Sooner or later there will be another cycling fatality involving a motor vehicle on the Rickenbacker Causeway. This is not debatable; it’s just a matter of time.  In order to raise awareness of the inherent dangers of the Rickenbacker Causeway, I will try to briefly document all my Rickenbacker Causeway bike rides. Welcome to The Rickenbacker Report!

4/19/2010

18:00-19:30

25 miles

• At least 6-7 dozen cyclists
• 2-3 dozen pedestrians/runners
• At least 15 cars driving in excess of 50 mph
• 2 cars parked in the bicycle lane
• 3 joggers running against the flow of traffic in the bike lane
• 1 decoy police car

4/21/2010

18:00-19:45

32 miles

• At least 5-6 dozen cyclists
• 2 dozen pedestrians
• 1 black Porsche Cayenne doing about 75 mph up the William Powell Bridge
• 1 black BMW M3 accelerate to about 65 mph as he passed the decoy police car (the driver was not fooled)
• 1 silver car doing about 65 mph on Bear Cut Bridge
• At least 20 cars driving in excess of 50 mph
• 1 car cut me off as it made a right hand turn
• 1 jogger running in the bike lane

I’ve seen many accidents on the Rickenbacker Causeway which luckily have not involved cyclists.  Many of these accidents are due to speeding.  Check out this picture of a motorcycle that ended up under the rear end of a truck. Here is an article about a motorcyclist that was killed while drag racing on the Rickenbacker Causeway.

Unfortunately cyclists and pedestrians are the most vulnerable users of the causeway. Speed is undeniably a major problem on the Rickenbacker Causeway and it is not being  addressed appropriately. Speed kills. We need to slow down cars on the Rickenbacker Causeway now.