Jun 14, 2008 5:34 pm US/Central
Daley Proposes Bike Riders Use Bus Lanes
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
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To help ease congestion, Mayor Daley is proposing bike riders share bus lanes.
CBS
It may be the weather, or perhaps the high gas prices, but you may have noticed more bikers on the roads these days.
To help ease congestion, Mayor Daley is proposing bike riders share bus lanes. But as CBS 2's Pamela Jones reports, that's triggered some safety concerns.
Cyclist Colette Maguire reflected on her experience with biking in the city.
"The cars, and the buses and actually the worst are probably the taxicabs. They don't really stop," she said.
It's one of the many dangers cyclists say they encounter on Chicago streets.
On Monday, a 22-year-old riding in a bike lane was killed when he slammed into an open SUV door, and another car hit him. But now Daley says he'll push a plan to make streets safer for bikes by allowing riders to share bus lanes.
"You have traffic, a bike lane, and a bus lane. So you're there and you have traffic and a bus lane. So we're thinking, that when we have automatic changing lights and GPS and things like that, you'll be able to move traffic much easier," Daley said.
The plan would allow cyclists to ride in the bus lanes on the city's widest streets.
The mayor says the plan would require that bus drivers get special training in defensive driving techniques they could use with bikes; and that cyclists would need an update on rules of the road as well.
But the proposal may not be so easy to put on the road. Some cyclists say leading bikes to the bus lane creates a path to more danger.
They point to a crash on Tuesday where a cyclist collided with a CTA bus.
"I think it's a wildly unsafe idea to have buses and bikes using the same lane," said cyclist Karen Cassidy.
"They weave in and out and they stop and you don't really know which way to go around them. So they cause more problems than anything," said cyclist Jessica Martin.
Mayor Daley says under the proposal, the city would launch a massive public relations campaign to raise awareness about bikes on the road.
So far this year, five cyclists have been killed on Chicago streets.
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