please do not break traffic laws and make drivers more angry at cyclists in general
please make sure everyone is okay the next time a fellow cyclist tells you I have crashed and am bleeding, rather than riding away
please do not just spend your time hitting on attractive blonde runners, that’s not what you’re being paid to do
please do not ride two abreast slowly when there is heavy traffic and ignore me when I say “on your left” and “excuse me” politely, forcing me to veer into oncoming rollerblading psychos
Just recently I was riding home from the loop, and approached a busy intersection with a pack of cops on bikes riding two abreast. I stopped at the intersection and was amazed to see the police proceed through without any regard to the traffic…people in their cars literally shook their heads in amazement at the poor example being set by “Chicago’s finest.”
It sometimes seems like they are out for group training rides (slow ones for sure) rather than policing, but maybe i’m missing something.
Renton Washington, many years ago. On my regular ride through town. Bike cops going the wrong way down a 1-way street, going very leisurely. I called the police department to make comment, and was just dismissed. “They may have been on pursuit.” Yeah, right.
I actually crashed into a tourist riding one of those bikes that can be rented at north beach when he at the last minute he decided he’d make a sharp turn to the left (this was under the bridge by Navy Pier). As angered as I was by the tourist I was even more angered as two cops on a bike rode by without even stopping but did yell at the tourist to watch where he was going. Luckily I was only scraped up a bit but my bike was messed up. I guess it was my fault, I don’t know what I was thinking trying to ride in the afternoon along the lake (in my defense it was a weekday and not a weekend). At least it wasn’t a rollerblader - my hatred for rollerbladers runs really deep.
This would be the same cops that would impound your bike for riding on the side walk along Sheridan road. As well as give you a ticket for doing exactly the same things they are doing themselves.
I live on State St downtown by Marshal Fields. I see the daily Chicago’s finest coffee clutch that goes on at the corner of State and Washington 5 days a week. It usually consists of 1 very foul mouthed traffic lady, and about 6 cops of various ranks and stations. Some bike cops others the general run of the mill fat ass that would shoot you to avoid breaking the 12 minute mile to chase you down.
I have found the bike cops in Chicago to be the most helpful and decent of the lot – the cream of the crop. As they expand their ranks, though, I can see the cream thinning into the typical cop.
