This morning I wrote Marlon Lynch, who is the Chief of Police at the University of Chicago (as well as the Associate Vice President for Safety and Security), raising my concerns about mad-dog bicyclists who flout the law near campus. Several people inquired about the U of C police department. It’s huge—I’m told it’s the biggest police department in Illinois after the City of Chicago’s but I’m not sure. But here are some data (note that they have over 100 officers!):
The University of Chicago Police Department (UCPD) has worked to keep our communities safe for more than 40 years. This professionally trained force operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week, from 37th to 65th Streets and Cottage Grove Avenue to Lake Shore Drive.
Our more than 100 state-certified police officers have full police powers. We respond to emergency calls, patrol neighborhoods, listen to residents’ concerns, conduct food and toy collections for neighbors in need, and more. Our reputation for quick response is a powerful force in the community.
And indeed, they’re highly visible and respond quickly. And yes, they have full police powers and carry guns. There are also “call stations” scattered throughout Hyde Park with visible blue lights: you can reach the cops simply by pressing a button on these towers. When there’s a crime, I often see both U of C and Chicago police on the scene, but the U of C cops get there first.
It’s important to the U of C that their security be effective, as we’re located in the rough South Side of Chicago, and nobody wants to send their kids to a school where crime is a problem. (I’m told that the U of C once contemplated moving to Colorado to solve this problem, but I can’t vouch for that.)
At any rate, Mr. Lynch sent me a cordial reply that I don’t feel is unethical to post:
Prof. Coyne,
Thanks for sharing your concern. You are correct, the cyclists are also required to follow the rules of the road. I am also familiar with the Mayor’s initiatives regarding cycling in the city. UCPD can work with the Chicago PD regarding this issue in Hyde Park. UCPD will present an education component along with the enforcement. Safe cycling will be part of the community policing initiatives that will be reintroduced with our revived bike patrol program. Thanks again.
Marlon
Well, that’s a cordial and friendly reply, and it came only about 2 hours after I sent it.
I will of course follow up if I don’t see any changes.
And, unlike Ball State, I can’t be accused of being an interloper on this issue!
A bit OT, but since he mentioned bike patrol programs, one of the good things our police district has done here in Milwaukee is to increase their bike patrols in the neighborhoods.
Bicycle police aren’t uncommon in continental Europe. In Germany (Köln, at least) their uniform is typical cyclists’ Lycra, in bright green (the normal police colour) with POLIZEI stencilled in white down the legs!
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Hmmmm with bike cops like this I’d break the law on purpose. 🙂
S(pand)exist! 🙂
😛
Down, girl….
b&
Ohhh ok.
I was much impressed by the bicycle patrols in Seattle. One cannot be the donut scarfing generalization and still climb those hills.
FWIW – I lived in NoCal, I was proud that I put more miles on my bicycle than on my car. And I always obeyed the rules, to the point of using hand-signals at every action (left right turns, and stops) and always stopping even in the middle of the night. It also had to do with the fact that many NoCal drivers are maniacs (They drive faster than you) or idiots (they drive slower than you).
Yes, we have bike cops in Seattle. And they ride on the sidewalks.
That’s a great response as it actually says what the plan is to address the concerns!
It’s very important to use the word community over and over in such communications….
Few laws are as vital to the health and safety of a community as basic traffic laws. It almost doesn’t matter what the laws themselves actually are, so long as everybody agrees upon what they are and that they’re going to follow them. As an extreme example, consider cases where there isn’t even any agreement as to the direction of traffic (e.g., which side of the road you should be on).
I would hope that the bike cops will be vigilant in ensuring compliance from all users of the transportation system. Ticket cyclists who ignore safety devices and endanger pedestrians. Ticket pedestrians who jaywalk or aimlessly wander into the paths of others without looking. And ticket motor vehicle operators who fail to ensure proper clearance from cyclists and pedestrians.
I just checked, and Illinois has a three-foot law. Drivers are legally obligated to maintain a three-foot separation from cyclists at all times. But I’d be surprised if you need to take off your shoes to count the total number of citations ever issued for violations. Have the bike cops pull over and cite all cars that don’t give them a three-foot clearance and you’ll see cars start to respect cyclists a great deal more. If the bike cops also cite cyclists who run stop signs and red lights — and, when doing so, explain that they’re also doing what they can to keep cars three feet away from them — that should go a long way to making the streets safer, more predictable, and more efficient for everybody.
…but…as they say, “Good luck with that….”
Cheers,
b&
But are cyclists required to give cars a three-foot clearance (as in, when riding past queues of cars approaching traffic lights?). And if not, why not…?
