More young professionals are investing in bicycles as an alternative mode of transportation especially in big cities such as Chicago which has been named last year as the most bike-friendly U.S city. Millennials not only invest in bicycling as a pastime or a good way to exercise, they have embraced it as part of a healthier, greener lifestyle.
While the city of Chicago has been making strides at making its rowdy city streets easier on bike commuters with the creation of its popular bike-share program, Divvy Bikes, the Illinois Department of Transportation reports 1,171 individuals injured and 10 bicyclists killed on average every year. But here’s the catch: these fatalities do not occur in the city but in suburbs where the infrastructure was designed not with bicyclists in mind years ago, but with people driving cars. Individuals behind the wheel more often than not look at the lone bicyclist with mistrust and sometimes with animosity because of the liability they are sure to face. This mentality, though faulty, is spawned from years of auto-centric planning on a large scale and because historically, America has been a driving nation.
Personal injury attorney, Peter Zneimer, notes that this is not the case anymore. As more individuals become more socially and environmentally conscious, biking is no longer a hobby but a practical reality for many in our streets. As personal injury cases arise out of bike-related accidents whether in congested cities or quiet suburbs, the question of safety and liability should be discussed at length. The Governors Highway Safety Association reports an alarming increase in bike deaths by 12.2 percent in 2015 as published in a Washington Post article. Personal injury lawyers at Zneimer and Zneimer P.C. believe both drivers and bikers have an equal amount of responsibility on the road, as they should, but the truth is that bikers are more prone to grave injuries or worse, death.