Bike Lane Wars Abound
The Brooklyn Paper is chock full of stories about bike lane conflict today. First up is more drama surrounding the new lanes on Prospect Park West. As you may recall, DOT’s decision to axe one lane of car traffic to make way for a two-way bike lane was done despite opposition by Marty Markowitz and…
The Brooklyn Paper is chock full of stories about bike lane conflict today. First up is more drama surrounding the new lanes on Prospect Park West. As you may recall, DOT’s decision to axe one lane of car traffic to make way for a two-way bike lane was done despite opposition by Marty Markowitz and many others in the driver camp. Now, it turns out, some pedestrians who are used to only having to look one way before crossing are up in arms. Meanwhile, down in Bay Ridge, Community Board 10 voted earlier this week against two new proposed bike lanes. “The city is bent on taking away driving lanes for cars,” said Allen Bortnick, a member of Community Board 10. “We are not going to be able to live with this comfortably.”
DH — Why do you think I like my bike? 🙂
Oh — yeah, I think congestion pricing was also meant to destroy the lives of everyone living in Queens and Bay Ridge. I forgot that part.
12 year old Plymouth? That’s not sexy… hahaha
morralkan — Nope. A car is a car. A Prius or electric car causes congestion the same as my 12-year old Plymouth… and makes the gas guzzlers go slower and spew more fumes per hour. Also, the electric car would be draining their ConEd-filled batteries…
Remember — ALL cars stuck in traffic are getting ZERO miles per gallon!!
You have to look at it as a whole. The congestion pricing for Manhattan that died a while back… it was to (a) force more people to use public transportation or alternative modes of transport — umm, like bikes, (b) reduce congestion on the roads making COMMERCE more efficient, (c) improve air quality, and many more things…. some short-term, others long-term.
The real issue is that pedestrians are upset they have to look both ways now. Is that it? get over it guys. Look both ways, end of story.
When considering those 10 cities with the highest percentage (not sure that Forbes really looked at 2nd and 3rd world cities), it occurs to me that most of them are quite a bit smaller than New York. I have to admit that I last visited Berlin, I was not overwhelmed by the number of bikes there. I can’t imagine that there were very many at all on the streets during the dead of winter; it sure does get cold there. As to Portland OR, I wonder how many cyclists go up the nabes in the high hills overlooking the city. As a cyclist of many years, I doubt that many people have the legs for that. I do know that most new immigrants here switch to cars as soon as they are financially able to. Do you think it is any different in their home countries?
“DH, that driver must be blind – ie it’s not hard to spot you at the intersection. did the dude even stop for you to curse him out?”
He did the “slow roll” (ie, slowed down to 15 mph, faster than any bike will go) through the stop sign and then floored it through the intersection (i was crossing the south side of the street)
He saw me – as he honked at me when he realized i was crossing in his way.
Cops are smart – they set up shop right at the corner of N6th and Wythe every morning and pull over anyone who doesn’t come to a complete stop for 3 seconds.
I’ve also seen them pull bikes over there too – so they are trying to enforce both sides.
DH, that driver must be blind – ie it’s not hard to spot you at the intersection. did the dude even stop for you to curse him out?
Shouldn’t that tax be a graduated one, depending upon the size/gas mileage of the vehicle, tybur6?