City Pushes Better Driver-Bicyclist Road Relations

One, or perhaps both, of the following scenarios probably sounds familiar to Chicagoans: You are driving down the road, when all of a sudden, a bike darts out in front of your vehicle. Or maybe, as you are riding your bike down the street, a car pulls out unexpectedly in front of you.

These situations occur every day on the city’s streets of Chicago. They led to an ordinance, approved March 12 by the City Council, that seeks to reduce complications between motorists and cyclists.

The ordinance will introduce fines ranging from $25 to $500 for motorists who fail to give bikers the right of way when turning at intersections, overtaking on the left, driving, standing or parking on bicycle paths and opening doors in the path of a cyclist.

In the 15 years since Mayor Daley created the Bicycle Advisory Council, the city has increased emphasis on improved bike infrastructure. Within the next three years, Daley hopes to see Chicagoans making all trips less than five miles by bike. Chicago Department of Transportations Director of Communications Brian Steele acknowledges if this goal is to be reached, efforts like the ordinance will be imperative to educate all road users.

Bicycle and pedestrian fatalities make up almost 25 percent of all traffic-related deaths in the region. Studies from Chicago’s Healthy Streets Campaign revealed that 130,357 accidents were reported involving bicycles and motor vehicles in 2003, of which over 200 were fatal.

“When talking about sharing the road, people aren’t talking about sharing, they’re talking about them being on the road,” said Margo O’Hara of the Chicagoland Bicycle Federation.

The Federation has partnered with Healthy Streets to create a pilot program called Drive with Care to draw awareness to this one-sided approach often found on the road. The program seeks to reduce 50 percent of crashes in a focused area on the Northwest side by 2009.

By implementing speed and crosswalk missions, Drive with Care hopes to reduce driver’s speeding and inattention, the leading causes of bike and pedestrian related accidents.

But it is not only drivers who present problems. Damien Koziel, an instructor at Chicago’s Auto Metro Driving School, has seen problems in bicyclists’ road conduct while teaching new drivers the rules of the road. Koziel said bicyclists don’t often follow directions or look where they’re going.

“I have even seen them talking on cell phones,” Koziel said. These factors present problems for drivers and make teaching the rules of the road more difficult, he said.

The Chicago Department of Transportation (CDOT) is working closely with the Bicycle Federation to develop a master plan for the year 2015 that focuses on infrastructure, education and advocacy. Along with the plan, the transportation department has partnered with the Office of the Chicago City Clerk for the 2008 “share the road”-themed city sticker that over a million drivers will see, generating better understanding and awareness, said Steele. He recognized that while many accidents still occur, the city is making progress.