The three-foot laws place the requirement on the operators of the motor vehicles, not on cyclists. However, the driver is generally not going to be held responsible if it’s the cyclist who invades the safety buffer. There’s obviously room for courtroom disputes, such as if a driver enters the three-foot buffer zone by legally passing the cyclist and then, when four feet in front of the cyclist, slamming on the breaks for no good reason. But I’d expect other road safety violations to cover such incidents regardless.
b&
Pedestrian “justice” in SF:
http://blogs.kqed.org/newsfix/2013/07/23/san-francisco-cyclist-pedestrian-death/
One of the purposes of low gears on multi-gear bikes is to be able to simultaneously go very slowly (while peddling fast) and to be able to readily start up from a stopped position.
Too many cyclists (I have been one of the guilty parties) stay in medium gear on a busy sidewalk, which makes a start from a stopped position difficult, thus they are motivated to not stop when they should. Even if one has a good reason to be going at a moderate clip, one should just slip into low gear just before stopping, so you can easily start up again.
In some parts of the Bay Area it is illegal to ride a bike on the sidewalk in an a shopping/business district. People do it, even though there are bike lanes on the street!!
It’s just easy to start up from a high gear – even the top gear – you just stand up on your pedals and push. I’m assuming a flat road though.
You can also buy gears that, with a loud clacking sound, instantly reduce to the lowest gear.
I’ve been trying to persuade the wife of this, as I re-introduce her to bicycling after 20 years on foot (and introduce her to “gears”, full stop).
That word “just” ; do you realise how difficult it actually is?
Even on the dismantled railway (a designated cycle path), that’s not flat enough, for the wife.
It’s a confidence thing ; I’ve been cycling the maniacal roads, enforcing my right of existence against “cagers,” for over 40 years, but the wife only has a couple of years on this side of the road, and finds the traffic absolutely petrifying. I don’t blame her for that ; it is petrifying, and horribly dangerous. And it shouldn’t be.
sub
That would have been weird to have a University of Chicago in Colorado but then again, there is University of Phoenix which has 100 locations not in Phoenix.
It seems the UCPD is on the ball.
Responsible cyclists everywhere are on your side.
But there are a lot of stupid scofflaws out there in other types of vehicles and on foot as well.
“Cyclists! Be exemplary! Don’t be dicks!”
I tremendously approve of cycling in general, but disapprove of cyclists being dicks. I am (possibly hopelessly) optimistic that pointing out to cyclists a few things that may constitute being a dick will actually sink in with … any of them.
Driving my wife to the hospital when she was in labor, I’m driving down an off-ramp, having a green light, maybe 100-200 feet from the intersection two cyclists ride through on the wrong side of the street. I almost hit them.
Will try harder next time.
(I’m just kidding about the trying harder, but seriously wtf?)
The UCPD is large but both the CPD and the Illinois State Police have more sworn officers – as do many other municipalities in Illinois. Aurora, the second largest city in the state, has a population of 200,000 and 300 cops. Rockford has 180,000 and 280.
UCPD does have full police powers – just like Chicago cops. They are not security guards. In an area extending beyond the campus – a few years ago Woodlawn was added – they can do anything a Chicago cop can.
I asked in the other thread and will ask again, how do the police ticket a rider, who isn’t required to carry an ID or register the bike, and enforce payment?
The vast majority (99.999%?)of speeding and other unlawful behaviors by auto drivers go unticketed. It’s outrageous! We have the technology and perhaps the will to require that every motorized vehicle carry a transponder that records the speed and location of vehicles. This information could be sent to a centralized traffic enforcement database that dispenses tickets to drivers. Nearly every infraction could be ticketed. If it’s effective with cars then extend it to bikes. Enforce and control through better policing!
Or use some resources to conduct a educational/PR campaign aimed at bikers and drivers to drive safely and courteously. Get an idea of what, where, and which bike drivers are causing problems and focus efforts on reducing violations. It’s unreasonable to expect that we can ticket our way out of dangers. We can call on science and reason rather than 911 to help us here.
Your automated system is flawed. They would have to ticket the automobile or bike, not the operator unless we all get implanted codes.
That’s the ticket, a chip implant at birth…
Seriously, I get and sympathize with Jerry’s anger but the kneejerk reaction to call the cops is perplexing. So the cops use resources to start ticketing bike riders and the car drivers and pedestrians get some satisfaction seeing bikers finally getting their comeuppance. Drivers, walkers, and riders can all defend their turf and cheer the penalizing of the other two modes. Will that reduce infractions? Maybe, but I’d like to see a study of police crackdown vs. public persuasion first.
Well enforcement is very effective in reducing infractions even after the crackdown has occurred. You should see how I NEVER speed down a road that is highly enforced.
That’s my point. You will speed if there is no enforcement, most roads aren’t enforced, most of your speeding goes unpunished.
