PPW Bike Lane Kerfuffle: Volume MCDVI (Apx)
There’s a feature about the city’s bike wars in the latest New York mag entitled “Not Quite Copenhagen,” and the Prospect Park West imbroglio plays a very prominent role. What’s learned? Bike-lane foe Louise Hainline has “an expensive spy camera” to document the bike lane traffic because she’s intent on debunking city stats about how…
There’s a feature about the city’s bike wars in the latest New York mag entitled “Not Quite Copenhagen,” and the Prospect Park West imbroglio plays a very prominent role. What’s learned? Bike-lane foe Louise Hainline has “an expensive spy camera” to document the bike lane traffic because she’s intent on debunking city stats about how much usage it gets and says the characterization of her and others who oppose the lane—”that we’re a bunch of old, crotchety rich people that don’t understand that they deserve to have a bike lane on our street”—is incorrect. Then there’s Aaron Naparstek, creator of Streetsblog and co-founder of Park Slope Neighbors, who says this about the firm working pro bono on the suit against the lane: “It’s crazy. Gibson Dunn is the law firm that represented George W. Bush in Bush v. Gore in 2000. Now they’re working to get rid of a bike lane. Think about that.” Meanwhile, former transportation commissioner Iris Weinshall’s support opposition to the lane is also called questioned: “‘Clearly, if the lawsuit was to succeed, [Weinshall] could say, ‘See, I was reasonable after all,’ says Andrew Vesselinovitch, who served as the New York City ‘bike czar’ under Weinshall before leaving the DOT in protest in 2006. To Weinshall’s critics, she is waging a personal vendetta” against current commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan. Following the publication of the article, the city defended its bike lane program and said the majority of New Yorkers support the lanes.
Not Quite Copenhagen [NY Mag]
Driving is not a right. You get a LICENSE to do so. maybe the City ought to consider making people get a license to ride a bike so that they can be adequately patrolled for violations.
And before you say, no of course I don’t think driviing is a natural right or much to do with the Constiution.
Just responding specifically to your point about positive liberty, which is not a useful concept IMO.
Exactly, Jaguar, you have this basic intellectual capacity that, apparently, a lot of NYCers don’t possess. Is this a good thing? Yes or no. Who cares if you despise or love the person doing it… that’s childish.
tybur6,
I am very well familiar with Isaiah Berlin. Not sure why you were being patronizing.
The concept of positive liberty, while it may exist, is very hard to reconcile with the kind of natural rights theory found, for example, in the US Constitution.
Tybur6, I can’t stand Bloomberg, absolutely despise him, and I am not a big fan of Sadik-Khan either, but I don’t mind the bike lanes. Hell, even Mussolini supposedly made the trains run on time . . . .
Don’t engage morralkan — everything he says is based on gut feelings, emotions and disliking someone’s personality. Nothing he says is rooted in facts or what is actually good for the city.
He doesn’t like Sadik-Khan or Bloomberg, so it doesn’t matter if they were to create the most Utopian paradise in NYC where cars flow freely, bicycles roam like wild buffalo, and pedestrian float on clouds… he would say something to the contrary.
Jaguar, I don’t believe that Schumer and his wife own a mansion. Also, to pretend that this is a rich vs. poor situation is stretching it. I doubt there is one person within a few blocks of this lane who is on welfare or receiving child support. More likely, the local proponents of the lane probably have just as much money as the opponents; could even be some wealthy hedge-funders among them. Obviously, Weishall has a personal interest in transportation issues, local or not, as a former transformation commissioner. In a similar way, I take great interest (and find the outrageous claims for educational strides by the DOE laughable) because of my 34 years working in various positions at the DOE. Of course, there’s nothing stopping that’s stopping the “your” side from using the resources at its disposal to try to get Cathie Black dumped. It’s certainly a worthy goal.
For Sadik-Khan, everything is personal and she absolutely invites it with her holier-than-thou attitude and demeanor.
Personally, as somebody who drives and bikes, and who used to bike a lot more frequently when I was younger and there were no bike lanes, I don’t understand what the big deal is. The impact on bike lanes, particularly this particularly one, seem negligible to me when I drive. I just don’t see that they make it that much longer for me to get where I am going. The biggest problem for people when they are driving is double parked cars, not bike lanes. I generally like the bike lanes and use them when they are available, but since bikes are allowed to ride on any street they want, with or without a bike lane, this is just do much to do about nothing. The city wants to slow down speeding traffic on streets like PPW and allow bikers a safer place to ride. Who cares?
Of course the City should be working to reduce automobile traffic. I don’t understand why that isn’t obvious. Traffic wastes time, money, and lungs. It gets in the way of anyone getting anywhere — whether you are on foot, bike or in a car yourself. Cars take up a disproportionate amount of public space in relation to the number of New Yorkers who own them. Excess traffic makes being a pedestrian, which is what most New Yorkers are most of the time, unpleasant. We can have better streets, and reducing traffic is an important part of getting there.