Jack Jack is a happy little beast. He is a little doggie-ball-of-fluff who is thrilled with life and hops around constantly hoping for attention and food. Unless he is confronted with a bike. Or a stroller. Make that anything that rolls. During such confrontations, Jack Jack's eyes bulge and he gets up on two legs to begin a bizarre mixture of off-balance hopping and scrambling backwards while looking forward at the bike in terror. It is not hard to discern that rolling objects are his sworn enemy.
Jack Jack has reason to be terrified of things that look like bikes. He was hit recently by a biker riding down the sidewalk at full speed on his large mountain bike. Poor Jack Jack was with my husband, crossing the sidewalk outside our place to get to his special little pee spot, and bam! Out of nowhere comes very-large-adult-biker-man at top speed, to hit our poor boy right in the side. The bike pushed Jack Jack down the sidewalk while the tire rolled onto the dog's side, partly crushing him. Jack Jack screamed and eventually got away, only to make very very sad sounds for a long time to express his pain. It's a good thing I wasn't there. I might have taken a joy ride over the biker with our 100-lb steel tank of a tandem.
There is a reason biking on the sidewalk is illegal. I don't mean it is not recommended or condoned; it is against the law in the City of Chicago per the ordinances below:
- 9-52-020- Riding bicycles on sidewalks and certain roadways - (b) No person 12 or more years of age shall ride a bicycle upon any sidewalk in any district, unless such sidewalk has been officially designated and marked as a bicycle route.
- 9-52-021- Riding bicycles on sidewalks–Penalty (a) The penalty for any person age 18 and older who rides a bicycle on the sidewalk adjacent to North Sheridan Road, between West Ardmore Avenue and West Sheridan Road (6400 north) shall be as follows: (1) the bicycle shall be temporarily disabled without permanent damage; and (2) the violator shall be subject to a fine of $50.00.
I know that bicyclists are in a tough place. I am one. Cars often make riding on the road terrifying and drivers act as if bikers don't belong on the road with them. I understand that sometimes traffic is just too crazy to tolerate on a bike and so you have to jump on the sidewalk briefly to be safer. If that's the case, fine. But please, slow down, be cautious and warn pedestrians when you are approaching from behind. Jack Jack was physically fine in the end, but he could have died. And much worse, it could have been a child the mountain biker hit.
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