Ikea Fights Red Hook Bike Lane
Can’t we all just get along? Today brings yet another bike controversy to the fore. This one’s in Red Hook, where Ikea has clearly calculated that it’s entrenched enough that it no longer has to play nice. The Swedish megastore is fighting a plan by the Department of Transportation that would eliminate one lane of…
Can’t we all just get along? Today brings yet another bike controversy to the fore. This one’s in Red Hook, where Ikea has clearly calculated that it’s entrenched enough that it no longer has to play nice. The Swedish megastore is fighting a plan by the Department of Transportation that would eliminate one lane of southbound car traffic in order to install a four-block long bike lane on Columbia Street from Bay Street onto Halleck and Beard. It seems dangerous to officially encourage bikes to the front of Ikea, store manager Mike Baker said at a Community Board 6 meeting on Thursday night. In addition, the retailer threatened to back away from certain promises it made back in 2008 as part of being allowed to open. “If the … traffic management elements constructed and funded by Ikea are going to be modified … then Ikea is not responsible for impacting or remedying the vehicular flow in Red Hook.” Noah Budnick from Transportation Alternatives raised the same question we have: Ikea has enough enemies as it is in that neighborhood, I don’t know why they would stand up and oppose a safety project.
Ikea to City: No Bike Lanes! [Brooklyn Paper]
IKEA Plays Hardball to Block Bike Lane [Gothamist]
Photo by bitchcakesny
Hey, this one has all the makings of another great thread:
Evil Big-Box Chain Store where fat, materialistic, Americans consume stands in the way of a green bike lane.
5,4,3…….
somehow I think that photo of bikes in front of Ikea may have been some special TrannieAlternative bike ride past wkend. I doubt very much that you really see that many bikes around there. I think plenty of streets around there that have little traffic to bike on;
“Bikers (i refuse to call them cyclists”
That’s because you’re language challenged. Or you’ve never been to a bikers bar.
yeah this is getting old, seriously ahhahahahah
but im sure this thread will have 400 posts by noon.
Bikers (i refuse to call them cyclists): “waaaaaaaaaah the whole world is against me” get over yourselves.
*rob*
Ikea will soon be on board and selling flat-pak Glubooeringen personal bike lanes.
Why would Ikea care about enemies when it already has what it was after?
Anyhow, this looks to me like an attempt to disclaim liability for the first time someone in a bike lane gets clipped by a rented U-haul picking up some Poang chairs or Billy bookcases.
Love how Ikea looks, love the jobs there, waterfront access that has never existed since about 1800 CE, Mike Baker good guy folks….
i drive to fairway past there all the time, when is it ever car crowded around there like everyone predicted, i have NEVER seen it…
maybe Sat or Sun at 5? never there then….
can anyone send a photo of car crowds anywhere around there?
bikes are booming, get used to it
i should be on one too! way too fat and always have my cat with me….
Manhattanite, you forgot to add that you can also get free transportation to Ikea from Borough Hall! Talk about a cheap date. Only drawback is, unless one is an exhibitionist, one may be hesitant to get hot and heavy with one’s date in the back of the Ikea bus.
Seems my prediction has come true that Mr. B will now be posting a Bike Lane Thread of the Day as long as stories like this keep getting 200 comments a day. All this one needs is a red light and little child trying to cross in front of the cyclist without the helmet who is swigging water.