The Law Offices of James M. Freeman, P.C.

Most Chicago cyclists know that a white headlight and red rear reflector are required under Illinois State Law and the Chicago Municipal Ordinance. While Illinois State law does not specifically require a red rear light, many municipalities do require red taillights. Municipalities can require bicyclists to use equipment in addition to that which is required under Illinois Law, so if you are caught in such a municipality without required equipment you may be cited for a violation of the municipal code.

Insurance adjusters are typically not experienced in dealing with bicycle accidents. Sometimes they are provided with a list of questions to address when evaluating bicycle claims, but they don't typically seem to be familiar with laws that apply to cyclists in Illinois. One of the questions insurance adjusters always ask me about my bicycle cases is, "Was he/she wearing a helmet?"

Active Transportation Alliance and Law Offices of James Freeman will be equipping cyclists with headlights and red reflectors tonight in effort to educate cyclists about proper lighting and reflective equipment.

See the Tribune's coverage here.

Almost one-third of my bicycle cases involve the "left cross." For some reason these are more common than the "right hook." I suspect it has to do with visibility issues and motorists' mistaken belief swith respect to bicyclists 'rights on the road.

In my experience about 30% of crashes in Chicago are doorings. Doorings are discouraging because they are completely avoidable. It never ceases to amaze me how people will just fling open the doors of their cars without any consideration for approaching traffic. Doorings violate both Illinois and Chicago law. Typically driver side dooring cases are hard to defend unless the dooring happened at night and the cyclist didn't have a headlight.

Last week you may have heard about the Chicago Police Department ticketing cyclists for headlight violations. I, for one, am glad to hear it.

White headlight and red rear reflector. That's the law.

When you pay dues for a Chicagoland Bicycle Federation membership they give you the choice of a map or a tail light. I have it on good information that CBF is going to switch from tail lights to head lights specifically to make their members more aware of and compliant with the law with respect to headlights.

The Chicago Municipal Code states, in relevant part: