Cops Shot Far Rockaway Teen 11 Times
Video: New School Students, Comrades Toss Trash Pre-Arrest
Prosecutor: D Train Murderer Was Unprovoked
Schumer: "Real Momentum" For Health Care Reform Now
NYC Wants Death Penalty In Terror Trials, Germany Doesn't
The notoriously accident-prone Queens Boulevard boasts twelve lanes for motor vehicles at its widest points, but the DOT refuses to cede one of those lanes for cyclists, despite a citywide boom in bicycle commuting. Last month cycling advocates held a somber rally to demand a bike lane on Queens Boulevard, and installed a white ghost bike to commemorate the death of 38-year-old James Langergaard, who was killed by a car as he crossed the boulevard on the evening of August 14th. But a Daily News reporter has learned that the DOT has not even evaluated the possibility of a Queens Boulevard bikeway in recent years.
A Freedom of Information Act request for documents related to the issue yielded only 10 pages of paperwork from the DOT in the past three years. And most of those were letters to local elected officials insisting that such a bike lane was not an option. It's a surprisingly retrograde stance for the DOT, which has been robustly adding bike lanes throughout the city in recent years. In one of the letters, the Queens borough commissioner for the DOT vaguely wrote, "For many reasons, Queens Blvd. is not included in the [master] plan, and we do not envision including it in the near future."
But at least one local politician it throwing his support behind the bike lane brigade. Daniel Dromm, councilman-elect for District 25, tells the News, "This is more than a recreational issue, this is a transportation issue. They need to make more improvements for cyclists." Between 2000 and 2005, accidents along Queens Blvd. injured about 500 pedestrians and 100 bikers, according Transportation Alternatives. In the last three years, the DOT has installed more than 50 miles of bike lanes in Queens, including a lane that runs along Skillman Ave., parallel to part of Queens Blvd.
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
tweet this
post to facebook
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!
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?
Why don't you lose some weight you fatfvck
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.
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.
, 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?
Cool, another ghost bike for my collection.
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.
The Boulevard is hard enough to cross as is. Adding a bike line would add to the mayhem.
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.
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.
"move to Portland."
We can't have that. Our farmers markets & private art studios need their business.
Lets put the bike lane in the Queens Boulevard subway tunnel. We will get rid of those coal powered express trains.
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!!
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.
Queens has the abandoned Rockaway Branch- an easy candidate for a 5-mile bike trail.
You make CO2 by breathing. If you to fix global warming, stop breathing.
Frankly, I think the DOT is doing cyclists a favor. That boulevard is death on a stick.
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.
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!!
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?