Today is the first full day of my summer vacation. This weekend after school was out the sun finally came out and it warmed up into the high 60's or low 70's at the lakefront. I declared it officially summer. The lakefront path was buzzing with activity of all sorts. Runners were running. Bikers were biking. Roller bladers and skateboarders were blading and boarding. People were walking dogs. People were pushing oversized baby strollers. Tourists were gawking. The Oak Street Beachstro was packed with people enjoying a meal and a drink at the beach. Castaways atop the North Avenue Boat House was cooking, although I sometimes have issues with local Chicago bar bands playing "Sweet Home Alabama." This too shall pass. Up at the Theater on the Lake, there was a blues band playing in the shadows of the building. And like the swallows returning to Capistrano, the boat parties returned en masse to Streeterville Bay. According to the Yahoo weather report it's currently 71 degrees under partly cloudy skies in Streeterville.
Perhaps it was ill-advised to do so, but I was inclined to go for a run yesterday afternoon about 2:30 PM. I laced up my shoes, put on my GPS running watch, and headed out the door, along with some 2 million or so other people. "Hey it's a beautiful day. Let's go to the lake." I successfully navigated Oak Street Beach with i's teeming masses, and North Avenue Beach and and its even more teeminger masses, and headed north past Theater on the Lake at Fullerton and the entrance to Diversey Harbor at, well, Diversey duh! Cruised on northward past Belmont Harbor feeling good and eventually made up near the Totem Pole just shy of the Waveland Avenue Golf Course.
Just before you arrive at the Totem Pole, there is a water fountain on the north side of the running/biking path, and this was my chosen turnaround point. As I approached the water fountain, I looked over my shoulder and saw 3 bikes approaching in the near distance and one more bike a good bit further back. I waited for the 3 bikes to pass and then began crossing the bike path to the other side so I could get a drink of water. Next thing you know I heard someone yelling "Watch out! Watch out!"
I jerked my head around at this point and attempted to slow my crossing, and whom should I spy closing in on me but the dude on the bike who was way far back when I looked the first time, and whom i judged to be sufficiently far away as to allow me to cross to the other side of the path safely. At this point I realized that my momentum was carrying me across the path and if I slowed that crossing I would be directly in his path and so I kept on across and the biker guy went behind me. No doubt there was adrenaline pumping on both our parts. All I can say is this dude was seriously cruising if he closed the distance and nearly hit me in the short period of time it took the other bikes to pass and me to go halfway across the path.
Biker Dude slowed down enough to yell as he passed, "Jeesus!" Never once had he acknowledged that other people were on the path as well and yelled the warning, "On your left!" At any rate, I didn't think, but found myself replying, "Jeesus, yourself asshole! Slow down. There are people on this path other than you!" At this point Biker Dude stopped a ways up the path and turned, looking like he was preparing to come back and confront me. I yelled at him, "I was looking! Were you?" He was pissed. I was pissed. At this point he started to say something back to me, but he took a look at the determination in my face, and the fact that I was obviously not going to be bullied by some Type A Personality on a bike. He turned back in the direction he had been heading and rode off. I went to the water fountain, got a drink, and headed back south for the return loop of my run.
Now at this point all the serious bikers out there are thinking, "Dumbass runner, stepping in front of a bike. All the serious runners are no doubt thinking, "Damned biker assholes, think they own the path. Riding 20+ mph down a path with all of these other people." At this point there are probably roller bladers and high guy skateboarders thinking, "What's the big deal dudes? Why don't you both just chill?" And, no doubt there is some tourist enjoying the lakefront and thinking, "Huh? Wow! You don't see this in Peoria."
Mind you I am aware of the fact that the possibility exists that I erred. However, I am also well aware of the fact that on a sunny Sunday afternoon in summer people on bikes need to be more careful. If you want to ride your bike at 20+ mph, go do it on Sheridan Road on the North Shore with the other serious bikers. Don't do it on the lakefront path in Chicago with the million other people who've gone to the lake to enjoy it before Monday comes around again and they have to face the work week again. We all have to share the path, and I honestly try to be as careful as I possibly can. Sometimes I bike as well. I know the frustrations one feels with all the pedestrians and the people who walk across the path without looking, the roller bladers making sweeping back and forth tracks into the opposite lanes. I know about the people with dogs and the people with baby carriages, and the friends and family walking 4 abreast on the path, and the tourists stopping dead in their tracks to look at something and taking a picture.
The point is that Chicago is a large city. There are a lot of people who have to share the parks and the paths. Some know the rules. Some don't. As a long-time city dweller, I know that you have to constantly be aware of all of those other people and practice defensive riding, running, skating, etc. If you don't, you're an accident waiting to happen. I've seen it. Last summer at the intersection of two paths, just south of the North Avenue Boathouse and just north of the Chess Pavilion, a biker and a runner collided. Paramedics were called. Neither person was in good shape. The biker got the worst of it. He went over the handlebars and hit his head on the path. (Wear a helmet people!) Who was right? Who was wrong? Does it matter when both parties end up in the hospital?
All of that being said, every summer since I have lived in Chicago (Since 1985) there has been at least one serious bicycle accident on the lakefront path, not to mention on the streets. Every couple of years or so, one of those bikers dies from their injuries. This is serious stuff. To Biker Dude from Sunday, 6/14, I say, "If I screwed up and misjudged, I am truly sorry." To Biker Dude I also say, "I honestly look and try to be aware when I'm out there. Perhaps you should slow down a little and do the same. There are other places where you can take your bike and ride really fast."
Once again I'm reminded of Rodney King and his "Why can't we all just get along?" Why? Because there are far too many of us who are convinced that we are the most important person on the planet and should be catered to by everyone else. When they don't it causes conflict. Just as the Sergeant on Hill Street Blues used to tell everyone, "Be careful out there." Have a good summer.
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