Bikers "Mass" up traffic in Wicker Park

Bike riders don’t obey the Rules of the Road, ride recklessly, are a danger to pedestrians and are just plain jerks.

At least that’s what Chicago Sun-Times writer Mark Konkol thinks.

Konkol, a driver and biker, wrote an opinion piece criticizing the need for and cost of, protected bike lanes last summer and was roundly attacked by the biking community for this views.

So he’s back making friends with bikers in a recent column where he points out the new fancy bike lanes have, in his opinion, emboldened bike riders to flaunt the law even more, drive more recklessly and in general behave like jerks.

Konkol even cites 42nd Ward Alderman Brendan Reilly, who’s ward encompasses much of downtown, who hears from constituents every day complaining about bad biking behavior. Reilly has been pushing the Chicago Department of Transportation to take actions to rein in bike riders.

At the very least, Reilly just wants bike riders to stop at stop signs so they don’t run over pedestrians. But according to Konkol’s observations pedestrians walking near the Kinzie Street protected bike lanes do so at their own peril.

Read Mark Konkol’s full column, “Rogue bikers ignore Rules of the Road.”