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Biker Hit and Killed by Moron

Tragically, a cyclist was struck and killed by two numbskulls playing Windy City brand street style bumper cars on Diversey Avenue last month. The story can be found here (http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/2009/12/parolee-charged-in-crash-that-killed-bicyclist.html), and as always, it is unfortunate that it takes such an occurrence to remind us of the real dangers cycling involves in Chicago or any major metropolitan area.

Getting in the middle of a car accident is something that has almost happened to me a couple of times and is in my Top 3 Biking Fears. There is no way to prevent it, prepare for it, see it coming, or stop it, and it seems like the consequences would be extreme, as they were in this case. And not only was this an incident where a collision between cars inadvertently caused a cyclist’s death, the cause of the “accident” was a couple of road-raging hotheads using their vans as weapons to ram one another. People can yell and scream about how bikers are a menace to society, but I dare someone to use their bike as a battering ram. I’m thinking it would turn out poorly for everyone involved.

But besides highlighting the unforeseen dangers of urban cycling, like weapon-grade Aerostar vans, there is another issue here. Picking up the Redeye to read the story, I immediately noticed that they made the victim out to be less than an ideal gentleman. The author for some reason made sure to mention the cyclist’s previous drug use and the fact that he was unemployed. Here are some excerpts from the story since it isn’t online-

“…an easy going 32-year-old who’d been trying to turn his life around”

“Livingstone, who grew up in Logan Square, had struggled with drugs…”

“‘He was down on his luck,’ said his aunt…”

Now this raised an eyebrow for me, because back in September, a bike messenger in Toronto was struck and killed by a former Canadian attorney general, and after the story broke, the media began to subtly smear the victim by bringing up his rocky past, which included drug and alcohol use.

In this instance, not all papers are reporting the fact that the victim used drugs in the past. The Sun-Times reported the story with no mention of drug or alcohol use because uhhhh duhhhhh Redeye, they didn’t play any kind of factor in the accident.

So this leaves me the question of why the Redeye felt it was necessary to bring up totally irrelevant information of drug use. That aspect isn’t relevant to anything, and does nothing more than to cast a less than favorable light on the person that just had a terrible tragedy occur to them. Now, in a perfect world, I would be okay with brutally honest reporting. Make the person out for what they were, what happened to them, and be one hundred percent truthful. Unfortunately, none of that applies to 2009 America. The media creates narratives for the average person to grasp, and sloppy and biased reporting plays into pre-existing prejudices and common perceptions of the way people think the world is.

And that is where I am coming from in objecting to the Redeye, and their parent company, the Tribune, report of this incident. According to the mainstream mentality, cyclists don’t have the best reputation. In the suburbs I have been pulled over by the police just riding my bicycle a couple of blocks. Because out in the unenlightened boonies, people commonly think that anyone riding a bicycle for a form of transportation is either a criminal, too poor to afford a car, or an alcoholic that lost their license. Similarly, last year I visited a good friend while he was going to school in Puerto Rico. He had just set up the university’s first cycling club to encourage biking in an increasingly car-orientated culture. Unfortunately, he was having a hell of time convincing the locals to ride their bikes, because in Puerto Rico, popular opinion was that only destitute people and crack heads rode their bicycles. Down there in those humid, up in coming suburban sprawls, it was more respectable to gallop your horse around town than pedal to the bodega. Just back here at home, the common perceptions of things were getting in the way of progressive ideas.

But let’s not just point the finger at the media and start crying like little babies. Ask yourself, “What am I doing to help the image of cyclists?” Do you really care enough about cycling to make yourself an example to others, or do you just want to revel in the “rebellious” atmosphere, looking cool to freshman Columbia co-eds? How are you helping the cause? Are you destroying prejudices against messengers, or helping to proliferate them? Because the corporations would love nothing more than to keep using us as cheap and expendable labor, throwing us crumbs from their overflowing tables of profit margins. And by making cyclists, and to a further extent messengers, unsympathetic characters, the powers that be have an easier job perpetrating their exploitation of us. So like they say, if you can’t join them, beat ‘em, by being smarter, faster, stronger, and generally superior to the opposition.

Our sympathies go out to the loved ones of Mr. Livingston. An injury to one is an injury to all.