Not true, once you get caught, you don’t want to get caught again because you lose points and that will cost on your insurance. You tend to modify your behaviour everywhere and seeing others pulled over at the heavily patrolled roads re-enforces.
I’ll answer the same way I answered in the other thread. This is standard policing. The same protocols that are used for other infractions are used for violations of bicycle traffic laws. Why is this a mystery? (I’m not in law enforcement and don’t know all of the relevant techniques, but I can guarantee you that if you urinate on the street in front of a cop in my town you will not go un-cited. Leaving your ID at home won’t get you off.)
I think the main difference is that there’s a separate, additional violation for operating a motor vehicle without your license.
So, for example, if you’re speeding on your bicycle and you get pulled over, the cop might be annoyed if you don’t have ID with you, and he might even have to arrest you and take you to the station to process you for the speeding ticket, but you won’t be cited for not having a license.
If you’re speeding in a car and you don’t have a license, you’re looking at all of the above plus a citation for not having your license on you.
But, in modern America, considering the militarization of the police and the general level of corruption up to and including the Justice Department (see the War on Some Drugs) and the intelligence industry (see the NSA’s universal monitoring of domestic communications), it would be prudent to have your papers with you at all times and not hesitate to present them to any uniformed (or out-of-uniform) official who asks to see them.
Cheers,
b&
Here in Cambridge urinating in public would get you arrested not ticketed. Have you ever seen a cop cite anyone other than a driver? I never have.
I’ve been ticketed for jaywalking, as well as (many years ago) for treating Stop signs as Yield signs while cycling.
gbjones, you were asking for solutions earlier and here’s one admittedly off the top of my head…
I think Jerry’s two near misses were on the college campus where bikes are common and the riders are damn kids. Print up a few hundred leaflets that can be hung on the handlebars of parked bikes asking for better behavior and appealing to commonsense and safety. Designate certain sidewalks as walk-the-bike areas with signs. Monitor compliance before and after the campaign. Use the police as an absolute last resort not the first reaction to this problem.
You did see the police are going to communicate as well? It seems like a reasonable approach to me.
That’s a good idea. I’d rather see a non-police organization handle the education but maybe that’s just my general bias against the police being used as nannies.
Yeah I know…. but I bet your cops don’t shoot you as often as our cops :/
Tragic. Here in Cambridge the cops seem to be better behaved than elsewhere but I do hear there are complaints of racial and economic disparity in enforcement. And don’t get me started over the insane overreaction we had after the Marathon bombing. It was and still is a chilling display of authoritarian overreach.
sorry, gbjames.
Heh.
I’m not sure who that Jones fellow is but I’ll respond on his behalf.
I have live in a neighborhood next to a University for 30+ years. My experience is less related to bikes than to other types of trouble, primarily partying and other types of night time disruptions. Dealing with it with friendly appeals to commonsense and plain-old decency is a guaranteed looser. The only effective solution is to engage policing and serious enforcement of the law. What happens is that over time the neighborhood becomes known as a place where disruptions not tolerated and are likely to result in several hundred dollars worth of citations. Word gets out. New incoming students arrive into a community that already understands that there are consequences for disrupting the neighborhood.
Every year since our local police got serious about enforcing the law we’ve seen a reduction in disruption. Every year we get an influx of new students. Some of them need to learn the hard way. But it isn’t as bad as the year before. Many new students are alerted by those who have already been here a year or two. And gradually things improve.
I see no reason why bicycle law enforcement wouldn’t work the same.
Well large concentrations of damn kids and their hormonal storms will have that effect. But are the cops just handing out tickets for public drunkenness and other mayhem or are they actually arresting these kids? The threat of incarceration is effective and I suppose the university has rules that include suspension or expulsion for community misbehavior. But we aren’t thinking about arresting bike riders who are on the sidewalk, are we?
Both happen. Noise violations result in triple-digit fines. Drunkenness can land you in the clink. But the point is simple. Serious enforcement is far more effective than polite appeals to decency. It would be nice if that weren’t true but it is.
We may both be stuck in our biases here. I’d like to see a study of the effectiveness of carrot vs stick for this problem and others like it. My hope is that education and reason are better tools that we could use and that authoritarianism is better left behind, like religion and other institutional enforcers.
It would be interesting to hear from behaviorists on why cars vs. bikes vs. pedestrians raises such ire. I’ve seen some epic internet flame wars when it comes to bikes. I think it may have to do with anarchic nature of bike riding (but maybe not). At any rate we can’t have our university professors all po’ed like this.
I’m not stuck in a bias. I’ve been directly involved in both approaches. One works imperfectly. The other doesn’t work at all.
