- Neill Townsend biked to work most days, in all kinds of weather, and almost always had a story to share about a close call on the street.
“He would tell us about them,’’ said Scott Wilson, CEO of Minimal Inc., a product design firm where Townsend worked. “He did have a lot of close calls with cars or even other cyclists. It’s not a bike-friendly city, unfortunately."
Friday morning, the 32-year-old attorney was riding south on Wells Street in front of Walter Payton High School, just north of Oak Street, when the driver of a Nissan Altima swung open the door, police said.
Townsend swerved and fell underneath the wheels of a passing semi that was hauling a flat-bed trailer, police said.
Someone with "a lot of close calls" is either a (A) shit magnet or (B) a problem biker. Knowing bicyclists as we do, we're going to guess B. And we're also going to guess that Rahm or his minions use this death as justification for the 600 miles of bike lanes (at $140,000 per mile) that are currently choking traffic, commerce and emergency response times across the entire city.
UPDATE: Sometimes we don't even know why we bother to point things out to the ignorant assholes that "read" here. To all of the reading challenged morons, could you point out where we wish death on any cyclist, make fun of the dead guy, anything like that? Because we're missing it.
We rightfully point out that a person versus a multiple-ton vehicle isn't exactly a fair fight. We quote a news article. We venture the opinion that, based on our experience as a motorist, bicyclist and observer of human behavior, that the likely causes of the accident are two-fold, the second being the most likely one BASED ON OUR EXPERIENCES AND OBSERVATIONS. Then we point out that Rahm "Don't Let a Crisis Go to Waste" Emanuel and his ilk are likely to play this a certain way. What's the problem?
In 30-plus years of biking, from big wheels, to ten-speeds to mountain bikes, we can barely recall instances of bikes coming to complete stops at signs or traffic lights, ourselves included. It just isn't drilled into people here. It's part of why we stopped street biking years ago. And the so-called "bike lanes" seem to play into the immunity bikers feel from the laws of physics, traffic law and general polite behavior on the roads.
Stop attributing words, thoughts or deeds that were never posted by us to us. As for the comments, one half bitches if we let something through, the other half bitches if we censor something. Can't have it both ways. So direct your stupidity at the proper target. Asshats.
UPDATE II: Ridiculed what asshat? We still don't see it and you're still an ignorant reading challenged moron. A judgement call based on years of experience isn't ridiculing anything.
UPDATE: Sometimes we don't even know why we bother to point things out to the ignorant assholes that "read" here. To all of the reading challenged morons, could you point out where we wish death on any cyclist, make fun of the dead guy, anything like that? Because we're missing it.
We rightfully point out that a person versus a multiple-ton vehicle isn't exactly a fair fight. We quote a news article. We venture the opinion that, based on our experience as a motorist, bicyclist and observer of human behavior, that the likely causes of the accident are two-fold, the second being the most likely one BASED ON OUR EXPERIENCES AND OBSERVATIONS. Then we point out that Rahm "Don't Let a Crisis Go to Waste" Emanuel and his ilk are likely to play this a certain way. What's the problem?
In 30-plus years of biking, from big wheels, to ten-speeds to mountain bikes, we can barely recall instances of bikes coming to complete stops at signs or traffic lights, ourselves included. It just isn't drilled into people here. It's part of why we stopped street biking years ago. And the so-called "bike lanes" seem to play into the immunity bikers feel from the laws of physics, traffic law and general polite behavior on the roads.
Stop attributing words, thoughts or deeds that were never posted by us to us. As for the comments, one half bitches if we let something through, the other half bitches if we censor something. Can't have it both ways. So direct your stupidity at the proper target. Asshats.
UPDATE II: Ridiculed what asshat? We still don't see it and you're still an ignorant reading challenged moron. A judgement call based on years of experience isn't ridiculing anything.