Fifth Avenue Bike Lane Debate, Continued
The news earlier this week that the Fifth Avenue BID in Park Slope wants to do away with the Class 2 bike lane, blaming an uptick in the number of tickets delivery trucks were getting on it, Streets Blog sent a correspondent out to talk to a bunch of merchants on the commercial stretch and…
The news earlier this week that the Fifth Avenue BID in Park Slope wants to do away with the Class 2 bike lane, blaming an uptick in the number of tickets delivery trucks were getting on it, Streets Blog sent a correspondent out to talk to a bunch of merchants on the commercial stretch and couldn’t find much support for the BID’s angle. “I haven’t heard a word or noticed anything,” said Emily Isaac, owner of Trois Pommes Patisserie, which receives about ten deliveries per week. “As far as the delivery guys, no one’s complained to me that because of the bike riders they’re getting tickets,” said the owner of ‘Snice at the corner of 3rd Street. There was consensus on one matter though: There need to be more designated delivery zones. The space in front of The Associated, for example, is not long enough to accommodate the big rigs that come to deliver milk several times a week; as a result, the trucks end up sticking out into the bus stop and getting hit with a ticket.
Nobody takes the cyclists-never-do-anything-wrong claims seriously. It’s propaganda ultimately only succeeding in preaching to the choir. A recent study said 50% of cyclists in NYC run red lights. Which of course we already knew. It’s illegal and unsafe, for themselves and others, period.
Most annoying? The fact the cyclist fanatics believe cars should yield to bicycles because bicycles are more vulnerable, but then refuse to acknowledge bicycles should yield to (or even watch out for) the more vulnerable pedestrian. Total utter lack of logic.
Yes, I’ve been called a schmuck… 🙂
So — exactly why should pedestrians be given “leeway”? It’s perfectly acceptable for pedestrians to cross the street whenever and wherever they please? Stand in the middle of the street waiting for the same thing they could be waiting for on the curb?
CMU — going 15 mph on a bike, with traffic, obeying all traffic laws… is that unsafe? If you think that a bicycle is unsafe and unmanouverable at 15 mph, you shouldn’t be on a bike. That’s fine.
Do I “stretch” the traffic laws at 15 mph? NO. I slow to 3 or 4 mph, basically the speed of a fast walker and “run” red lights… the same way and for the same reason folks “jaywalk.”
Should bikes be allowed to drive the wrong way down streets? Absolutely not. Those assholes should get tickets. Should bikes be ticketed for running red lights… yes! But so should cars and jaywalkers!!
Don’t get down on bikes if you, as a pedestrian, can’t operate with the same level of self-awareness. Guess what, I should NOT have to worry about riding down the street at 15 mph on my bike and have a fucking pedestrian STEP OUT IN FRONT OF ME!! But they do all the time… Oh, they do it when I’m driving my car too! It causing braking, swerving, and generally unnecessary and potentially unsafe actions by riders and drivers…
Again, I’m not saying Pedestrians are the root cause or something ridiculous like that… but CHRIST… take some ownership and stick your “leeway” up you bum.
tybur6 — just curious, has anyone ever told you that you are a schmuck?
There you go tyburg, undermining all the reasonableness I’ve been striving for…you’re obviously one of those cylcists (and driver, apparently) we all hate. Pedestrians should be afforded more leeway precisely because they’re more vulnerable. I suppose you think it’s ok to mow them down because you have the right of way.
And NO, 15mph is bloody fast for a bike…on a street. It does not have the braking or maneuvering capability to avoid accidents, if you think it does, you’re being obtuse. You’re not on a race track.
I bike regularly… and, of course, I’m also a pedestrian… BUT I also drive fairly regularly and find myself almost AIMING at the pedestrians standing in the middle of the road because they can’t possibly wait on the sidewalk. In fact, when I take a right turn, I make it tight hoping I run over a foot.
I have to say, if pedestrians are hit by a bike or a car, the odds are very good that they were doing something they weren’t supposed to be doing.
I’m really not sure how people can’t just accept the existence of bicycles and take on some self-responsibility!! Don’t wait in the road, wait on the sidewalk. Actually LOOK when you step into the street… stop talking on your cell phone and texting when you step into the street…. just LOOK!
A 15 mph bicycle is a slow moving object, faster than walking yes, but not unsafe! Ridiculous.
Accidents happen, sure. Bicycles don’t cause traffic and safety problems (many times they help reduce congestion or have no impact); most pedestrians get hit by all sorts of things because they are dumbasses; in fact, pedestrians have a MUCH worse impact on traffic than bicycles… crossing whenever they feel like and blocking intersections.
I’m a proud pedestrian that waits on the sidewalk, not halfway in a driving lane… and I’m a proud cyclist that does “stretch” traffic laws, but not in ways any worse than the average holier-than-thou pedestrian… and I’m a driver that subconsciously wants to run down half of the pedestrians I see.
That’s great, denton…hope my son is as adventurous. I expect he’ll refuse to let me go with him on the subway to grade school after a week next September.
What I find is that people love to look on the bleak side; we’re a fearful country as a whole (most people have a wildly exaggerated viewpoint of, for example, fear of crime). And, apparently, fear of cycling.
“One of the beauties of living in NYC is precisely that kids become self-reliant at an early age.”
That’s right cmu. When I got my first bike, a Schwinn single speed, I was probably nine. That would have been 1963. It allowed me to get the hell out of Harlem and see what the city was like, cuz my parents weren’t planning to take me. One of the trips I took that I never forgot was to Brooklyn Heights. Never saw anything like it, and from that moment on wanted to live there. And I did for a decade.
Went to Coney Island, East Harlem, Bronx Zoo, several cemeteries, all the museums (they were all free then). They didn’t have helmets back then either. Used to lock it up with a two dollar lock and chain, amazing it never got stolen.
Used to hang out at Simm’s Bike Shop up on 140th Street and ogle all the ‘racing bikes’.
You see, y-a, you have not grown up in India like I did, where potholes are so routine that it’s easier to go thru them than around them (joke). I cycle slowly, as a routine activity, (if I want to go more than 5 mph I go to the park) so avoiding a pothole is somwewhat easy. I also pay extreme attention to traffic, peds, and road conditions.
I have a friend who hit a ped…said he couldn’t avoid him; I asked him how fast he was going…not fast, he says, about 15mph. Hmmm…at 15mph on a busy street a cycle is basically an unsafe moving object.
nsr, I;ve read enough of your posts to be flattered that you wouldn’t take me seriously.
Please God let the What think car seatbelts are also only for retards.