My new favorite traffic crash impact analogy, as heard at a meeting about a road diet

By On April 27, 2012 · 1 Comment

At Wednesday night’s community meeting at the University of Chicago Alumni House (5555 S Woodlawn) in Hyde Park about a proposed road diet and installation of protected bike lanes on 55th Street, a resident spoke up and asked about possible negative bus and bicycle interactions in the shared space bus stops.

In the proposed street reconfiguration plan, bus stops remain at the curb. The protected bike lane is curbside as well. Where they overlap, an unprotected bike lane “occurs” around the space created for the bus stop.

He likened the interaction to this (which is paraphrased): “It doesn’t matter if a rock falls on a melon, or if a melon falls on a rock, the melon still cracks open”.

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  • http://twitter.com/banoonoo Anna Schibrowsky

    That’s a good but unfortunate analogy. It reminds me that most drivers are careful not to hit cyclists from behind, but many don’t seem to realize we’re in danger of hitting them when they pull across the bike lane to turn or park.

    Will the Hyde Park project address the point in Washington Park, just west of Cottage Grove, where eastbound cyclists have to cross the SE- and NW-bound lanes of Morgan Drive to get onto Rainey Drive and continue on 55th Street? Usually it’s too scary and I wind up going all the way down to the Midway Plaisance and coming back north on Ellis or Woodlawn.