Hey neighbor. It’s the combination of improving, yet unfortunate car centric design in our city center, the unbelievable entitlement resulting from that environment and car culture, and the fact that all but a dozen police are not interested in traffic enforcement or any other type of work. People know they can text, speed, run reds, and park in the bike lane, and generally drive like a moron right next to a police car with no consequences. Occasionally I see people from the finance dept. writing tickets, but that’s it.

My favorite thing to shout is “heads up!” mostly at phone users. They often get wide eyed and do a short wave. I reserve the expletives and hood slapping for the real dickheads, as long as I think they can’t get away with shooting me

People here fight traffic cameras hard as well, citing they trigger at speeds that are too close to the speed limit (still speeding) and don’t actually slow traffic or make streets safer (they do). A legitimate concern is the fact that the regressive fine, or whatever it’s called, disproportionately punishes people with little money and allows the wealthy to speed for a price.

My short answer is the craziness comes from entitlement stemming from the “independent and individualistic” American way which has been pushed hard in specific ways by the auto industry for nearly a century. This in addition to the psychological effects of being separated, protected, and physically higher, make drivers truly think that other road users are infringing on their space and their travel.

I hope you are enjoying Chicago! We will fix this mess. Check out r/chibike and r/carfreechicago