By: Diane Benjamin
A few days ago a saw a biker on Veterans Parkway, he constantly looked over his shoulder to see if he was going to get hit. Yesterday a lady on a bike made a left hand turn in front of me without any signals. Remember when we were kids – left arm straight out to turn left, bent up to turn right? Are rules no longer taught? Maybe bikes should be required to have blinkers if arm signals are too difficult. Should bikers pass a mental health evaluation before being allowed to ride? Is there a COMMON SENSE test they should be required to pass?
Government thinks it is legal to kill babies and they also think bikes have the same rights as cars. Being stupid and ridiculous doesn’t make what they do legal, moral, or even smart.
Now Bloomington thinks bikes should be given special privileges on busy streets. They are holding public meetings about modifying the Bicycle Master Plan to include parts of Washington Street: http://www.cityblm.org/Home/Components/News/News/4485/
Bike Plan Public Meetings
Three meetings scheduled
Bicycle Master Plan: Washington Street Proposed Amendment – Public Meetings
BLOOMINGTON, IL – The City of Bloomington Public Works Department is considering a proposed amendment to the Bicycle Master Plan, which seeks to include Washington Street from Lee Street to St Joseph Drive in the plan.
All persons interested in the proposed amendment are invited to discuss the changes to the Bicycle Master Plan at one of the following public meetings:
Open House: May 23, 2017 from 5:00 P.M. to 7:00 P.M. in the Cafeteria at Washington Elementary School at 1201 E Washington Street, Bloomington, IL
Open House: June 13, 2017 from 4:00 P.M. to 6:00 P.M. in the Gov. Fifer Courtroom at the McLean County Museum of History at 200 N Main Street, Bloomington, IL
Commission Meeting: June 14, 2017 during the Bloomington Planning Commission meeting at 4:00 P.M. in the Council Chambers at City Hall at 109 E. Olive Street, Bloomington, IL
The purpose of these public meetings is to allow interested individuals, groups, and involved agencies to discuss the potential impacts of the Bicycle Master Plan amendment. The meeting will be conducted by the City of Bloomington, with assistance from Bike BloNo. Citizens are encouraged to attend the public meetings and ask questions and provide input. Written statements may also be submitted during the meetings.
Sheep get eaten by wolves.
Bike Blono are the wolves – you are the sheep in danger of getting charged with a crime if a bike makes contact with your car. It will always be your fault even if the biker screwed up.
There are many more sheep than wolves, except sheep tend not to worry until it’s too late.
Go to one of the meetings and show them the below. Laugh in their faces. Only you can stop this nonsense.
From this previous post: https://blnnews.com/2017/05/08/more-trouble-tonight/
http://ti.org/antiplanner/?p=13175#more-13175
8. It’s a bike lane project that reduces the number of lanes for automobiles. Many cities are attempting to encourage cycling while simultaneously discouraging driving by converting auto lanes to bike lanes, such as by changing a four-lane street to a two-lane street with a center left-turn lane and two bike lanes. This probably doesn’t increase bicycle safety, but it does increase traffic congestion. It is nearly always possible to find parallel local streets that can be turned into bicycle boulevards without impeding through or local auto traffic. All bicycle projects that reduce the capacity of arterial or collector streets to move automobiles are boondoggles.
I see WAY more cars on the street than bikes and WAY more cars breaking the rules. Not sure why this is a thing or why you’re concerned.
Rob, I’m going to have to go back to banning you. You can’t really be this stupid, right?
Diane,
Not the most bikers follow the rules of the road,
but what did Bob write that was factually incorrect?
He didn’t understand why it mattered. Big difference in cars crashing and a bike and car.
I ride a bike occasionally, follow the rules too. For example: Stop at stop signs, signal etc. Yet twice I’ve had vehicles try to run me off the road. Believe me, I understand being annoyed at bike riders ignoring the rules of the road, but what Bob said also jibes with my experience on a bike, and I sympathize (somewhat) with what you’re saying.
The purpose of these meetings is to put on the dog and pony show. Citizens are ignored through facilitaion and avoidance through completely ignoring what they say. The manipulative facilitators will smile, say you’ve got a good idea, and then conclude their previously planned agenda as though there was no meaningful oppostion. In non-pc terms, it’s called deceit! This is how these things work. Mayor Renner’s agenda, deceive to achieve as this is what the demoncratic leadership has become.
