Red Hook Gets New Bike Lanes
The paint was still drying on some new bike lanes we spied in Red Hook earlier this week. The lanes stretch from the part of Bay Street next to the rec center and around to Clinton Street, reaching all the way to the BQE. They’re part of the DOT’s initiative to section off street space…
The paint was still drying on some new bike lanes we spied in Red Hook earlier this week. The lanes stretch from the part of Bay Street next to the rec center and around to Clinton Street, reaching all the way to the BQE. They’re part of the DOT’s initiative to section off street space for bikers stretching from Prospect Lefferts Gardens through Park Slope’s 9th Street, all the way down to the Red Hook waterfront. Park Slope residents mounted plenty of opposition to the 9th Street lanes, but as far as we know, the Hook’s lanes were controversy-free. They certainly seem to make a lot of sense given the plentiful car traffic coming off the BQE. Any Red Hookers feel differently?
from that report:
Nearly all bicyclist fatalities (92%) occurred as a result of crashes with motor vehicles.
•Although they make up only 5–17% of vehicles on NYC roadways,large vehicles (trucks,buses) accounted
for almost one third (32%) of fatalities.
•Although there are many more miles of local roads,more than half of fatal crashes occurred on arterial (large,
four lane) roads (53%).
•7% of fatal crashes occurred on limited access highways,where bicycling is prohibited.
•Only one fatal crash with a motor vehicle occurred when a bicyclist was in a marked bicycle lane.
•Nearly all bicyclists who died (97%) were not wearing a helmet.
•Most fatal crashes (74%) involved a head injury.
8:44, here’s the link to the report: http://www.nyc.gov/html/doh/downloads/pdf/episrv/episrv-bike-report.pdf , and the info on fatalities in bike lines is on page 23.
Were the fatatilities you’re talking about in NYC? Cause the report only cites 1 fatality involving a bike in a bike lane and a motor vehicle.
And 12:33: maybe it’s safe to ride without a helmet in Europe, where there’s a culture of biking, but it’s certainly not safe in NYC. Everyone should wear a helmet, no matter how dorky they think it is. Everyone should value the integrity of their brain over that of their hairdo.
Many dog owners feel like their dogs have a right to pee anywhere, and still feel they should have dog runs, even if rarely used.
That doesn’t mean that all dog owners do this, that all dog owners are selfish jerks, that dogs should be outlawed, or that dog runs should be abolished. There are jerks from all walks of life. Even bicycle riders. Shocker.
As for the riding-on-the-sidewalk particular brand of jerkishness, don’t worry, everyone agrees with you. The city has a very strict law about that. If caught riding on a sidewalk, a biker can get his/her bike immediately and permanently taken away.
Re: the Manhattan bridge: until very recently (August, I think), the bike lane on the Manhattan bridge was closed. So the bikers you saw on the pedestrian side didn’t really have a choice. Unlike the pedestrians I see every day on the bike side, now that it’s open again. 🙂
But seriously. It shouldn’t be pedestrian vs. bikes vs. dog owners vs. strollers. It should be pedestrians and dog owners and strollers and bikers together against cars. Friends, Romans, pedestrians.
As a regular if not avid cyclist, have to to say it cuts both ways. There are plenty of over-entitled cyclists who think peds are beneath them and won’t share space even if needed. Most “serious” cyclists also travel way too fast and complain if peds or cars get in their way. In turn, many drivers are scarily aggressive towards cyclists, even when they have the right to be on the road.
If you check out European cities where cycling is fast becoming a normal middle-class activity and a means of everyday transit, you’ll see a sharing mentality we miss here. Cyclists go slow, respect others, and are respected in turn. And noboby wears spandex and helmets.
Many cyclists feel they have a right to ride anywhere. And still feel they should have bicycle only areas even if rarely used.
They ride on sidewalks, and even though on Manhattan bridge have their own side – still prefer ride (at any speed) on the pedestrian side.
In most contexts, bike lanes help preserve bicyclists’ much-deserved right to be on the road. The lanes physically identify an area as specifically for bikes and they let motorists know that they are to respect the rights of those riding bikes. This is what bike lanes are supposed to do, and it is what they usually do.
In extremely dense, urban areas, bikes lanes lull bicyclists into a false sense of security. In most cases, bicyclists swear that they will not be lulled into a false sense of security by the bike lane. They then begin riding in the bike lane and shortly thereafter have a false sense of security in the bike lane. Then they die.
And 3:34, I don’t know about the study you’re citing, but I remain unimpressed. I myself have lost two friends in the last three years, both of whom were riding in bike lanes and both of whom were tragically struck and killed.
I’m not against bike lanes. I’m very pro bike lane, but not in areas where we KNOW, in advance, that motorists will not respect bike lanes. And bear in mind that there are numerous things that account for the ‘lack of respect’. In some cases, it’s not that motorists don’t care about those in bike lanes, but rather that there are psychological limits on the amount of visual data motorists and bicyclists can process and attend to at any given point in time; and if you’re driving/riding in Manhattan there’s one hell of a lot of data to process. It then comes down to whether you want vulnerable, exposed bicyclists to be sharing the road with two ton hunks of steel. Ordinarily I think they can share the road perfectly well. But sometimes, in the most congested areas, I think it’s a problem.
I think it’s for a very good reason that bike lanes are occasionally referred to as ‘suicide lanes’. It’s also why I, as a bicyclist, typcially ignore bike lanes in the city when they’re available. I find that it’s actually safer (as a bicyclist) to ignore them.
I don’t think the picture is of Bay St. It is Red Hook but not Bay St. It might be Lorrine St.
Bike lanes help build awareness of cyclists on the streets of New York, help show cyclists the best routes for travel and help reduce injuries and fatalities.
On wide, heavily-trafficked streets, bike lanes also tend to have a traffic-calming effect.
A joint study of the Dept. of Health, DOT and NYPD last year found that of the 225 cyclist fatalities between 1995 and 2006, only one occurred in a bike lane.
http://www.streetsblog.org/2006/09/12/city-announces-bike-safety-improvements/
4:24, I think your problem is that you’re looking at bike lanes as something to keep bike riders contained. Bikes are legally allowed to ride alongside cars and trucks on any street anyhow, but the cars and trucks rarely share the road with them like they’re supposed to. And who ends up getting killed? Not the truck drivers. Bike lanes are designated for bike use only, so that bikes have at least some space on the road that is (at least in theory) safe for them to ride in.
Also, bike lanes that run against curbs are never on blocks where parking is legal anyhow. So if the car/truck is parked/unloading there, they’re doing it illegally.
The green lanes are the street-level equivalent of the reflectors and lights that bikers wear: they stand out visually, so drivers know they’re there and are less likely to ignore them and run some hapless pizza delivery guy over.
Everyone should have the experience of riding a bike in the city, just like everyone should have the experience of being a pedestrian and a driver at some point: once you’ve done it yourself, you’re much more aware of the other people around you, and less likely to get all road ragey on their ass (or crosswalk-ragey, for pedestrians).