“One works imperfectly. The other doesn’t work at all.”
yeah that doesn’t sound biased at all
G’night
Rick. It is personal experience. Is that a bias?
“It’s important to the U of C that their security be effective, as we’re located in the rough South Side of Chicago, and nobody wants to send their kids to a school where crime is a problem.”
I’m not very familiar with Chicago but thought Hyde Park was one of the best suburbs, and that the notorious south side was a fair bit further south.
As a cyclist I’ll admit to going through red lights sometimes but I always look out carefully for pedestrians, other cyclists and, of course, cars. Opinion varies amongst my fellow cyclists about red lights. Some routinely do it, some are strongly opposed.
Hyde Park is a neighborhood in Chicago. More technically, it is an official community area – one of 77 that the city is divided into. These boundaries were drawn up by the Social Science Research Committee at the University of Chicago so they could have something to study. Ever since, everyone has used them including the census bureau. Which has turned Chicago into the most studied city ever – a lot of previous work to build on. There are neighborhoods which are not community areas – such as Wrigleyville and Boys Town which are both in Lakeview – which is a community area. Real estate agents like to make up and stretch new names. I think the area around O’Hare is West Wrigleyville.
The South Side of Chicago, i.e. the area south of Madison Street, makes up over 60% of the city. Chicago has three sides, North, South and West – which are further subdivided. No East Side despite the Paper Lace song “The Night Chicago Died”. Lake Michigan is East.
To lump the entire South Side together and call it notorious is wrong. Hyde Park is six mile south of the Loop (i.e. downtown). Obama does not live in Hyde Park – he is in the next neighborhood north, Kenwood – which is north of 51st Street. Many people just lump it in with Hyde Park.
Thanks, I just looked at the map and see that the city centre is north of UC. I was under the impression it was much further south, near the southern end of Lake Michigan.
What jarred with me was a university needing police armed with guns on campus. I have visited several US unis & yes, some are like small towns.
I got my first degree from the University of Liverpool, England.
(sadly I didn’t attend Quarry Bank High School, can’t sing or play an instrument, not that it stopped Ringo).
Their enrolment is 36,000 and no police dept.
I have worked at 2 unis in England and 1 down here, again no armed police on campus.
Is this another dimension for Prof Paul Bloom (Yale) to compare nations-religiosity?
At all three universities in Arizona, campus security officers are state troopers, badges and weapons and all. I still remember as a freshman riding my bike on Cady Mall (during one of its no-bikes phases) and getting stopped by a very unhappy linebacker-sized dude in a uniform, on a bike, with a Dirty Harry-style Magnum .45 strapped to his waist. Because I coasted an extra ten feet on my bike before dismounting.
It’s worth also keeping in mind that the Tempe police station is less than a mile from campus and that, at the time, there was a National Guard armory even closer to campus. As far as I’m concerned, there’s no need for any of the campus cops to be armed. Any situation that escalates to the point where they would need weapons, they could have a couple dozen city police there with automatic rifles and shotguns in under five minutes, and they could call in an artillery strike in under fifteen. There’s just no need to weaponize the campus security like that.
Or beat cops, either, for that matter. Keep the guns locked in the trunk of the patrol car. Besides, the cops should be spending more of their time giving tourists recommendations on where to get a good sandwich than wondering who to shoot.
b&
What’s the point of having power if you can’t abuse it.
Exactly.
…which is why the traditional, now-clearly-outmoded idea behind American governance has always been to limit powers and balance competing powers against each other….
I mean, really. After the Star Chamber, whose brilliant idea was it to create the FISA court that’s approved 99.999% of the warrants from the Executive branch? And why is Obama having the man who admitted to congressional perjury investigate the agency he heads, and expecting that to somehow reassure the citizenry who’re still being universally spied upon?
…sorry…got a bit distracted there….
b&
In the mid-50s Hyde Park – Kenwood became the first so-called “urban renewal” project in the nation, as the University debated whether to remain in Hyde Park or move its plant — in which they had so much invested. Many of us living in the community struggled against this program, in which the University was allowoed to vote its front footage — to vote Stagg Field, the West Stands, for cryin’ out loud. We lost & the results significantly reduced the amount of foot traffic, thereby making the neighborhood less safe. I used to walk in the evening from my little house just North of the Accelerator Building, to 55th Street, where there were three student pubs within one block — and the only time I was approached my strangers was by a bunch of drunken Northwestern students who had come looking for supposedly “easy” UC “coeds” (Their word, not ours)> What they did not understand was that UC female students had no use for Northwestern students. Sigh. That “urban renewal” project was no laughing matter. It destroyed some historic buildings & some lovely houses, for one thing. I moved about every 6 months for several years as they tore Hyde Park down around our ears.