Behavior

[betagirl]

An umbrella??? Was it Mary Poppins?

[DeniseGoldberg]

I guess I'm pretty lucky in my commuting route. My experience is that on the whole the drivers respect me as a cyclist and allow me the room that I need to ride safely. Of course that may be partially because I do ride as far out into the driving lane as I feel is necessary to be safe. That means they really can't just blast by me but need to more over. One of the roads I ride on my way to work has a wide paved shoulder that I am quite happy to ride on, but none of the other roads have that extra width so I'm in the driving lane.

It still surprises me when oncoming drivers stop so that I can turn left.

--- Denise

[Lise]

I remember last Thursday evening was particularly strange. I saw a guy riding with a full-sized umbrella (closed). One cyclist saw a friend on the sidewalk and stopped abruptly in the bike lane to chat. Right in front of me. On Armitage there was a girl jogger running in the bike lane, directly at me. It was at dusk. I have a bright flashing white light on the front of my bike. No way you can't see me if you're running the wrong way in the bike lane. Just as I veered out into traffic, she hopped up onto the sidewalk. Never even acknowledged me.

And how about those geese down by McCormick Place on the south Lakefront Trail? They fear no bike! Can my tires handle that much goose poop?

[betagirl]

LOL Lise. Those geese will take you down. Though I'd rather deal with the geese than the rollerbladers up by Oak Street. On their phone, striding like they're an olympic speed skater.

Denise, I'm pretty aggressive when I ride. I don't ride near the parked cars as to not get "doored." My route is very urban, either in downtown chicago or the surrounding neighborhoods. Most people are like what you describe, which is so nice.

But lately, man it's like there's a full moon. Maybe because I had some close calls I'm more keyed into them and things I ignored in the past I now notice. The guy on the sidewalk yesterday was hilarious. I think he was a tourist to boot. Not that we don't love our tourists here

[DeniseGoldberg]

Denise, I'm pretty aggressive when I ride. I don't ride near the parked cars as to not get "doored." My route is very urban, either in downtown chicago or the surrounding neighborhoods. Most people are like what you describe, which is so nice.

But lately, man it's like there's a full moon...

I suspect that my luck (and your bad luck) is more related to where we are riding than anything else. My commute is in heavily populated areas, but areas that I would classify as suburban, and not urban. I ride a route that (auto) commuters drive, so it is busy - but nothing like riding in Boston (or Chicago) would be. You've got a lot of guts to ride where you do!

--- Denise

[Blueberry]

I think there's general craziness. I (sadly) can't bike commute to work (35 miles each way, and no safe bikeable alternative), nor is there reasonable public transit. Yet our area just lost funding for a commuter rail which would have provided a reasonable alternative (granted it would have taken years...)

However drivers have been terrible for the last couple of weeks. I'm attributing it to 1) college kids being back in the area and 2) back to school for secondary schools. Hubby and I were stopped at the bottom of a (one way) exit ramp last weekend when a car tried to turn up the ramp. Grrrrr....apparently one way doesn't really mean one way to some people