Bicyclist Crushed By Dump Truck Was No Wobbly Rider

I.A.M. Wellness

The gruesome death of 25 year old Jacqueline Marie Michon is an especially vivid reminder of the dangers faced by even experienced bicyclists on our city's streets.  Miss Michon fell underneath a dump truck allegedly stopped at a red light at 227 North Wabash Avenue and was crushed to death after the light changed, according to the Chicago Tribune.  Reportedly, she rode her bike between a car stopped next to the truck then lost her balance.  Miss Michon was no wobbly newcomer to cycling.  She's been described as a passionate cyclist and was a spinning instructor.  Her other passions included hiking and rock climbing.  She grew up an avid swimmer and lacrosse player.  Miss Michon worked as a personal trainer.  In addition to spinning, she taught boot camp and kickboxing.

How or why she lost her balance on Friday night is not clear.  Speculating as to the cause of this tragedy would be foolish.  Riding in the city is dangerous, to note the obvious.  Streets designed to make cycling less dangerous will hopefully reduce the need to come so close to some of the behemoths that use our roadways.    This is already underway in Chicago; and not a moment too soon.

Chicago's Bicycle Crash Map Now New and Improved, Contains Bike Traffic Data

Chicago's recently created bicycle crash map now contains bike count data.  Now the number of crashes in the city between 2007 and 2009 can be compared to the total amount of bicycle traffic at various locations.  The crash map, and the newest version with the traffic overlay, is the creation of Steven Vance, a blogger, urban planner and Chicago cyclist using data from the Illinois Department of Transportation, the Chicago Department of Transportation and his own know-how.  Click here to view the map.

The map seems to reveal some of what one might expect.  For example, there is a lot of bicycle traffic overall along Milwaukee Avenue.  However, the significance of much of the data isn't immediately clear.  Why, for example, is there so much bike traffic on South Blue Island Avenue but so few recorded bike crashes?  Also, there are important areas with high incidents of crashes but no bike traffic data, like the Loop.  In any event, I'm sure that folks skilled in interpreting such data will have a go at making sense of all of this.  Thanks Mr. Vance!

New Map Plots Bicycle Accidents In Chicago

If you ever wanted to see where bicycle crashes tend to occur in Chicago now you can.  Urban planner and blogger, Steven Vance, has created an online map pinpointing the location of all 6,369 reported bicycle accidents in the city between 2007 and 2009, the last year for which information is available.  Having gathered crash data from the Illinois Department of Transportation via the Freedom of Information Act, Mr. Vance plotted the bike crash sites on a map generated by Google.  Click here to view the map.

The map is quite interesting.  I was struck immediately by the sheer number of crashes along Milwaukee Avenue, a well-known bike commuter route between the Northwest Side and the Loop.  The data is consistent with my own observations.  During most of the year I tend to get a lot of calls from bicyclists looking for an attorney following a collision with a motor vehicle on Milwaukee.  As Mr. Vance notes, however, it is important not to draw too many conclusions from the crash map.  Lots of collisions along Milwaukee Avenue, for instance, does not mean that the locale is a particularly dangerous place to ride.  It may simply mean that there is a lot of bike traffic there, naturally increasing the opportunities for a bike and motor vehicle to collide.  It may be that roads with fewer red dots are more dangerous; that the number of crashes compared to the number of cyclists using the roadway is higher.  The map doesn't reveal that data.  It also does not suggest the severity of the plotted crashes.    If there are clusters of crashes involving very serious injuries along specific routes, the map does not reveal that.

These limitations are no knock on Mr. Vance's effort, which is laudable.  I point them out to caution the viewer not to jump to conclusions about which routes through the city are safe and which are not.  In an interview with The Bay Citizen, Mr. Vance acknowledged as much stating, "I don't think we can draw many conclusions from this map except to target our infrastructure (new bike lanes, and hopefully some protected or separated bike lanes in some areas) as well as our education efforts for people who bike and people who drive."