Trib Columnist Taunts Bicycle Riders With New Bike Fees, Taxes, Tolls
Tribune columnist John Kass must enjoy receiving hate mail.
Because with his most recent column, he’s probably going to get plenty.
In his column, Kass believes it’s finally time for bike riders to carry their share of the load humorously proposing a series of fees, taxes and tolls for two-wheeled human powered vehicles.
Lord knows the city needs the revenue.
His ideas include city bicycle stickers, bike parking meters, stop sign camera enforcement (to catch all the bikers blowing through the intersection without even slowing down) and bike tolls enforced using what Kass calls the Rahm-PASS.
Of course, Kass is getting a reaction from bicycle enthusiasts and others, sharing some choice comments in a followup column.
Humor aside, maybe Kass is onto something?
Read Kass’s column, “Introducing bike tolls and the Rahm-PASS,” and his followup column, “Taxing bikers: The wheels begin to spin.”
I kind of agree. We do a lot of road work to appease bikers and they do not give back financially. At least with public transportation, there’s bus fare or train fare.
Also, I feel that there are a lot more aggressive bikers out there. We went to the beach the other day and were trying to get across the lake front path in a cross walk and none of the bikers wanted to stop. The path is supposed to be a nice bike ride, jog, or even walk. It’s not tour de france.
Cars are supposed to yield to bikes and pedestrians;
bikers can yield to pedestrians.
Roadwork?
I don’t want bicycle lanes. Bicycle lanes are for motorists who don’t want to deal with bicyclists as vehicles. They are IMO bicycle ghettos. They also add needless complication. Give me a well compacted two inch wide dirt trail. That’s all I need. Dirt single track keeps motorists, dog walkers, and other problems away.
As the lake front path, keep right except to pass. Simple. People can’t seem to do that regardless of what they are doing on the path.
As to crossing it, I see that story as an exaggeration. Bicycle traffic that dense moves at a walking pace on the lake front trail. The only places there are cross walks is where there is a lot of walking pace bicycle traffic. Speed isn’t achievable there except at the most dead of times, which means it’s just one or two guys flying by. At popular times it’s just a plain mess and nobody can go fast.
Go to the lake front by montrose, wilson, lawrence, or even foster on a busy time and pedestrians must wait for the lance armstrong wanna bees to pass before crossing. When one group passes, another is right behind them. Your leisure riders aren’t a problem. It’s the speed demons who don’t want to stop and often ride with a friend or two.
Rahm might as well do all of these things, since the speed cameras will already make him a one-term mayor.
I first rode the lakefront trail in 1992. Used to do it every day. Been down to once a year or less (too many people, and simply too much bad trail behavior). Anyway I am one of the fast riders or at least used to be and I’ve not seen this thing about not being able to cross.
There are no cross walks across the bike trail near montrose. Traffic is very light up there. Same with Wilson and Lawrence. That’s all light traffic district and there aren’t cross walks across the trail unless they were painted this year as I haven’t been out there this year. Or I don’t remember from the last few years… but they aren’t visible on google maps and street view (dated June 2011) so I trust my memory. I doubt any have been added because there isn’t the ped traffic across the trail there to justify it either. It’s the area where the bike space has priority by the markings on the ground. Even the motorized traffic has to yield to the bike trail up there. That’s the loneliest part of the trail that isn’t on the south side. Essentially that is one of the places to put the hammer down.
The cross walks across the trail are by oak street beach. Crowded and slow there. Most of the other places cross walks once existed, at the popular beaches, the trail has been re-routed away from the beach.
But one thing I always find funny. On the road, I am yelled at “GET OFF THE ROAD!” and worse. Never mind I am keeping up with traffic as good as many drivers in some of these places. But if I get off the road, and ride the same speed (and most often considerably slower, like by half), supposedly in the places these motorists feel bicyclists belong, where they always yell at me I should be when I am doing 20-30mph on the road, people get all angry because they want to use the entire width of a bike trail to walk their dog or something. People need to make up their minds.
And I can tell stories of rude dog walkers, roller bladers, peds, etc.
The “special-privilege” biker lanes are not only a multi-million dollar giveaway subsidized by the taxpayers.
