While I applaud the goal of increasing safety for bikers, I think recent steps taken by Oak Park are misguided. In the past week, I have three times seen bikers (all of whom were not wearing helmets) put themselves in harm’s way. Four bikers heading east on Augusta from Oak Park Avenue took up the whole street, the leader doing no-hands wheelies while car traffic crept along behind them. One motorized scooter (no helmet) wove in and out among traffic on Lake Street.
Bikers can now zip across Ridgeland at LeMoyne (because I almost never see a biker stop at a stop sign) while drivers have to turn right only (eastbound traffic south; westbound traffic north).
The effect of the new right-turn-only sign will be to drive cars a block south, to the intersection of Greenfield and Ridgeland, just as school starts. It seems to me that bikers need to learn rules of the road, take a test and become licensed before they go out on the streets, and I hope that requirement becomes part of Oak Park’s bicycle safety plan.
Mary Ann Porucznik
Oak Park