Chicago hit-and-run victim calls for better bike protections

CHICAGO (CBS) -- Only on 2.

His recent ride home from a concert could have been his very last.

That is not lost on a cyclist who survived a hit-and-run on Halsted in Lincoln Park.

He sat down with CBS 2's Noel Brennan to talk about the change he hopes to see on Chicago's streets.

"Luckily, my crash coincided with the release of the new iPhone, so you know, counting all my blessings here."

A little humor – hides a lot of pain for David Teeghman.

"I'm lucky it didn't take my life. It's difficult to look at. It's just an incredible amount of skin that's just ripped right off."

On the night of September 15th, Teeghman was cycling in the bike lane on Halsted in Lincoln Park when an SUV swerved from behind.

"I never saw the driver," Teeghman said "And then this is the damage to my bike. They hit me so quickly, they hit me so fast from behind that they were able to completely separate my back tire from the rest of the bike."

Road rash was the least of his worries.

"This was, you know, the dark horse finisher of pain."

An infection grew in his scraped elbow that required emergency surgery…

"It looks like a swollen Christmas ham. Like my arm is at risk of losing it."

And five days in the hospital.

"The infection is largely gone. I'm going to take my last antibiotic this afternoon."

While he knows police may never catch the driver, Teegham wants his hit-and-run crash to be a call to action.

"I want to use this awful experience for good."

This Sunday, he joins several bike advocacy groups for an event on Halsted.

"We're not going to stop traffic, but it's going to be a traffic calming measure. We're going to line up on the bike lane so that folks can have more safety and more protection biking south on Halsted than I did."

Teegham wants permanent protected bike lanes along Halsted so all cyclists have less reason to worry.

"That could've been my head. That could've been my neck."

The Chicago Department of Transportation (CDOT) sent a statement to CBS 2 regarding safety for bike riders.

The Chicago Department of Transportation (CDOT) is committed to making our streets as safe as possible, particularly for vulnerable road users like people walking and biking. This includes continuing to expand Chicago's network of low-stress bikeways to make riding a bike safer and more convenient for all Chicagoans. As outlined in the Chicago Cycling Strategy, CDOT is evaluating various sections of North Halsted as we expand Chicago's network of protected bike lanes, some of which would require significant redesign. CDOT is implementing more protected bike lanes than ever before, including on similar busy commercial corridors with limited space, such as on Milwaukee Avenue, which got underway this week, and Grand Avenue, which is currently under construction.

Low-stress bikeways are growing faster than other bike facilities in Chicago. Over the past four years, the bike network has grown by 32 percent, while protected bike lanes have grown by 70 percent. This year is on pace to be the biggest year for bike infrastructure expansion in Chicago's history, with more miles of protected lanes and low-stress bikeways installed than ever before. This includes several transformative projects that improve safety for all road users, like the Augusta Boulevard Complete Streets Project and the Belmont Avenue Complete Streets project that is currently underway.  Chicago.gov/Bikes includes a spreadsheet of our 2023 bikeway installations that are underway and upcoming.  

Along with expanding the network, CDOT continues to improve existing bike lanes through its program to upgrade all existing delineator-protected lanes to concrete-curb, which enhances safety and comfort for people biking of all ages and abilities.

In:
• Chicago
• Lincoln Park