Re: Take that lane!

On 4/19/2024 1:48 PM, Zen Cycle wrote:

On 4/19/2024 11:38 AM, AMuzi wrote:

On 4/19/2024 10:05 AM, Zen Cycle wrote:

On 4/18/2024 11:35 AM, Frank Krygowski wrote:

On 4/18/2024 9:10 AM, AMuzi wrote:

https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/a-person-was-spotted-biking-on-i-90-in-chicago-police-have-a-message-for-them/3413507/

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I (ahem!) know a few people (ahem!) who did something similar for a short distance at a remote spot on one very long bike tour. They were advised to do it by a bunch of friendly retirees, who said it was really the only reasonable way to get where they were going by bike.
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It was technically illegal, but it was extremely safe and disturbed nobody. Your Chicago example seems different,
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  I don't know, Traffic wasn't moving. The only real risk to him would be someone using the breakdown lane (besides another bike).
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There's a stretch of elevated roadway in Cambridge MA called the McGrath  highway. It's limited access, but didn't have any posted usage restrictions (when I was using it in the 90's). When I was working at the Mass Eye and Ear Infirmary, the regular surface roads were dense with traffic lights and stopped traffic during commuting hours. the highway went over that part of cambridge and dropped off across the charles river a few blocks from MEEI. It had a wide shoulder, and during commuting hours traffic was ostensibly stopped. One day at work, someone in my department commented that I had passed him that morning, and commented on my sanity and intelligence for riding on a roadway with a 50 MPH speed limit. I asked him 'how fast were you going when I passed you on my bike?'.
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If traffic was flowing in Andrews example at the speeds it was designed to flow, sure, there would be a safety issue. But safety of a competent cyclist isn't really the point here, it's the safety of the incompetent types - those that would infact ride on a limited use limited access highway with traffic traveling at speed.
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OK, incompetent cyclists wandering across the lane stripe. Then again the breakdown lane is full of auto pilot carnage with some regularity:
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https://cwbchicago.com/2024/04/chicago-drunk-driver-killed-former-marine-crash-stevenson-expressway.html

 Sure, but that isn't exclusive to breakdown lanes. A cyclist riding on the shoulder of _any_ road faces the same risk.

OK, and that includes me a few times, but at city speeds less likely to be fatal.
My daughter was doored ten days ago on Devon Avenue (north side Chicago) and dumped into the traffic lane. Fortunately traffic stopped for her. She's banged up but wasn't crushed to death with a 65mph impact.
--
Andrew Muzi
am@yellowjersey.org
Open every day since 1 April, 1971