A LARGE group of angry citizens can’t be ignored. Those who stay home can be.
Good luck with that.
IF you think these bicyclists are bad in the city, just go north on Towanda toward the lake on some weekend afternoon and watch them run the stop signs! Or most ANY country road in that area for that matter.
The only thing this crap is going to do is encourage me to buy a bigger SUV, just to piss off bike “blono.” If I hit a biker so be it, try suing me, see what happens.
65 years ago yesterday this happened. “Bike problems are not new but are getting worse. From my past-“May 10,1952, around 5:30pm on a Saturday, in rural McLean County, gravel road, 9yr old boy on his bike comes down his lane, checks for traffic, turns left and gets into the far right lane. Note-on gravel roads in the fifty’s, there were most often only three strips with hardly any loose gravel, the lad gets onto the far right one. Which puts him within about 2 1/2 foot from the grass. A late forty’s to early fifty’s Chevy car meets the lad and just before getting to him, for some reason the car driver thought the lad was going to swerve to the other side of the road, so he swerves left. They meet so exact in the middle of the car,so that the pointed hood ornament is driven with in a fraction of an inch, let me repeat that distance, with in a fraction of an inch from the lads brain. How do I know that distance you ask? That is what Dr. Baringer from Springfield, Ill. told my father. The Illinois State Police and before Rt 66 was four lanes, escorted Dr. Baringer to the old St Joe Hospital on Morris Ave in just a couple of minuets over 60 minuets, to save the lads life. How do I know that? I am that lad. So you folks rant and rave and you riders go ahead and ride three or more across like the idiots you all seem to want to be, but I am 74 now and Dr. Baringer is no longer with us. Good Luck.”
Getting sued may be the least of your problems. GROW UP.
BNIndy, your writing this here is evidence of plan killing which is murder. Stupid, bad idea, not Christian. woman in Galesburg like you hit retired police captain on bike. http://tinyurl.com/lz6tejk No reason to do this. You need to think. Hard.
Casual Observation – many of the regular “bike people” are guys who have lost their license to drive because of DUIs or non payment of child support – I see them often balancing their 12 pack or more often case of beer from their daily beer run. The vast majority of Americans are not going to be forced onto bikes, it’s not gonna happen, nor are they going to be forced onto public transportation. Catering to tiny fraction of the population is eventually going to anger, and rightly, more and more of the majority. What’s really gonna be noticeable is when the car part of the streets are all beat up again and the bike lanes are all pristine and without potholes or severe cracks – then they will start in how bikes are so much better for the pavement and are cost efficient as well. As has been mentioned many times more people have to get out and vote and get these people OUT of power, the majority IS being lorded over by a minority because that minority is loud and they vote.
Let’s be clear. The notice posted by the City claims the public works is considering an amendment to the bike master plan. Wrong! More lies! Bike BloNo is the driving force. Have the pop-up lanes been put in place yet? Has the Washington Street route been studied for a year so as to take into consideration the effect on children at Washington school? Washington Street is the main artery for safety vehicles. Do bicycles take precedence over ambulances and fire trucks? God help us!
There are bike riders on Veterans between Main and I-74 all the time, even after dark with no lights on their bike and no street lights along the road. I thought it was illegal to ride a non-motor vehicle on interstate highways.
Again…I’m confused. How would bikes impede emergency traffic more than a car? A bike could pull completely off the road, on to the sidewalk if necessary. What am I missing?
Vehicles aren’t allowed to be in bike lanes, even to get out of the way. So how do emergency vehicles get threw?
There might be a case where the bike and car are side by side when a emergency vehicle approaches. That situation puts the bicyclist at more risk of being hit as the car has to pay attention to both. Front Street would be better used for bike traffic because it is not a MAIN ARTERIAL street. I want to put safety for all before convenience.
To answer your question Bob, you’re missing your brain.
Let’s use some common sense here. While motorists can’t continue to drive in the lane, they can cross it to pull into a driveway, make a turn, or make room for emergency traffic.
Maybe, since the bike lane won’t be used much!
So, Bob, you propose cars turn into a driveway with the potential of cutting off a biker to allow an emergency vehicle to pass. The driveways along Washington from St. Joe’s Road to Lee Street are few and far between. Then, after the emergency vehicle(s) pass, the cars are to back out of the driveway on to Washington Street. Or, the cars are to turn on to a side street and go around the block. What do you propose the CT busses do under the same circumstances? Maybe it is foolish to paint bike lanes on Washington Street. The bikers can use Grove or Front Street or they can attach their bikes to the CT buses as part of the multi-modal plan.