In other cities where they have been introduced, they have resulted in losses to business, when motorists and pedestrians face traffic roadblocks created by these bike lanes. For example, in New York, many businesses, along Columbus, Broaday, and other major streets, have publicly claimed that bike lanes have actually reduced their revenues significantly:
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/murder_on_broadway_HrAAmNfUqmTwQVVYL5zW3L
Kind of the same deadening effect on business that Chicago experienced during the dark days of the State Street bus mall and its ban on car traffic in the heart of the Loop:
http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Chicago-s-State-Street-Mall-Called-Transit-2821416.php#page-1
http://www.nytimes.com/1996/02/01/us/chicago-gives-a-pedestrian-mall-the-boot.html
Kass is an idiot and he has always been one. It’s embarrassing that he has th Royko spot.
1. It is unenforceable.
2. It’s bad policy. The city would immediately be liable for any accidents to bicycles from bd pavement. Under the boub decision, the citiy’s only liable for damage on streets designated as fo bicycles. This would necessarily flip this as bicycles would become the intended users of all of the streets.
3. It’s bad politics. What’s next? A tax on pedestrians? After all, they don’t pay for sidewalks.
4. It’s silly. Bicycles do no damage to the streets.
Considering half the frigging Bike Riders in this city are going down the road on either the wrong Side or just plain in the wrong direction…wtf good is a bike lane?
Half the fuckers downtown don’t bother to stop for a red light…..and roll right through if there isn’t a car/truck or bus rolling through that will cream them.
I actually got Hit by a cyclist a couple of years ago. While on duty and in uniform. I believe the moron will be out of prison in about 24 months.
I ride a Bike. I yield for Pedestrians. I stop for Lights. I don’t roll through a Stop Sign if there is no traffic.
And when I Drive my car…I behave the same way .
I don’t do these things because I am a City Cop. I don’t do them to prove I am better than Others.
I do them because its the LAW.
I thought the police officers in Chicago were pretty loose with the laws. Whereas in Oak Park, I have been pulled over and have seen another person get pulled over on a bike. In Chicago, I was riding my bike on the sidewalk past the Roosevelt stop and a police officer came out of the el stop on his bike. I figure, probably not going to get a ticket if the police officer is doing the same thing.
I have never seen a line of bikes go down the lakeshore bike path so long that it blocked pedestrian traffic. How many bikers would that have to be, 30 single file riders going super slow? If they are speed demons it will only take a couple of seconds for them to fly by.
I agree with David. Besides, bicycling is healthier for everyone.
B,
Sadly there are jerks EVERYWHERE!
Drivers, bikers, pedestrians, etc.
We all need to work (including myself) to be considerate when on the road no matter what our mode of transportation is.
Remember to stop for pedestrians. Let cars merging on the expressway to enter your lane without cutting them off. Let drivers turn into the road when you can.
I believe in driving Karma.
And then, if someone is kind to you, give them a wave and let them know you appreciate it.
Sorry for the hippie talk everyone, but a little driving courtesy goes a long way.
David, etal,
I think Kass is pulling everyone’s leg.
It’s a tongue in cheek column. I just think he’s pointing out bike riders (some of whom drive aggressively) don’t have to pay the same fees, fines and taxes like car owners do.
His column is dry humor and is supposed to be funny.
I also disagree with you. No matter what you think of his politics, which seem to me to lean rightward, I think he’s a talented writer. Of course, no one will replace Royko, but Kass IMHO is great writer.
I don’t like arguing with the avid bicyclists here. I’m going state my point again and that’s it. My wife and I were taking our dogs to the dog beach at Wilson and we were walking. We had to cross the lake front path at Wilson because we were coming from the west. We stood by the path waiting for the endless bikers to pass. The cars were stopped and were backed up because the bikers kept coming. Finally a biker did stop and we were able to make it across. I don’t want to hear anybody say I’m exaggerating or lying. The bikers need to stop to let people cross and occasionally let cars go. Thanks!
Mike…I’ve gone to that beach…and I agree…they are just nuts up there.
Air of Entitlement.
Jeff, bike lanes are classic american illusion of safety. They make everything worse IMO.
David, Great point on Baub.
019 District Cop, CPD officers on bicycle, in uniform run red lights too. Also vehicular bicycling seems to be a foreign concept to suburban cops. City cops seem to understand it, at least they haven’t hassled me for it.
TPTGeek, Letting people merge (that is braking to make space because they fail to accelerate, use mirrors, or time gaps) onto limited access highway sets up braking waves which leads to congestion. Making way for them is the typical backwards american road courtesy. Courtsey on the road is operating such that other people don’t have to avoid, don’t have to make way, do not have to take evasive action. However that takes thinking and effort so few people practice it.
