A woman who uses her bike as her main mode of transportation called for more protected bike lanes Tuesday after she says she was knocked off her bike in Logan Square the previous night by someone who grabbed her messenger bag.
"The only thing that could have prevented me from getting hurt was if there was a barrier between me and traffic," Jana Kinsman said of the attack near North Kimball and West Wrightwood avenues.
She said she was riding along with a bag over her shoulder when a maroon, Chevy Tahoe suddenly and aggressively veered toward her.
"Somebody from the rear passenger seat grabs my messenger bag which is over my shoulder and I started screaming," she recalled. "About three seconds into them holding my bike I hit a parked car and my bike came out from under me and I fell to the pavement and the weight of me falling caused the guy to let go and car sped off."
Kinsman was left with significant bruises and a badly damaged bicycle. But adding insult to injury, she said her attackers drove off while laughing and mocking her in a language she said she didn't understand.
"It was a violation on me, and it was a violation on what I thought of the human race," she said. "I didn't know it could be so disgusting."
Police have classified the incident as a hit-and-run, department spokesman John Mirabelli said.
A freelance illustrator by trade, Kinsman's heart is with her honey bees. She tends to 15 hives she set up in urban gardens around the city and this year produced about 400 pounds of honey. Her now badly-damaged bike is how she reached her hives.