Our economy is in a general decline, State Farm has lost 7 billion dollars in 2016, is laying off 4500 people and restructuring their company and we are worried about bike lanes? There will be plenty of room on the streets for everyone once 1/2 the population leaves because there are no jobs…. We are fiddling while Rome burns…
“biker on Veterans Parkway”, were they also wearing ear phones hooked up to their MP3 player? I’ve seen that done. Even young car drivers do it. I was at HyVee on Sat. and this car takes forever to turn into the parking lot. I watch and some 20 something guy gets out wearing ear plug phones. Okay are you a total idiot or what I’m thinking.
skunk, yes it is illegal to ride a non motorized bike on the interstate. Every entrance ramp I am almost sure has a sign posted about that. Anyone doing that must be a triple idiot I suppose their family would try to sue some trucking company if they were made into hamburger. I’m not surprised this doesn’t go on. .
I personally think one of the biggest turn off to the Bloomington downtown area was when the city changed Washington St. adding the bike lanes and reducing the car lanes. Good grief who wants to put up with that congestion.using 1 lane traffic. Honestly I don’t ever recall seeing anyone even using those bike lanes.
Look how the county and federal government wasted money on putting in that bike path all the way to Shirley with hopes to go farther south. It is rarely used.
Marc, there no bike lanes on Washington st in downtown Bloomington. They did put a center turn lane in some parts, and there’s parking on both sides. Hard to see using something don’t exist. Hoho!
WHY do they NEED bike lanes anyway? Can’t they LEARN the rules of the road and travel along with the FLOW of traffic instead of TRYING to hold it up by riding in large groups that CAUSE congestion? Are they truly “Agents of CHAOS”?
Heck, as a youngster I rode my paper route on a bike WITHOUT a helmet and did so DOWNTOWN! And I’m still here.. WHAT makes these folks so darn special. Is it because they have helmets and titanium bicycles with leathers seats and a built in commode with Sirius radio??
Bike BloNo=ISIS On the Prairie. Question their radical ideology and they want you dead.
This is a bad plan to add bike lanes to Washington st. The better plan would be to put bike lanes on grove street (1 block south) from mercer to Robinson then switch over to the existing bike lanes on front street by Beer nuts. I travel grove street several times a day and see all kinds of bicyclists on it. During summer months I’ve been known to bike down grove st as well. The cyclists have figured out that riding on Washington is a bad idea while grove is much calmer traffic wise.
Using grove/front street has the added advantage of grove street intersecting the constitution trail. The trail cannot be accessed from Washington as it goes through a tunnel under Washington. Also, front st goes right by the coliseum so people can easily get to it.
The only downside is that grove street is in terrible shape while Washington is perfect as it was just resurfaced within the past couple years. Also, grove doesn’t go to st Joseph drive. The cynical part of me wants to think the amendment calls for going to st Joseph drive just to force Washington st as the only option, but the hopeful part of me wants to think they chose st Joseph drive so people could bike to State Farm corporate.
If you have never been to Europe and especially Germany, you have no idea of cars and bikes and cobble stone streets. They all make way for each other and in 14 days I saw no accidents or even close ones. What I did see were strange humans, they were all “courteous” to each other. Strange don’t you think?
Want narriw ateeets here that force it? You will get your wish.
narrower streets
Let’s remove all of the asphalt and concrete and go back to cobblestone streets. Can’t wait to dodge the horse dung. Ain’t nothin’ like a regressive that thinks they’re progressive,,,morons.
Horse dung will wash off. Broken bones and spilled blood take longer to repair. Bikes have a legal right to be on the roads, just like you do. It is the law. And anyone that disputes that is in fact the moron. And yes I have to slow down until it is safe to pass them too.
Morons made it law.
“I see WAY more cars on the street than bikes and WAY more cars breaking the rules. Not sure why this is a thing or why you’re concerned.”
You have yet to answer the question, Dianne. Calling people names and insulting them doesn’t answer the question. You obviously have time to answer the question, so just answer it instead of deflecting with scorn. We’re interested in YOUR response.
What question?
I rode these. Helped my ride with my daugher to get her astma looked at at st. joes.