Alleycats
Judging from the amount of traffic arriving to this site in the last 24 hours, from searching for alleycats, alleycat racing and the Tour da Chicago accident, I have a feeling that there's gonna be a crackdown on this type of event by many city governments.
It's a sad situation. For everyone. Again I state that everyone is responsible for themselves and thier conduct on the road. And again, I do not claim to really know what happened at this accident. Here is a snip of part of a first hand report:
... our pack was approaching a huge 5-way intersection (lincoln/irvingpark/damen), matt was in front. i was maybe 20-30 feet behind him, with a couple riders between us. matt proceeded into the intersection, probably assuming he could dodge traffic or (as had happened up until then that day), stop traffic dead, as they usually see a pack of unruly bikers and stop for us, not knowing what else to do. this time, in this intersection, that didn't happen. a GMC suburban SUV was coming from the right too fast -...MBL General Discussion ~ Tour De Chicago Tragedy - RIPJudging from this statement, the assumption that traffic will stop for you, is a potentially deadly mistake.
The other thing that sticks out in my head - is the comment that the SUV was traveling too fast. I'm not defending speeding, I've stated many, many, many times before that speeding... even just a couple miles over the speed limit is just as illegal as running a red light. What's wrong is wrong. But what proof do we have that the vehicle was speeding. A lot of streets have higher speed limits than what seems safe. I think it's to keep the flow of cars flowing, and rather than not be able to enforce a 30 mph limit, they raise it to 40 and not worry about it. But again, if the driver didn't break any laws, then the rider, in failing to obey the rules of traffic, placed his life on the line. And for what? A little weekend glory? The ultimate price was paid.
The backlash that this will generate against urban racing, I fear, will be big. Authorties will find ways to keep alleycats from happening.
Please, please, please, take it easy out there. Remember that there is a possibility of death when riding. Cars will not stop. Caculate your risk, and err on the side of caution. It's great to have fun on bikes. It's not fun to go to a funeral.
Related: Ride to race another day.
A red light, a bicycle, a coffin.
deathdeathalleycatalleycatraceracetour+da+chicagotour+da+chicagotraffictrafficaccidentaccidentcyclingcyclingbikebikebicyclebicyclecyclistcyclistMattMattdeaddeaddangerousdangerous
Tuesday 02/26/2008 | 09:07 am
John on Tuesday 02/26/2008 | 10:10 am
Assuming they will stop is silly for obvious reasons. I assume they will neither see me, or stop if they do. This prevented a few situations from being accidents and turned them into close calls. I guess I'll never do well in alley cats...oh well.
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