Hundreds of people hopped on their bicycles Monday evening and rode through Bridgeport to honor Riley O’Neil, a city employee and champion of improving road safety who was fatally struck by a truck driver while biking over the weekend.
“We were very lucky to get him as a staff member,” Vig Krishnamurthy, managing deputy commissioner of the Chicago Department of Transportation, told the Sun-Times as a crowd gathered at Palmisano Park.
O’Neil, 35, had been working at the city’s Transportation Department for two years in a program dedicated to preventing collisions on Chicago streets.
Friday evening, O’Neil was riding south along the painted bike lane in the 3200 block of South Halsted Street when a man exiting a car hit him with his door, throwing O’Neil into traffic, authorities said. O’Neil fell under the back wheels of an 18-wheeler semi-truck also heading south and was killed.
O’Neil was “the most motivated, down-to-earth, ready to work, talented, just 100% positive person,” Krishnamurthy said. “He truly brought his best every single day. We were just incredibly lucky to have his dedication and service to public service in Chicago, doing what he loved.”
Krishnamurthy said he had known O’Neil for a couple of years, first when O’Neil worked as a consultant for CDOT and more so when he joined the department as a staff member.
After a speaking program at the park, people rode their bicycles south from the park to the location where O’Neil was killed.
Meanwhile, transportation advocates made a case for improving the city’s cycling and walking infrastructure, which is what O’Neil did in the city’s Complete Streets program.
Nick Hunder, an organizer with Bike Grid Now,said advocates are seeking to expand the number of bike lanes in Chicago streets beyond their current 10% coverage.
“When you think about it, there is a 90% chance that there will be no bike lane on the street,” Hunder told the Sun-Times in a phone call after the event. “We are asking mostly for residential roads. We are not trying to compete for the same space. This is a very big city and there is room for all of us.”
Hunder wants the city to focus on designs that slow drivers down and make streets safer for cyclists. The city should also prioritize bike lanes that are placed between the curb and parked cars, instead of the popular configuration that places cyclists closest to moving traffic.
“If we are going to do paint, at a minimum it should be to the right of a car so that you fall into the sidewalk and not under a semi-truck,” Hunder said.
David Powe, assistant commissioner for CDOT, said what made O’Neil special “wasn’t just what he built,” but how he treated people while doing his work.
“He listened. He made space for others,” Powe told the crowd before the bike ride. “He believed that public service was ultimately about helping people, and he lived that belief every day.”
Powe acknowledged the “heartbreak, anger, confusion and sadness” felt by those gathered Monday night, but said he also saw “a community that Riley helped shape” and a community of people who care about one another.
Krishnamurthy said he hopes the city continues working toward safer streets with the same common vision O’Neil helped represent.
“People like Riley really centered the stories of why we need safer streets,” Krishnamurthy said.
“People care about these issues. People care about the city,” he said. “That’s the way we’re gonna build safer streets: one project at a time, but with a common vision.”