Frank Krygowski wrote:
:On 5/13/2018 2:24 PM, David Scheidt wrote:
: Frank Krygowski wrote:
: :On 5/12/2018 6:49 PM, Radey Shouman wrote:
: : David Scheidt writes:
: :
: : Frank Krygowski wrote:
: : :On 5/11/2018 4:10 PM, David Scheidt wrote:
: : : Frank Krygowski wrote:
: : : :On 5/10/2018 11:19 PM, David Scheidt wrote:
: : : : Frank Krygowski wrote:
: : : : :On 5/10/2018 6:15 PM, John B. wrote:
: : : : :
: : : : : I suspect that you, like I, are what might be called a sensible rider.
: : : : : RE, door zones, just slow down a bit so you have time to dodge the
: : : : : door if necessary.
: : : :
: : : : :Um... no, that's not sensible.
: : : :
: : : : :Consider what happens if you're riding just 15 kph and a driver pops his
: : : : :door open as you pass his rear bumper. There's no way to stop in time.
: : : :
: : : : :If you're lucky, you'll hit his door squarely and crumple beneath it. If
: : : : :you're unlucky, you'll snag the door edge with your right handlebar, the
: : : : :bike will steer to the right, your body will be thrown down to the left,
: : : : :and the motor vehicle you were worried about will run over you.
: : : :
: : : : :Unlike mountain lion attacks, dooring really is a danger. Most states
: : : : :don't record it as a car-bike collision, because they record those only
: : : : :if the car was moving. But Chicago did keep track, and found that
: : : : :something like 20% of car-bike crashes were doorings.
: : : :
: : : : And we have a $1000 fine for causing an accident by dooring -- and the
: : : : cops write the tickets.
: : : :
: : : : on't ride in the door zone. Just don't.
: : : :
: : : : Yeah, you live in smallsville. If I don't ride in the door zone, it
: : : : takes me three times as long to get to work.
: : :
: : : :Why are those the only choices? Details, please. What happens if you
: : : :move a few feet left?
: : :
: : : My commute invovles riding past a mile (literally, one mile) of cars
: : : that are stopped at stop signs or lights. Riding between them and
: : : parked cars gets me to the light or sign in one cycle. Moving to the
: : : left puts me in stopped traffic.
: :
: : :OK. That's an unusual situation, one that I think is quite rare. We
: :
: : Sounds like progress. Several years ago I described riding past more
: : than a mile of cars on a typical commute (not even properly in the
: : city), and you simply refused to concede that such a thing was possible,
: : never having observed it in your global travels.
:
: :I was being nice. I'm still pretty skeptical. Example: David says the
: :backup is "one mile (literally one mile)" but he says if he rides past
: :in the door zone he gets gets to the light in one cycle.
:
: multiple lighs, Frank.
:
: I'm in chicago. The interesting part of my ride, for this purpose,
: are shown on this map:
: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1ys...&usp=shar ing
:
: These are the areas where I pass stopped cars. It's rare that I'd be
: doing the whole distance drawn, which google tells me is 1.75 miles, but
: the section on kimball, especially between foster and lawarance is always
: bad (There's a high school there.). The section of montrose is full
: of cars, always, at my commute time. How much of that I ride through
: when the lights are red and the cars are stopped depends on the day,
: but typically I hit the light at california, and there are cars backed
: up from the light at Virginia, and often all the way to Western, and I
: ride faster than they do, even if they're moving. When school is not in
: session, I take a route that's further north and doesn't have as much
: traffic, but it has an elementary school full of stupid parents who drive
: their kids there, and let them get out where ever, so it's impassable on
: a bike (or car).

:I guess I don't understand. First, it sounds like you're now talking
:about far less than a mile of backup.

:Second, it's a very dense grid layout. I don't understand why you can't
:choose parallel streets with less traffic. It looks like Bernard even
:has a bike/ped crossing over a creek, which should cut way down on N-S
:car traffic.

It's one way, the wrong way. There's also a stop sign on every
corner. (That's also the chicago river, not a creek). And you can't
get across the big east west streets.

In general, the problem with taking the side streets in chicago is that
you still have to cross the main ones. Foster has a peak traffic volume
of ~1800 cars an hour, so you're not getting across it on a bike without
a wait. There are plenty of places in Chicago where the side streets are
reasonable choices. There are others where they are not, because you
can't get across the major streets, or because they're too narrow, have
too much traffic, are a maze of one ways, or otherwise not suitable for
use as a through route. The river and the highways constrain things
in a bunch of places.


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