. Cities need start taking bike and ped safety seriously, but I'm not holding my breath.

Cyclists cannot pretend that they are or even can be on equal footing with cars. Cars are simply too big and too dangerous for that. Cyclists are hard to see. Any cyclist who isn't operating under the assumption that he or she is invisible should get off the streets immediately. Better to assume that every driver is hell-bent on murder.

In short: being in the right will not bring your corpse back to life.

Motorcyclists know this intuitively. You don't hear them whine about it so much, though. They just do what they have to do to protect themselves. For starters, GET A FUCKING GOOD LIGHT. If it didn't cost $100 or more, it's not a good light.

It would help if cyclists got license tags so a cop could mail 'em a ticket if they break the rules.

Or so a cop could ask for id on probable cause and catch of a few bike thieves now and then.

More socialism!

you make new laws, or harsher penalties for existing laws, when the old laws and/or penalties are not sufficient.

there is a greater driver to support new laws/punishments to protect cyclists because the current laws are not doing enough to make cycling safe.

could some cyclists be better behaved? certainly! do we have to wait for that happen before we can pass laws to make people operating vehicles drive safer?

@1 - coming too close to cyclists?

You can't avoid crossing the bike sharrows lane at N 40th and Stone Way, if you're heading West from N 40th to N 39th to get on Aurora, actually.

Just like you can't avoid stopping in an intersection if turning left at Broadway and John (block E of Denny), due to pedestrians and traffic.

@All the Hostile Drivers
What part of constrained supply/high demand => high gas prices don't you understand? The only thing you accomplish by attacking cyclists is to convince all the folks like me to drive more and bike less.

I don't really care if gas goes to $10 a gallon. Hell, I'll happily be driving my brand new 20 odd mpg car to ski and work if its $20 a gallon. Like a lot of cyclists, I make enough that gas prices are just noise.

But the folks screaming at me on the road aren't generally driving expensive cars. They're mostly driving beaters. And if they'd bother to think just a little bit, they'd realize that right now the best thing they could do for their bottom line is to be super polite to cyclists regardless of how annoyed they are with whatever. (And no, I don't blow red lights. But I do slide through the odd stop sign if there's no one else there. Just like most folks sometimes speed on the freeway. Get over it.)

Besides when it does get to $10 a gallon (and it will, after the crushing recession that's coming is finished, given how clueless you haters all are) - how sure are you that *you* won't end up out there on two wheels pedalling away?....

@19: Getting startled is good medicine for drivers, cause it snaps them out of their daze and gets them to pay attention. Most drivers need a constant reminder that they are in control of a dangerous machine. It may sound counterintuitive, but recently traffic planners have been learning that chaos on the streets can lead to greater safety overall.

And your comment about almost getting killed by bikes -- you're more likely to be struck dead by lightning. Why are so many people so worried about being seriously injured by bikers when it's such a rare occurance? Meanwhile cars kill 40,000 people a year.

Hey, I was a bicycle commuter for years and now I'm a driver..... Meaning that I am aware and very careful around cyclists, but I worry about the other drivers around me for being so aware of the cyclists. Good thing I'm not easily intimidated.

“When someone opens a door—that’s why you have to be very, very alert on a bike,” Daley said.

Aw Dicky. Eloquent, as always.