This is a rare opportunity for us to highlight road rage against cyclists and bring focus to bicyclist rights. Too often when drivers display reckless malice toward cyclists we have no recourse or voice. I hope that we as a cycling community follow this case closely and show a strong presence in the Thomas Lynch arraignment and criminal trial. The Lake County State’s Attorney, Michael Waller (personal assistant Jackie, 847.377.3000), will ultimately determine Mr. Lynch’s charges. Our collective pressure will ensure that criminal felony charges are filed instead of paltry traffic fines.

Mr. Lynch’s Florida Drivers License shows a P.O. box for an address, yet he offered the local address of 7-- Greenbrier LN, Lake Forest IL. This is the R------ residence.

Wow, in listening to all of these comments, it sounds as if you want to make this guy some sort of example...his home address?  Making broad stereo-types because of the truck he was driving?  The mob has started, eh? 

Then what?

Can anyone suggest a way to create more of an awareness of people riding bikes?  Maybe educate bike riders?  If all you want to do is get the mob fired up and get Dahl fired and stereotype the guy in the pickup...then your cause is paper thin.

Further, I cannot count how many times I’ve seen people riding bikes so recklessly that they almost cause accidents all around town.  Get off of your high-horse.

Are you willing to share personal information of the bike-messengers downtown who endanger pedestrians everyday of the week?

Right now it sounds more like a bunch of elitist riding $1,000+ bikes having a problem with their country club sport.

Gimme a break…this is a non-issue and a non-story and the bikers are showing their true colors with this mob-like action that is being taken.

ScottV

Richard, I can see your point.  Understand that many of the people commenting here had their lives threatened by this man and we have all seen too many times where drivers who hurt and kill riders receive a slap on the wrist.  There aren’t many cases that are as open and shut as this one and you can see why an example needs to be set.  I am not saying what the example needs to be, though.

I am sure in your mind and many others, this driver came back and turned himself in and that should count for something.  You are also right that some of the conversation has started to sound a bit like mob mentality in that we are all out to get this guy.

Luke, brought it all back when he said, “stay classy”.  We aren’t out for revenge.

Close calls happen all the time.  I have yet to be hit, but there are the less than 1% of drivers that don’t believe that cyclists belong on the road and are willing to use their cars to scare or injure cyclists.  It is a very small minority, but it happens too often to us.  Today, my wife and I were out for a ride and car came within an inch of hitting me.  My vision actually thought I got hit, but I didn’t feel anything, so obviously I didn’t get hit.  The guy was on his cellphone and not another car around so he had plenty of room to move over as we were both riding single file as far to the right as possible.  Last year, I got brushed by a landscape trailer.  I chased after the driver and his response was that I didn’t belong on the road.  Nice.  He received a visit from the police as the officer that took the report was a triathlete.

Sorry for the long response, but we have all had incidents and when one or more of our cycling family is injured due to a driver acting stupid, recklessly, or both.  We all think “that could have been me” and it brings back all the anger we felt when our lives were endangered.

What is the point of listing Mr. Lynch’s personal home address above?

A simple excel spreadsheet and google maps will get you to the neighborhood where he lives.

Are Mr. Lynch’s civil rights thrown out the window because you simply say “stay classy” and you feel in the right?

Please advise.

So . . . Richard, you feel that publishing Lynch’s address is somehow worse than vehicular assault on a group of individuals?

What was the point of publishing his address? I imagine it was to call him out for his misdeed. And while it might be a privacy issue, it’s certainly not a civil rights issue. It WAS overzealous. I’m glad that you pointed it out and I’m glad that its been taken down . . . but what is your beef with cyclists? Why do you feel that we don’t deserve to be angry about a motorist purposefully putting our lives at risk?

I’ve ridden in a group where one of our number was struck and killed by a motorist. It’s beyond horrifying. The life of a smart, engaging, thoughtful young person ended needlessly. The driver of that vehicle haunted by guilt. To think that Lynch TRIED to harm cyclists, is unfathomable.

He has earned the anger directed at him. He’s going to have to live with it, just as cyclists live with the threat he and his ilk pose every time we get on a bike.

When I was 17 I got into a car accident that was my fault. The police blotter posted my name and address in the paper. Big deal, it’s a matter of public record. The argument is a red herring. The point is that this guy, and not another guy of the same name, on this day and in this specific incident committed a willful act that resulted in the injury of people. This has nothing to do with other cyclists riding habits. He’s lucky he didn’t kill someone as one of the riders actually went under the vehicle, brushing the tire with his arm and the tailpipe with his face. Richard, your assertion that this is a non-issue speaks to your predisposition and nothing else.

Richard,

Maybe you can’t understand the severity of this person’s act, I as a cyclist and as a NORMAL human being do, and wish to see this individual and anyone who diplays this level of malice towards other human beings (not just cyclists) put behind bars AS AN EXAMPLE.

The issue of human lives is not an NON-ISSUE. If you don’t understand, maybe next time you drive down the expressway behind a semi, the truck driver needs to slam his brakes and give you a little taste of what this felt like.

Road is to be shared and everyone needs to be more restrained about their reactions no matter who’s at fault. If the drivers are going to use their cars as weapons to settle scores, then next time I go on a ride I am stuffing an RPG in my jersey pocket.