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.”
I think bikes should be licensed.
“When did this become such a big deal anyway?”
Yeah, that’s what I want to know. I have a car, a bike and I walk. Sometimes when I’m driving, bikers piss me off. Sometimes when I’m walking, crazy drivers piss me off (which also happens sometimes when I’m driving). When I’m biking, crazy drivers and asleep-at-the-switch pedestrians piss me off. Yet none of this is worth getting too excited over.
It was a joke, Joe. Which is why I said…”Seriously, it’s about eating in moderation”
Or exactly what you said. Eating greens. Should be obvious, but in this country “greens” is pistacio ice cream.
Argentines being skinny has little to do with sex.
The atkins diet is embedded in their culture. Instead of having steak with bread, mac and cheese, potatoes or other starchy foods, they have a side of greens. Simple.
I am not a regular Brownstoner reader, but I do browse it from time to time, which is enough to know that it is a good thing this *Rob* character isn’t breeding.
Benson —
I apologize for characterizing you as a curmudgeon. I completely follow what you are saying — however, we have decades of public knowledge about the health effects of car fumes and everyone who drives ANYWHERE at ANY TIME in this city has *personal* experience of how horribly congested it is… this is setting aside all of the “Green” bits and “global warming” controversies.
If taking FOREVER to get anywhere, horrendous parking, crazy high asthma and respiratory disease rates, etc etc etc does get folks to hang up the car keys? What will?
I think the only possible is hitting them in the wallet. And, I will repeat, this may simply mean giving people speeding tickets (which the police don’t seem to want to do). If folks realize that they can’t drive 55 mph on local roads… and it actually does take longer than 6 mins to get from Bay Ridge to Prospect Heights… maybe they’ll look at a Subway map or hop on a bike (for shorter trips than that obviously).
I can’t believe how seriously people are taking this. It’s New York City for goodness sake! This place is complete and total chaos 24-7 and somehow bikers are the problem on the roads (with or without a bike lane)? Get a grip. By the way, I am not one of these green crusaders. I basically believe people should be conscious of the environment and try to use more fuel efficient options when possible, but the green factor is something I didn’t even think about when I started biking. It’s just fun and good exercise and happens to also sometimes be the best way to get around. I also have a car. Sometimes that is the better option. If you want to complain about something, complain about taxis, car services, dollar vans, and double parking. Bikes? Are you serious? People are seriously upset because sometimes bikes (after checking to make sure it is safe) run red lights or block the interection (pretty easy to get around a bike in the interestion or for the biker to move out of the pedestrian’s way)? My favorite are the people, who no offense, sound like teabaggers, who want bikes to be licensed etc. Ridiculous waste of people’s time to get upset that there are people biking out there. When did this become such a big deal anyway? When it started to be cool to bash hipsters who are presumed to be the ones biking even if that isn’t even true and what is a hipster anyway but I digress. Bottom line: The bikers are New Yorkers too which means ergo that some of them are assholes.
Right, ENY! I think that earthquake was Mother Earth breathing a sigh of relief.
i’ve chosen not to breed.
*rob*”
PHEW!