The traffic was backed up more than usual at 31st Street on the afternoon of June 5. Frequent crashes at the intersection with Halsted Street led me to assume there was another when I saw blue flashing lights. I crossed 31st on my bicycle and continued south on a side street.
But when I cut over at 33rd Place to cross Halsted on my way to pick up my children, the street was still closed. A semi was stopped near 33rd Street. It was rush hour, but there were no other cars. A gaggle of people stood on the sidewalk outside of Bernice’s Tavern.
And then I saw the bike.
It was in the street. The handlebar bag flung open, the contents on the pavement. The handlebars were bent unnaturally, like a broken bone that turns an appendage the wrong way.
“Did a cyclist get hit?”
A person nodded.
“Are they OK? Did they die?”
They nodded again. “Yes,” one of them said. “He died.”
My emotions raged from anger to panic. Who was killed? Do I recognize the bike? Who caused the crash?
We now know that the cyclist was a 35-year-old Bridgeport resident and Chicago Department of Transportation employee named Riley O’Neil. A son, a brother, a beloved friend.
At the scene, we looked at the 4-inch-wide stripe of paint that delineates the bike lane on this major commercial street. For years, a group of safe streets advocates had asked for safety upgrades on Halsted, not just for people on bikes but for pedestrians and drivers. We had been told that there wasn’t enough room to build a protected bike lane, and it would be best if cyclists used different routes.
But in the city, people on bikes frequently go to destinations like the grocery store or library, located on neighborhood main streets. Many people are utilitarian cyclists, out to finish a task.
The person who stopped to help Riley was a doctor on a bike traveling in the opposite direction. At the scene, he told me how he watched as the driver of a BMW opened their car door into Riley, throwing him under a semi.
Sobering statistics
In recent years, deaths from motor vehicle crashes have ranged from 43,230 in 2021 to 36,640 last year, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. That’s leagues away from our peer countries. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety and Highway Loss Data Institute say deaths of bicyclists make up 2% to 3% of crash deaths. They note that deaths of bicyclists over the age of 20 have increased almost five times since 1975.
The reasons for this carnage are many. Auto manufacturers have built vehicles with hood heights that make a 6-foot-tall person feel small. And anyone who has tried to cross a street on foot has witnessed countless drivers absorbed by their phones or massive dash-mounted computer screens. Certainly, 18-wheeled semis don’t belong on narrow, two-lane city streets — let alone operating without pedestrian side guards during the afternoon rush.
But in this instance, what would have made a difference is placing cyclists in a protected space, separate from vehicular traffic. If that necessitates removing some parking spaces, it is a small price to pay for someone’s life.
Over the last 20 years, Chicago has begun treating gun violence as the public health crisis that it is. We need to do the same with traffic violence. It is not an accident when people die at the hands of drivers. And it isn’t necessarily the fault of drivers either.
Drivers are prioritized
It is the predictable result of policies and designs that prioritize driver speed and convenience over safety. Most galling of all is that we have the tools to bring traffic violence to near zero. But we lack the will to make the change. Local municipalities control their streets. It is well within the ability of the city of Chicago to build vibrant and safe corridors.
Three years ago, a driver sped through a crowd of baseball fans walking to see the White Sox, injuring four pedestrians — three critically — on 35th Street. In 2024, a child was struck by a driver while crossing a Bridgeport street to get from a playground to a park lagoon. Thirty-fifth has been upgraded with some enhancements, and the crossing from the playground to the lagoon is scheduled to get a raised crosswalk — where there was no marked crossing at all before.
But we don’t need to wait for blood in the streets to act. We can make changes now that will save lives and improve our neighborhoods today. It is time to stop living in fear of the driving lobby and start building neighborhoods where our kids can ride their bikes, play roller hockey and be children. We don’t have to live like this.
Andrew Mack is an organizer of the Bridgeport Kidical Mass Family Bike Ride, a volunteer school crossing guard and a founding member of the 11th Ward Safe Streets Union.