Written by BTB (Bottom Tax-Bracket)

Tokyo Fundraiser Cup Final

Well, we tried our best, but came up a little short. Congratulations to Stockholm for winning the Tokyo Fundraiser Cup. Chicago took an early lead in the contest, and battled Zurich for the majority of the two months long contest. Many cities around the world decided to hold fundraising events during the month of December. Despite taking the lead back due to the proceeds from the Season's Beatings alleycat, Chicago lost the contest to Stockhlm by a mere $100.00 right at the last minute.
You can't really be bitter when you look at the big picture, though. The contest raised over $10,600.00, which will help the Tokyo Bicycle Messenger Association re-pay the debt that they incurred by hosting the 2009 Cycle Messenger World Championship. Two Stockholm messengers will be flying to the 2010 CMWC in Guatemala as a result of that city winning the Fundraiser Cup. I guess we will see them down there, and can congratulate them in person.

Damn the Man!

If you have ever attended a CCU meeting, you know that we have a little tradition at the beginning of our meetings called "Damn the Man". The concept of Damn the Man is pretty simple. Messengers like to complain, and when you get a bunch of messengers together they could spend hours bitching about the demeaning, degrading, infuriating, and unjust things that we have to put up with on a daily basis. In the interest of running efficient and productive meetings, the CCU established "Damn the Man", and made it a permanent part of the agenda for all CCU meetings. The way it works is at the beginning of each meeting, every person is given the opportunity to Damn the Man for one thing, and vent about that thing for a minute or two. We then move forward with the rest of the meeting, and the meetings tend to be more productive once we get the complaining out of the way. Most of the Damn the Man's are the same old thing; the taxi that tried to hit you, or the weather, or the bike part that broke, or flat tires. But at least once a meeting, someone comes up with a good one, and we have decided to share the best Damn the Man on the blog after every meeting.

So here is your Damn the Man for the week of December 16th:
A messenger walked into 400 S. LaSalle and tried to walk up to the elevators without dropping his bag. The security guard yelled at him to drop his bag. The messenger replied that he doesn't come into the building very often and didn't remember that he was supposed to drop his bag, so there is no reason to yell at him. The guard tried to tell the messenger that he has to drop his bag in every building in downtown Chicago. The messenger said "What are you talking about? Every building is different. Sometimes we have to drop our bags, sometimes we don't."
The Guard replied "That's what my union said. My union says that messengers have to drop their bags in every building."
The messenger was flustered at this point and yelled back at the guard "Yeah, well my union says that I don't have to drop my bag!"
They glared at each other for a few seconds before the messenger finally gave in because he had work to do and couldn't waste any more time arguing with this fool.

Ten Nine radio

So, I subscribe to the messengers email list, and saw an interesting post about something people might want to check out. A big part of what the Chicago Couriers Union is about is solidarity and building a community among hard working people. A guy named Biker Bill Thain just launched the 10-9 bicycle messenger radio station, and I am pretty excited about it. Here is an excerpt from an email that Biker Bill sent out a while ago:

I believe there may be hope for all of us. Our community as a whole is proving resilient and is surviving well through the years however many potholes it must dodge and occasionally hit. Be inspired to be inspired and believe in the greater good. Our strength is the community, so a hearty friday thanks and cheers to all of you who get it!

"CLINK"

I should start more days with a Baily's...

BikerBill Thain

Edmonton

NACCC01,CMWC04

I like where this guy is coming from, so be sure to check out his site, and it sounds like he is looking for submissions in order to really turn this into a community project.

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Meeting tomorrow

Hey, don't forget there is a meeting tomorrow, December 16th at the usual place, UE Hall 37s Ashland, 6:00. The CCU meets on the first and third Wednesday of every month. This month has five Wenesdays in it, so this will actually be the last CCU meeting of the year. Be sure not to miss it.

