Prospect Park West Bike Lane Back in the News!
The inevitable backlash to last week’s report from the DOT that the Prospect Park West bike lane is a big success has finally arrived. That there video above from CBS2 shows Borough Prez Marty Markowitz disputing the DOT’s claims; Streetsblog fires back: “Marty seems to have either lost the ability to distinguish truth from fiction,…
The inevitable backlash to last week’s report from the DOT that the Prospect Park West bike lane is a big success has finally arrived. That there video above from CBS2 shows Borough Prez Marty Markowitz disputing the DOT’s claims; Streetsblog fires back: “Marty seems to have either lost the ability to distinguish truth from fiction, or his stubbornness is just all-consuming and he’s ceased to care about his public credibility.” Gothamist, meanwhile, has a quote from Markowitz in which the BP says that “we need an outside study—not one conducted by the DOT but perhaps by the NYPD—to get an impartial analysis of the Prospect Park West reconfiguration.” And, last but not least, the Brooklyn Paper is quick to print claims about how a conspiracy theory not imagined by Markowitz may be afoot: “One day after the Department of Transportation announced last week that the lane has improved safety for drivers and cyclists, two members of the city’s old guard — former Sanitation Commissioner Norman Steisel and former Transportation boss Iris Weinshall — struck back, claiming that the agency fudged numbers to make the lane appear more successful than it is.”
Markowitz on PPW Data: It’s a Vast Biking Conspiracy [Streetsblog]
Markowitz Says Activist Cyclists Distorted PPW Study [Gothamist]
Former Officials Slam City for Lying on Prospect Park West [BK Paper]
Thank you dibs…if that was not meant in irony !!
I think it’s also fueled by when the only cyclists you saw were messengers/delivery boys (lower class, scary) and spandex speeders who yell ‘on your left’ at you (weird looking, not my type, scary).
This is certainly true. Most of them are mentally unbalanced and probably have criminal records!!!!!
>There is an irrational hatred for people who ride bicycles…maybe it’s political, maybe it’s rooted in envy (judging by the physical condition of anti-bike politicians like Markowitz), I don’t know what it is…but it is stupid and reactionary and deserves to be met with organized resistance
Absolutely. But I think it’s also fueled by when the only cyclists you saw were messengers/delivery boys (lower class, scary) and spandex speeders who yell ‘on your left’ at you (weird looking, not my type, scary). “Regular” people were not cyclists, not even kids in 99% of this country. It’s changing slowly, but until we see cycling as “normal” and an everyday activity, that hatred will continue.
cmu — not to mention a HUGELY important stat is a long-term one… how many folks are riding bikes! We’ve already seen enormous increase in bike riding in the city. Both commuting and leisure.
Is there are direct causal relationship between this and bike lanes and other traffic-related measures? Perhaps, but you can’t “prove” it. But you can be pretty damn certain because those were the only new variables!
And, for the record…bike riders in places like Amsterdam generally do obey traffic signals.
Maybe because respect is a two way street, no pun intended.
just for the record, i’m not anti bike lane.
anti extremist, anti entitlement, anti whining, anti union, anti just two party representation, and …
And guess what, tourist from all around the world aren’t driving a damn car here either!
(P.S. Why wouldn’t we want to promote tourists riding bikes in the city? In fact there are several companies that do this in Manhattan with quite a bit of success… it’s actually a really awesome way to take in the sights!)
>Since you have such a poor opinion of American cities, jan van flac, why oh why do you reside here instead of in your dear, drug-infested Amsterdam?
Ah, Godwin’s Law, revised…”why don’t you go back to where you came from?”. Good going, mkan.
WHat you and anti-bike-lane people don’t get is that *it does not matter what the stats say*, bike lanes are a greater good: improve the streetscape and calm traffic to boot. The only way they’re bad is if you think roads are for the exclusive use of motorized traffic. If we had to “prove” every change via stats, we’d wind up like the suburbs, wide streets, no sidewalks and no cycles.
“Since you have such a poor opinion of American cities, jan van flac, why oh why do you reside here instead of in your dear, drug-infested Amsterdam?”
After graduate school I tried to stay in another northern European city but couldn’t get a work visa. Now i have a family, own property, have a business. Believe me, on balance the quality of life is better there than in here. But that’s another discussion…
Yes, 1000x is hyperbole. But EVERY SINGLE TIME i drive my car I see someone do something egregious….speeding down a residential street…..running red lights…making left turns from the right lane….making right turns from the left lane….turning around in the middle of the block without looking…..slamming on the brakes when someone sees a parking spot behind them without regard to who is behind them. the list goes on. Every one of these could easily – and all too often does – result in the death or serious injury of a pedestrian or cyclist.
Of all the things that one can worry about in New York City – muggers, bedbugs, getting hit by a car, terrorism – getting hurt by a bicycle (!) has got to be the silliest. There is an irrational hatred for people who ride bicycles…maybe it’s political, maybe it’s rooted in envy (judging by the physical condition of anti-bike politicians like Markowitz), I don’t know what it is…but it is stupid and reactionary and deserves to be met with organized resistance.