Mike, Endless bikers at Wilson? Come on. In 20 years I’ve never seen heavy traffic at Wilson. Even during the air and water show (which I have ridden the LF Trail during multiple times), the most crowded the trail ever gets, traffic thins out considerably north of Irving Park Road and keeps getting thinner and thinner going north. Also one bicyclist stopping isn’t going to bring the others to a stop. They will just go around him. The only way this story makes any sense is some sort of special event and someone with the event stopped the traffic.
DoR Employee… the trail at Wilson has right of way, it’s practically a bicycle highway there. But traffic is thin. As thin as south of McCormick Place. That’s the way it is set up there. At Oak Street it is not set up that way. It’s also a big traffic mess there with people going every which way.
B, the north side lakefront has become more congested in the last few years. You’re entitled to your opinion, and that’s fine. Don’t believe me; DOR does and agrees with me. Hopefully, you’ll never have problems with fellow bikers but you’ve been told that bikers are more agressive. If you choose not to believe it, than good luck and happy pedaling.
Guys,
I’ve had the same experience over at Wilson.
Actually, it scares the CRAP out of me there. The bikers are riding so fast, and if I recall correctly, trees and/or a blind curve (on the south) make it hard to see very far down the path. I fear that I will hit a biker riding really fast who is out of my view when I try to cross the path. Seriously scary.
The citation to a single personal experience is not evidence. The law in Chicago is that cars must stop for pedestrians in cross-walks. They don’t. For example, at a non-light crossing of Irving Park Road (which is a legal crossing point and subject to cross walk discipline, a pedestrian can stand for a very very very long time waiting to get across. My guess is that the pedestrian gets across at Wilson LONG before the pedestrian gets across on Irving (or Western or Milwaukee or Elston). The Bicycle haters on this site want to engage in selective enforcement against Bicycles.
I might add that “fast” is a relative term. Cars on streets regularly go far in excess of the speed that the bicycle is going on the path. Even Tour de France riders on level ground will have trouble exceeding the 25 mph speed limit that is regularly ignored by just about ever driver in the city.
As for another topic, Insurance, some studies have been done. Initially, many bicyclists are covered under their homeowner or renter liability policy. Or they are covered under their autoowners policy. The “additional” liability from this is so small that the insurance companies don’t ask about it or rate it. This is quite telling evidence of the minimal amount of need for this. But hey, facts get in the way of illogical hate.
Cars are supposed to stop for pedestrians but unfortunately some don’t. Bikers are supposed to stop for pedestrians, but unfortunately a lot do not. When I’m walking in a crosswalk, rarely do bikers stop. Some stop and that’s great. Some stop and they’re pissed. I know it’s a momentum killer but sorry. Believe it or not, bikers are supposed to stop for stop signs, red lights, and pedestrians. When a bike is ridden on the street, it is supposed to follow the rules of the road. It’s actually considered a vehicle. Bikers can ticketed for disobeying these rules, but enforcement is rare.
Mike wrote:
Cars are supposed to stop for pedestrians but unfortunately some don’t.
My comment:
SOME? If its not a stop sign or a light, the answer is virtually none. The problem is the anti-bike crowd “screaming” about the need for enforcement while violating the traffic laws willy-nilly themselves. They speed on a consistent basis. They don’t stop at cross walks. They don’t maintain the proper separation with bicycles. They ride up the bike lanes as if they are a “pass on the right” lane. They turn across double yellow lines all of the time. do Bicycles need to do more? Yes. Certainly, but to hear most drivers talk, their “s–t doesn’t stink” and it is only the bicycles that violate the traffic laws.
What we need to do is to change the traffic laws to reflect that bicycles are NOT cars and represent different levels of “threat”. As in Portland, Stop Lights should be aggressively enforced. One way street should be aggressively enforced. Cross walks should be aggressively enforced (against EVERYONE) and Stop signs should be converted into yield signs for bicycles.
David, I’m not sure that stop signs should be yield signs for bikers. If bikers are on the road, then they need to follow the rules of the road. They SHOULD NOT have their own rules. While driving in my car, I’ve approached stop signs, stopped, and then proceeded only to have some biker coming from out of nowhere and cut in front of me after I’ve started moving. I’m not anti-biker, I ride as well.
And, occasionally bikers need to yield to cars (like a car in the middle of a turn, a car that has pulled up to a stop sign first and has the right to proceed first, etc), and bikers need to yield to pedestrians.
Not all bikers are rude, just like not all drivers are rude. Like the geek said, courtesy on all ends would be nice.