The City of Brotherly Love Sure Could Use Some Right Now

Winter has just begun, but things are really heating up in Philadelphia. Here is a brief rundown of the story so far:
In October of this year, there were two separate fatal accidents in Philadelphia in which cyclists hit pedestrians. This was such an unusual situation that the media made a big deal about it, and the Philadelphia City Council introduced several bills regarding bicycles. The bills would hugely increase the fines for breaking some traffic laws on a bicycle, require bicycle owners to license their bicycle, and outlaw brakeless fixed-gear bicycles. On November 21st, the Philadelphia Police Department sent officers on bicycles to Rittenhouse Square in Downtown Philly to enforce traffic laws for bicycles. Bicycle laws continued to be a hot issue in the media and out in the streets, and the whole thing came to a head early on Thanksgiving morning.
Rachel Fletcher, a Philadelphia bike messenger was cycling home when a car came up behind her and yelled at her to "get the fuck out of the street". When Rachel didn't, he hit her with his car and drove off. Rachel was left bleeding on the side of the road with bad facial injuries and a broken jaw.
The Philadelphia Bicycle Messenger Association decided that they had taken enough abuse and held a rally in downtown Philly at Love Park yesterday.

The PBMA has also prepared the following press release:
The Philadelphia Bike Messenger Association (PBMA) would like to declare our stance on new cycling legislation proposed by councilmen DiCicco and Kenney and respond to the rise of an anti-cycling climate in our city.

We do not oppose the enforcement of existing laws regarding bicycle riding, but believe that equal and consistent enforcement amongst cyclists, pedestrians and motorists is key. Consistent enforcement of traffic violations would improve the lives of everyone in this city no matter what their mode of travel might be. It is our membership's consensus that the proposed laws put forth by Councilman DiCicco and Councilman Kenney would be specifically harmful to bicycle messengers. No working bike messenger in this city could afford a $1,000 fine or possible confiscation of a work bike deemed "brakeless" according to the proposed laws. The PBMA does not think that a registration program is feasible in a city under so much budget distress and would rather see resources allocated to better causes.

The idea that Philadelphia bike messengers are dangerous is an unfortunate perception amongst motorists and pedestrians. We are often mistaken for dangerous cyclists, as people believe that anyone with a bag and a bike is working as a bicycle messenger. Hazardous cycling makes a professional messenger as concerned as any motorist alongside of them in traffic. It is also apparent to our membership that anti-cycling sentiment continues to grow rapidly in Philadelphia. Recently a co-worker was intentionally targeted by an angry motorist and was the victim of a hit and run. Aggression from motorists in the form of verbal threats or their leaving the scene of an accident is commonplace in our workday and sadly increasing in frequency for other city cyclists as well. It is our hope that we can change the views of the public and see Philadelphia become the bicycling friendly city it can be.

In the coming months the PBMA will work towards improving our working conditions that not only benefit us but other city cyclists, pedestrians and motorists in Philadelphia.

The PBMA has come up with a noble response to a very tough situation. Last summer in Chicago, we had to deal with some anti-bike sentiment when the 3' overtaking law and the dooring law were passed, and motorists were upset about these new laws. However, the controversy seemed to pass quickly and without a major incident like the one in Philly. We had to deal with some of the same public outcry, and it still doesn't make sense. The incidents in Philly, where two pedestrians were killed in accidents with bikers are both incredibly freak occurrences. Just out of curiosity, I checked the Active Transportation Alliance's crash report over a four year period to see how many pedestrians were killed by bicycles in the city of Chicago. I couldn't find any, although over the same period, over 2000 pedestrians were killed as a result of being struck by motor vehicles. It seems like when the issue of enforcing bike laws comes up, cities often target bicycle messengers, much as they did in Philly on Nov. 21. It's easy to target bike messengers, you know where we are going to be every day, and it seems to satisfy the public in a strange way. The thing that people don't realize is as much as you might dislike bike messengers, the work we do still needs to be done. If the work done by bike messengers were absorbed by vehicle messengers, the public would be a a much greater risk of being killed by a collision with a messenger. If the 2000 pedestrians killed by motor vehicles in Chicago had been hit by bicycles instead, every one of them would probably still be alive today.
The CCU will stand behind our brothers and sisters in Philadelphia. We are having a meeting tomorrow, and will be discussing ways in which we can help out. Personally, I feel a close connection to the messengers in Philadelphia. I traveled to Philly a couple years ago to race and hang out for a week, and was taken care of the entire time I was there. Philly and Chicago have built a strong bond over the last couple of years. I have always had a great time hanging out with Philly messengers, whether it was at the Stuporbowl, the NACCCs, or at the worlds in Tokyo.