I have seen letters to the editor recently from car drivers complaining about “sharing the road with bike riders while bike riders break all kinds of laws.” The letter writers say they’ve seen bicycle riders run stop signs.
My question is: Have they seen the behavior of car drivers? Last week on Hubbard Street, I was stopped at a stop sign — because it’s a stop sign and because there was a pedestrian in the far crosswalk — and three drivers buzzed around me to blow the stop sign and endanger the pedestrian.
Drivers in giant SUVs and pickup trucks, with no idea what’s happening around their vehicles because they’re too busy playing with their phones to have a look or check their mirrors, run red lights with alarming frequency. I don’t mean they just missed the yellow; the light was red, and they decided to go anyway.
Drivers turn right on red without stopping or looking for pedestrians on the right, often in contravention of “No turn on red” signs.
Drivers block bike lanes and crosswalks and fail to stop for pedestrians in crosswalks, with no idea they’re doing anything wrong.
By the way, it is drivers, not bicycle riders, who usually cause car crash fatalities, including more than 1,300 in 2021. Plus, they inflict injuries great and small, plus cause billions in property damage.
Bad bicycle riding is inexcusable, but its impact is microscopic compared to the harm of bad car driving. It’s like the difference between a nuclear missile and a fly swatter.
James R. Anderson, Near West Side
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One-way streets are as dangerous as main streets
Regarding the letter “Don’t put bike lanes on city’s main streets,” a reader would prefer riders weave in and out of the mess of Chicago’s one-way streets, making turn after turn, dodging stop-sign runners, all under the no doubt thoughtful and careful planning of our city’s bureaucrats? Talk about ridiculous.
Anyone who thinks otherwise might gain some insight from hopping on a bike and trying it out. Trust me when I say many motorists see the one-ways as a means to get around all that main street traffic — stops, speed bumps, pedestrians and bicyclists be damned. It’s not safer.
The argument of taxing bicycles is worn and tired. Kind of like our city streets. Many cyclists also own vehicles and homes and businesses. We buy groceries. Just like you, we pay taxes on all of these things. This is yet another one of the many “us vs. them” mentalities on display by motorists who happen to share the road with a bike.
The main streets of Chicago will never flow freely, even if you take out all the bike lanes. And being here in this city? Well, traffic is simply … the price to pay.
Margaret Sobieralski, Montclare
Don’t put car lanes on city’s main streets
A response to “Don’t put bike lanes on city’s main streets:” Car lanes on main streets, especially on bus routes, are ridiculous, and those who suggested that drivers are getting too much leeway are correct. Drivers routinely violate traffic laws and rarely, if ever, get stopped or ticketed. They pay too little in city sticker fees to cover their use of and damage to the streets. They pay too little in gas tax too. So until they do, let’s get them off the main streets.
Car lanes should be relegated to one-way side streets. Let Chicago Department of Transportation figure out the routes, but they would eventually be faster and safer for those on bikes because of less vehicle traffic. If they need to go a little further (sic), that’s the price to pay for under-taxation and lax traffic enforcement. And then on the main streets, bicycle traffic can flow freely.
Colin Hayes, Old Irving Park
Schools with low enrollment provide bad education
If a school with a capacity of more than 2,000 has fewer than 100 students, in my opinion it should be closed.
The lack of broad choices in such a small school deprives students of the range of educational opportunities available at a larger school and results in an inferior education. The only beneficiary is the Chicago Teachers Union, which has a few more jobs for its members. CPS is not a charitable institution; it exists to educate our young people, and we the citizens of Chicago pay for it.
This fight “for the kids” is really a fight between the CTU and the taxpayers who want value for their investment. I hope we can keep this in mind as we strive for better educational opportunities for our children.
Frank L. Schneider, Lakeview East
CTU doesn’t understand governance
A particular definition of amateur — one who is not competent at some activity — appears to describe the ongoing political antics passing for city government in Chicago.
A prime example is the Chicago Teachers Union. Adults being paid to educate our children should not be navigating the perplexing paths of city governance while doing so. As our mayor has amply demonstrated, being tight with the CTU can get one into office, but those votes don’t come with governing instructions.
Our city transit struggles to transport the public, police are shorthanded, and schools — finally with competent leadership — are being attacked over fiscal concerns by some who are not competent at educational activities.
William ONeill, Near West Side