Queens Boulevard Bike Lane Not Happening, Despite Demand

Think about it, motor vehicles are the bane of this country much less the world.

Why would anybody be surprised at this news? Driving an SUV is an American birthright. If you don't like it, I'll mow you down with one.

Seriously, I went to Holland the year before last. There were bicycles all over the place. They had multilevel bicycle parking garages for chrissakes.

You know what else? There were NO fat people. I was the second fattest guy in the entire country at the time (5'10" 36" waist). Thankfully for me, the guy that made the trip with me was even fatter. Talk about ugly Americans . . .

That's funny, because I see fat assed European tourists walking around here all the time.

What's your point?

Thanks for your effort.

Actually, it is coincidental you used those figures from DOT. People have been trying to find the source and no one from DOT will respond. In other words, they made them up! Seriously, I kid you not.

Streetsblog has published the same 185,000 but cannot show the source.

TransAlt also refuses to produce the raw data.

Same with DOT.

In other words, TA, DOT and streetsblog throw these figures around and no one questions them, the media print it, and it becomes another urban legend.

I challenge here and now anyone from DOT, streetsblog or TA to produce the raw data for these figures!!

I've biked down Queens Blvd and Yellowstone Blvd and Woodhaven Blvd and Cross Bay Blvd lots of times without ever worrying about a bike lane. What whining wimps.

Precisely.

We who learned to ride as children in the city don't need bike lanes. Those who want bike lanes tend to be newbies from suburbs and small towns who want the city to adopt to their timidity, instead of adopting to the city. Pretty arrogant.

Frankly, I think the DOT is doing cyclists a favor. That boulevard is death on a stick.

You make CO2 by breathing. If you to fix global warming, stop breathing.

Queens has the abandoned Rockaway Branch- an easy candidate for a 5-mile bike trail.

Why not put bike lanes on the LIE, the VanWyck or Grand Central instead?

After all, according to DOT's own statistics, at least 20,000 people cycle in this city of 8 million! Wow, isn't that an incredible number? The DOT and TA think it is.

Better give this vocal minority of fanatics what they wan, or else they will stop their constant whining and move to Portland.

And your reasoning for NOT having a bike lane on QB is... ?

I see absolutely no reason why there shouldn't be one. Same as Delancey/Houston, because it's pretty fucking dangerous having to swerve out of the way of cyclists.

Tens of millions of dollars for a few folks to pedal down an ugly, congested roadway with dozens of major intersections. No, I cant see why not.

That number is just the number counted entering the CBD from the bridge crossings and the waterfront greenways. the actual number of people riding bikes every day in NYC is more like 120-150,000. More than the population of all of Chinatown. Then consider not everyone with a bike rides it every day. So the actual number of individuals who ride a bike regularly is more like half a million - more than the population of Staten Island. Not that small a minority.

Please send us the link to your figures.

Otherwise you are clearly exaggerating and making up figures.

I am kind of guessing. I did a quick Google search and found this Post article from May that says there 185,000 daily bike riders in NYC but it doesn't have a source:

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/regional/bronx/bp_promotes_pedal_power_during_bike_4dMMFaUdTOMPBWFfcJZPoN

T.A. estimated it at 75,000 a day ten years ago but it has probably more than doubled since then so maybe the Post number is right:

http://www.transalt.org/files/resources/blueprint/appendix/levels.html

Thanks for your effort.

Actually, it is coincidental you used those figures from DOT. People have been trying to find the source and no one from DOT will respond. In other words, they made them up! Seriously, I kid you not.

Streetsblog has published the same 185,000 but cannot show the source.

TransAlt also refuses to produce the raw data.

Same with DOT.

In other words, TA, DOT and streetsblog throw these figures around and no one questions them, the media print it, and it becomes another urban legend.

I challenge here and now anyone from DOT, streetsblog or TA to produce the raw data for these figures!!

Lets put the bike lane in the Queens Boulevard subway tunnel. We will get rid of those coal powered express trains.

"move to Portland."

We can't have that. Our farmers markets & private art studios need their business.

twelve lanes for motor vehicles at its widest points, but the DOT refuses to cede one of those lanes for cyclists

cede: –verb (used with object)

to yield or formally surrender to another: to cede territory.

Doesn't say anything about adding another lane.

The Boulevard is hard enough to cross as is. Adding a bike line would add to the mayhem.

They don't need a friggin Bike lane when the subway runs the entire length of the boulevard. Stop whining.

Well, you don't really need a road either when the subway runs the entire length of the boulevard (well, most of it, on two different lines).

You could argue that, but being that automobiles carry ALL goods as well as people, its usefulness is far beyond that of bicycles.

Bike lanes should be considered in the future, but not now.

Cool, another ghost bike for my collection.

actually the DOT's resistance to installing a Queens Blvd bike lane is not a retrograde stance because it has always refused to place bike lanes where they are needed most - practical travel corridors with heavy motor vehicle traffic. the most well known examples are houston street and delancey. there are plenty more which i am sure cyclists would be happy to identify.

, but the DOT reneged on that plan in the last minute despite clear evidence that it is a street heavily traversed by cyclists and effing dangerous (there are THREE ghost bikes on houston).

Here's a thought: use the one on Bleecker or Prince -- ONE BLOCK in either direction -- and be less likely to die on heavily trafficked street. You don't have an inalienable right to a bike lane on every street.

Isn't there one on Grand, also -- one block away from Delancey -- that traverses the entirety of Manhattan? Yeah, the DOT is really out to get you guys. Maybe you should be reasonable and leave a couple high-traffic roads to cars?

Except for Broadway, 8th avenue, 9th Avenue, 2nd Avenue, 1st Avenue...

but most of those bike lanes long predate the big biking boom of the recent 5 or so years. with the possible exception of 9th avenue they did not involved a great deal of lobbying, etc.

in the case of delancey, houston and queens folks have been calling for safe passage for years. in fact i'm quite certain houston was slated to receive a bike lane according to the master plan, but the DOT reneged on that plan in the last minute despite clear evidence that it is a street heavily traversed by cyclists and effing dangerous (there are THREE ghost bikes on houston). with the deaths on delancey and QB similar calls have been made. yet despite the super(wo)man status that streetsblog gives janette sadik-khan nothing has come of that work.

shame on the DOT.

I can hear it now... "Wah! We didn't get our bike lane!"

The world doesn't revolve around you, you fvcks! Take the train, the bus or buy a car!

Why don't you lose some weight you fatfvck

What are you talking about? Trains use electricity from the coal plants in LIC, Busses use CNG, and Cars burn fossil fuels, all of which pollute the air you breath. Didn't you notice the air was downright brown yesterday? How is adding more people to the train/road congestion helping?