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.”
We work harder than Europeans. We deserve our gluttony.
I don’t want to be like Scandinavians. I just want people in this city and country to be a little smarter and think about things other then themselves for a change.
Scandinavians and Western European countries exemplify this more than we do in certain things thus the comparisons. They care about helping their fellow man, about preserving the environment, about eating healthy/exercising and about the better good of society and the planet.
We care about McMansions (how many times have we heard you can barely fit 4 people in a 3200sf brownstone on here or about ONLY 1 bathroom!!! For 2 people!!!??), McDonalds and SUV’s.
I just wish it would change. And it does seem to be…it’s just a constant struggle against the greed and glutony of our society, which I personally find repulsive. Love Brooklyn, but people here aren’t very progressive.
That new bridle path on Atlantic is really getting my dander up.
Both jagarch and dittoburg have hit the nail on the head.
“I think that about cyclists when I’m trying to walk over the narrow shared path over the Pulaski bridge and cyclists coming whizzing by”
No argument there – the Pulaski is an absolute shitshow.
jagarch, this is a thread about hurling insults a each other. Its a surrogate for race discussions because we can’t do those. Your insightful and even-tempered commentary is not welcome.
“Many bikers run reds and “swim upstream” out of sheer laziness. It takes more energy to come to a stop and then start up again. Likewise, going around the block to obey one way signs takes more energy”
Actually, keeping momentum while riding a bike is important, especially if you’re riding with a bunch of 5000 lb automobiles going 50mph on residential streets.
That said, I rarely go the wrong way on a street – but sometimes jumping a light or safely slowing down and rolling thru a stop sign (seriously, what cars completely stop at a stop sign when they don’t have to) – seem safer to me.
11217, minard is right (not mutually exclusive to your examples where folks chose bikes over cars). we see the shift in the Asian cities. more and more people are trading in their bikes for motorized ones and/or for cars as they can afford them.
not saying your bike city list if fake but rather it’s not apples to apples vs. Minard’s Hanoi reference. Bikes are primary transport mode in Hanoi, Beijing,… vs many people have bikes in those citys (ie some use it as primary transport, some for leisure only, some once/twice a week,…)
Net is you and Minard are both putting up correct comments which are not mutually exclusive.
11217.
Your list is of the “Whitest Cities” in the world.
No cities where brown or black people ride bicycles.
I was in Copenhagen once and I did not see one bicycle. It was January and the daytime tems were well below freezing. The shop owners along the main streets blow heated air onto the sidewalks, I guess to make it more comfortable for shoppers. Very ungreen. Why do people in Brooklyn want to be like Scandinavians? They are the most depressed people in the world with the highest incidence of alcoholism and suicide anywhere.
You want bicycle cities:
Beijing
Calcuitta
Hanoi
Havana
North Korea’s capital, which I can’t spell
Dacca
Mumbai
Ho Chi Ming City
etc etc
get the picture?