Bicycling and Transportation Justice

In advance of the bike-sharing roll out, a Gotham Gazette article looks into how and where the city installs bike lanes, and cites a study by Hunter students: “The Hunter students warn that we could be developing an even more segregated system of transportation: bicycle lanes, public plazas, and a safe and healthier environment in the wealthiest parts of the city – Manhattan below 96th Street and Brooklyn’s upscale neighborhoods – where bike lanes are concentrated and heavily used, while the rest of the city gets congested roadways, declining bus service, and unsafe conditions. Some people mistakenly think that bike lanes cause gentrification; this is clearly not true since cyclists in New York are truly a diverse population, representative of the majority which is Latino, African American, and Asian. But the myth is perpetuated by many real estate developers anxious to sell their new condos. Though bike lanes don’t cause racial, ethnic and class divisions, if they are perceived as only for the affluent young newcomers in spandex , and everyone else is invisible, the bike network won’t serve the majority of the population.” The article suggests that in some cases anti-bike community board members have too much of a say and have impeded the installation of bike lanes.
Making Bikes a Part of the Neighborhood [Gotham Gazette]