CHICAGO —  A 55-year-old bicycle owner is the seventh individual killed in a crash this yr and the third to die after being hit in a viaduct. 

Amy Rynell, govt director at Energetic Transportation Alliance, informed WGN Information that autos placing cyclists is turning into an all too acquainted incidence.  

“We’re at a second the place our streets are unsafe for all customers,” she mentioned. “We’ve so many individuals attempting to get round and all of the methods they’re getting round usually are not protected.”

In accordance with police, the 55-year-old male bicycle owner was touring westbound within the 400 block of 26^th St. Saturday when a driver of an SUV headed in the identical route hit the again of the bike.   

Officers say the bicycle owner fell and was pinned beneath the car. 

The person was taken to Stroger Hospital the place he was pronounced useless.   

Police say the motive force was a 60-year-old girl, who was cited for failing to halt on the cease signal, not having insurance coverage, and having an expired driver’s license.   

Regardless of 26^th Avenue having a painted bike lane, Rynell believes extra must be completed. 

“Paint will not be safety. It doesn’t prevent from a dashing car…that isn’t following the site visitors guidelines. That painted bike lane fades as you get to the viaduct after which you could have the shift from mild to darkish and darkish to mild.” 

Different earlier incidents embody the demise of bicycle owner Gerardo Marciales who was killed on DuSable Lake Shore Drive in February, the hit-and-run demise of Nick Parlingayan in Might in Previous Irving Park and the demise of 3-year-old Lilly Shambrook in Uptown.   

“Chicago has about 4,000 miles of streets, about 9% of them have some kind of motorbike paint and only one% of them are protected for security,” Rynell mentioned.

Whereas some modifications have been made to bike lanes within the metropolis, Rynell says her group has been pushing for sooner progress however admits it may well get difficult.   

“A few of our roadways the state manages, so the state has to say, “OK Chicago, make your roads safer and the state is basically good at highways they’re probably not good at metropolis residential streets,” she mentioned.

Whereas there’s an infrastructure portion to the difficulty, Rynell says it’s about educating drivers as nicely.   

“We’ve seen an epidemic of dashing and lives misplaced unnecessarily due to reckless driving,” she mentioned. “So we have to do various things to gradual automobiles down.”