Another Bike Lane Show-down
A proposed bike land installation is ruffling feathers again in North Brooklyn. As part of a $5.8 million renovation of the Greenpoint Avenue Bridge, the city is planning to install two bike lines, each with a nine-foot buffer. The result: Two fewer lanes to accommodate the many trucks that use the Brooklyn-Queens connector on a…
A proposed bike land installation is ruffling feathers again in North Brooklyn. As part of a $5.8 million renovation of the Greenpoint Avenue Bridge, the city is planning to install two bike lines, each with a nine-foot buffer. The result: Two fewer lanes to accommodate the many trucks that use the Brooklyn-Queens connector on a daily basis. The proposed change comes on the heels of a new bike lane installation on Greenpoint Avenue that local industrialists blame for big back-ups. “They’ve really made Greenpoint Avenue a mess,” said Paul Pullo of Metroenergy. The bike lobby insists more buffered lanes are necessary in the area: “Those narrow sidewalks [on Greenpoint Avenue] currently make it pretty hazardous for two cyclists, let alone two pedestrians, to comfortably pass one another,” said Wiley Norvell of Transportation Alternatives. “Separating bike and pedestrian traffic would do a lot to improve safety.” And so it goes.
It’s Trucks vs. Bikes on Greenpoint Avenue [Brooklyn Paper]
“videos describing/ simulting . . . ., deaths to car drivers”.
You are clearly living in an alternate universe if you think this is a common occurrence.
Vinca;
I’m not sure what has gotten into you today, but please note the following:
-you state that I have “carved personal territory as the true son of Brooklyn”. Really? Where do I use those words, especially “true son”? In fact, Vinca, it was YOU who first brought up your personal experiences and recollections as a Brooklyn native into this discussion, not me.
-I am not going to get into a pissing contest about whose memory about Brooklyn of yore is better. I provided some actual statistics, and they speak for themselves.
I didn’t realize you get so thin-skinned simply because you were corrected about a simple factual matter. I’ll take it under advisement in the future when trying to have a discussion with you.
Tyburg, I am glad you think that bicyclists should follow traffic regulations. I am not going to start a political party or spend my whole day defending liscensing — I am trying to make a point. It is crucial that the city take this issue of responsible bicycling seriously. What you are not correct about is the ability of bicyclists to cause serious harm by ignoring laws — to pedestrians, to car traffic and to themselves.
My car is registered at my address in Brooklyn NY. What does that have to do with bicycle safety?
Benson: Despite your having carved personal territory as the true son of Brooklyn, you’re not a solo flyer. I am several years older than you and also a Brooklyn native. I feel no need to leverage that information in all my posts. As kids we played punchball, stickball, football and skelly in the streets. We rode our bikes out to Floyd Bennett Field, the beaches and the Grand Army Plaza library. We rode to and past Prospect Park, the Museum and the Garden and into Manhattan. Obviously, our recollections and gut feelings differ—not to mention our actual experiences! Brooklyn native or not, that is the nature of the human condition. Hardly makes your opinion or mine definitive. If you ever drive in California, for example, you’ll see a much better driver/pedestrian/bicyclist culture. If drivers in NY ever yielded to pedestrians the way CA drivers do, you’d see accidents skyrocket because NY drivers are both unprepared and unwilling to stop (one reason we can’t accommodate right turns on red). The city could make a fortune enforcing traffic rules for all, AND it would far better serve the larger purpose of traffic calming.
Good point Dipster…
Donatella, In what state is your car registered and insured? What about your neighbors?
Donatella…
First, I agree with you. Bicyclists should be ticketed by police for breaking traffic laws. But I also think CARS should be ticketed for breaking traffic laws. Call me crazy.
Second, I just think licensing is silly for two reasons. (1) The potential for harm of others with a bike is not even close to the potential of a motor vehicle — it simply doesn’t cross the threshold. (2) Non-automotive transport should have as few barriers as possible.
Should bicycle safety be taught at school? (say, part of gym class) Absolutely. Should aggressive and dangerous cyclists be ticketed? Absolutely. Should the delivery guys that bike the wrong way down 1-way streets be kicked in the ass? Most definitely.
” They could form a whole new revenue stream for the city, ticketing scofflaws, non-liscensed drivers (put the liscense plate on the back of the helmet) and any manner of traffic violation.”
It would also be a whole new revenue stream if they:
– cracked down on perm residents who have cars registered out of state
– cracked down on the numerous aggresive drivers in the city.
“I know this will get the bikers all nuts, but I am not complaining about responsible bicyclists. I think that now that we are getting serious about spending money in this city on biking lanes and biking lights etc, we need to get serious about treating bicyclists the same way as drivers.”
I agree – enforcement by the NYPD of ALL traffic laws would make everything safer for everyone.
I admit I have little patience for this whole biking movement, particularly here in NYC but this is my idea. Since the taxpayers of NY are being forced to provide all these protections (and to take vehicle lanes out of service) to bicyclers to ride on NYC public streets, how about requiring all those who ride bikes on city streets to have a license?
In order to get this license, you have to be required to take a test that is similiar to a drivers license; this test would include a written test to require the bike rider to have all knowledge of traffic rules and would require viewing videos describing/ simulting biking accidents, injuries, deaths to car drivers, pedestrians, bikers…, deaths. It would require use of helmets (like seatbelts).
I feel a rant coming on, but I drive my car occassionally during the work week in the metropolitan area and always on the weekends and I live in terror of hurting a bicyclist. I have had so many near misses with spaced out, irresponsible people who have no regard or perhaps even awareness of traffic regulations. When some people get on a bike, they revert to some childhood state of reverie, recreating the dreamy warm summer afternoons of their youth going anywhere their infantile brain directs them, idiotically trusting in heavenly protection and in the tense attention of good drivers like me. In the process, they are menaces, hurting pedestrians, causing accidents and creating mayhem on the streets.
Also, as part of this Biking responsibly movement, I suggest that the NYPD get training as well in policing the streets. They could form a whole new revenue stream for the city, ticketing scofflaws, non-liscensed drivers (put the liscense plate on the back of the helmet) and any manner of traffic violation.
I know this will get the bikers all nuts, but I am not complaining about responsible bicyclists. I think that now that we are getting serious about spending money in this city on biking lanes and biking lights etc, we need to get serious about treating bicyclists the same way as drivers.