Bicycles already have their own rules. They are limited to a very small portion of the pavement. They are banned from certain roads. Studies show that different rules for bicycles are safer for everyone. Yields at stop signs with enforcement of stop lights would make a big difference.
David & Mike,
I agree with you on drivers not stopping for pedestrians. The vast majority do not stop.
But here’s the problem.
The state law changed over 2 years ago but it’s only recently that there’s been ANY education on the change in the law. I would guess over 90% of drivers have never heard the law has changed. I’ve been bitching about this since the law went into effect. How can a law have any impact if no one knows about it? If a tree falls in the woods….
I stop for pedestrians in crosswalks. But it’s taken a looooong time for me to remember to do this. I’ve spent my entire driving lifetime with the understanding that pedestrians, by law, must wait until cars have passed to cross at a crosswalk. So, it’s been a challenge to un-learn this–and I am intimate with the change in the law and probably one of a handful of folks who actually read it.
My point is, the state and city need to do a better job of telling drivers of the change so more of them stop for pedestrians.
Until then, as much as it enrages me as a pedestrian who does have to cross Irving Park regularly, I grudgingly have to give those drivers the benefit of the doubt.
Chicago Teacher wrote:
I’ve approached stop signs, stopped, and then proceeded only to have some biker coming from out of nowhere and cut in front of me after I’ve started moving. I’m not anti-biker, I ride as well.
My comment:
And if Stop Signs were treated as yield signs for Bicycles and this was enforced, the bicycle would have been more likely to stop. A yield sign would mean that the bicycle was supposed to yield. The ironic part is that this would help the cars as well. I stop at stop signs. When its a four way stop and we take our turns, the folks in the other direction are delayed a bit more because of the time it take me to stop fully and restart. I pass through the intersection more “slowly”. With a “yield sign” and us taking turns, I wouldn’t lose ALL momentum and my time in the intersection would be reduced by more than 50%.
Chciago Teacher:
And, occasionally bikers need to yield to cars (like a car in the middle of a turn, a car that has pulled up to a stop sign first and has the right to proceed first, etc), and bikers need to yield to pedestrians.
My comment:
And how would changing stop signs to yield signs for bicycles have ANY negative impact on this? Bicycles need to learn to properly yield.
Chicago Teacher wrote:
Not all bikers are rude, just like not all drivers are rude. Like the geek said, courtesy on all ends would be nice.
My comment:
The problem is that a “rude” driver is far far more likely to kill a bicyclist or a pedestrian. And with cell phones and the like, it is a lot easier for a driver to lose their focus on the road. Bicycles don’t go from Zero to 30 in a matter of seconds.
The bikes should pay for at least a city sticker. painting and changing lanes for Bikes is Rahmes and Gabe Kleins way of appeasing a group of people who are opposed to all his type of scum politics. But when it comes to bike lanes they are all for it. Maybe having city stickers for bikes will at least pay for the paint.
Please don’t throw us into the Briar Patch. Please don’t require bicycles to have stickers. if you do, that will immediately turn all of the streets into Chicago in streets where Bicyclists are intended users. (Overturning the Boub problem). This, in turn, means that anytime a bicyclist has a flat or a broken wheel caused by “pavement issues”, the city will be responsible for paying to repair the problem. Right now, as Bicycles are only “intended users” of streets with Bike signs on them, their liability is a lot smaller. Please don’t throw us into the Briar Patch….
I think I’m on David’s side when it comes to bikers having to yield at stop signs.
For example, on a side street with a stop sign, if a bike rider slows down at a stop sign with no other traffic or pedestrians within view or near the intersection, how is traffic safety impacted? In my opinion, safety is not compromised in any way.
At a busy intersection with a stop sign, bikers should stop.
Again, I can commiserate with others who have nearly plowed into bike riders who blindly blow through stop signs when other cars are trying to proceed. Hitting a bike rider or pedestrian would put me on a psychologist’s couch for years. I ran over a rabbit when I was 17 and I still haven’t full gotten over it.
But from a practical standpoint, I think Stop sign = Yield for bikers would be ok.
I also agree with David that due to the weight, power and potential for damage, injury or death from a motorized vehicles, drivers of said vehicles bear a greater responsibility on the road than bikers or pedestrians.
That’s not to say bikers and pedestrians don’t bear any responsibility–they do–but that motorists have the most responsibility.
I would like to think the majority of drivers take this responsibility VERY seriously. No decent human wants to injure or, God forbid, kill another human with their car.