Closing Bell: PPW Protest, After the Fact
The blogs have brought in lots of news of the PPW bike lane showdown this morning. Streetsblog was at the pro-rally, where hundreds of people gathered to defend the traffic-calmed street. About 70 or so opponents gathered close by, although there wasn’t much dramatic confrontation. Gothamist quotes an anti-bike lane spokesperson: “Why do they think…
The blogs have brought in lots of news of the PPW bike lane showdown this morning. Streetsblog was at the pro-rally, where hundreds of people gathered to defend the traffic-calmed street. About 70 or so opponents gathered close by, although there wasn’t much dramatic confrontation. Gothamist quotes an anti-bike lane spokesperson: “Why do they think they can mutilate this extremely beautiful boulevard? It is useful maybe to a handful of bikers.” This was met with booing, and the counter-argument that bike lane access is about “The sustainability of New York. This is about reducing our dependence on oil!” Sounds intense. Did any readers attend?
Hundreds Rally in Support of PPW Bike Lane [Streetsblog]
Protests Pit Seniors Against Cyclists [Gothamist]
Photo by Ben Fried / Streetsblog.org
11217 – you have a valid point – you are right – we don’t got to meetings and protests etc. That is my point – it’s people who are activist in spirit (read: cyclists) who go to the meetings and hold the city council hostage with all their boo-hooing but the city council/bloomie already want the bike lanes to happen so I feel my role is dead here
that’s why – like I said the other day I already wrote to the DMV asking for cyclists to now pay a bike registration fee similar to drivers and cars and to now pay for insurance. Then I will take that up with my local congressmen and pitch it b/c it will help create REVENUE FOR THE STATE AND CITY COFFERS! and someone will like that and jump on the idea!
it’s all good 🙂
So Gem since you’re SO against this, I assume you went to all the meetings and the protest then?
Or do you prefer to just bitch about bike lanes every time one is mentioned on brownstoner…?
😉
But, Petebklyn, as far as subway ridership … you must be kidding.
You want numbers? Okay. From http://www.mta.info/nyct/facts/ffsubway.htm:
“In 2009, average weekday subway ridership was 5.1 million, the second highest daily number since 1952. Yearly ridership was 1.6 billion, the highest number since 1951.”
“All the noise is coming from a very small group of mostly older people who are out of the loop and are probably voting for Carl Paladino.”
Um I hate bike lanes and I am not voting for CARL – am liking rent is too damn high guy myself!
I wonder if people who ride bikes to work realize how they are contributing to the ever-growing problem of smelly people the city now has to contend with?
I love all these people on Brownstoner who complain incessantly about expanding the Landmarked area of Park Slope or are anti bikes.
But when they have meetings or protests on these very topics they are NO WHERE TO BE FOUND!!!
I was there today.
The reason there were so many seniors on the anti bike lane side was because the rally was held across the street from a retirement home. Hardly anyone else from the neighborhood seemed to show up to register opposition to the bike lane.
The pro bike lane demonstrators were very cordial and very positive in tone. Hardly any of the discussion or signs at the rally mentioned anything about foreign oil. The discussion/chants/signs were mostly about safety.
“Primarily takes away from public transportation ridership.
And then MTA hikes fares because of less revenue…which then increases car usage.”
Interesting. So bikes take away from ridership, fares increase, then people switch to… cars?? That seems like an odd series of events. Why aren’t they switching to bikes? And why aren’t car drivers blamed for increasing public transportation fares?
How about this scenario… If we build more bike lanes, traffic will get worse. People will stop driving their cars, switch to public transit and the fares will DECREASE! Thank you, bike lanes for keeping our public transportation so affordable.
Well luckily given the turnout, I’m guessing the bike lanes will stay.
That’s all I care about.
All the noise is coming from a very small group of mostly older people who are out of the loop and are probably voting for Carl Paladino.
They’ll lose that one too.
Your stats don’t refute Pete’s statement, 11217. He said ridership was negatively affected by cycling, you showed ridership is up. But given that you also showed cycling was up by a very large amount, it argues that some of those increased bike journeys would otherwise have been MTA journeys.
Either that or people are taking trips they otherwise would not have!