Bicycles Are So Hot Right Now. Bicycles.

And another bicycle story! Downtown Express this week has a really good piece on the dramatic rise in cyclists over the past few years. Currently about 120,000 New Yorkers ride their bikes for "everything from commuting to exercise to grocery shopping" and as more riders hit the streets the number of fatalities has declined. "There are about 3,000 bicycle fatalities injuries a year" a spokesman from Transportation Alternatives told the Express.

Morning bike riding is up across the four East River bridges 35 percent since last year and 100 percent since 2002, a report by the advocacy group Transportation Alternatives found. The Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges saw a 25 percent spike in cycling overall, with a 62 percent jump during the morning rush on the Brooklyn Bridge.

The cyclists spoken to by the Express all seem to feel that New York drivers, though not the best, are more aware of non-cars on the road then drivers in other cities. Which we'd agree with, other cities don't embrace jay-walkers quite like we do.

But what this really makes us think about is, considering the increasing bicycle presence in the city and the price of gas, isn't it about time that Bloomberg rethought his position on Critical Mass?

Bike New York 2006 by catelinp via Contribute.

Update: David Snetman from TransAlt wrote in: "Just wanted to let you know that the previously mentioned article
from the Downtown Express on a city bike boom contains an error that was reprinted in the Gothamist write up. Noah either misspoke or was misquoted. There are approximately 3,000 cyclist INJURIES in NYC every year and generally between 10 and 30 fatalities every year. We've made Downtown Express aware of the error and they willhopefully print a correction in the next issue."

Bicycle Campaign Coordinator
Transportation Alternatives
127 West 26th Street, Suite 1002
New York, NY 10001
(646) 873-6021