UPDATE: City To Remove 14 Blocks Of Bike Lanes On Bedford Ave.

We Americans have many liberties. Religious freedom is one, the right to travel on public roads is another. They should not conflict, but when a religious belief is inconsistent with the liberties of the general population, that's where religious freedom stops, in America. The Hasidim are the most bigoted faith extant in America, and they look down upon everyone else as lower forms of life. They are not usually violent in their bigotry, and Jews also totally own and control America's "free press", so you will never read anything about them. While some of the most wonderful people I know come from this group, they tolerate intolerance. They have a patriarchal hierarchy that teaches their children that all of creation was made to serve them, the Chosen People, and this included the Goyim, or 'nations', if you will. In their extreme sect, the Chabad Lubavitch, sexual abuse of children and narcotics are commonplace. After all, a beard-wearing man of this community can do no wrong. God tells him so in his Talmud. As long as he follows an infinitude of man-made rules, "God" allows him to do whatever he pleases. He only cannot kill or rob another rule-following Jew; Goyim are fair game. These so-called Hasidim ('pure ones') seem to forget they didn't have many rights in whatever lands from which they immigrated, as the locals there were wise to them and their ways. They have been given great liberties here; among the rights comes the duty to observe the rights of others, like the right of liberty. And, why should bicyclists enjoy a privileged lane through a Jewish neighborhood? Have you ever seen you how they drive their big cars? They'll run you down in a heartbeat, if only to get their curly-headed bubs to shul on time, to learn more hypocritical, bigoted nonsense. If any Christian group indoctrinated their children in this fashion it would come under hate speech laws, but since the shul is taught in a foreign language (Hebrew), you'll never know, will you? One of the best-kept secrets is the contempt and actual hatred that the extremist Jews have for non-Jews, and even for other Jews who've become freethinkers. They just don't get America yet. Generations of pioneers and patriots struggled and died to make America what it is, a land of unexcelled opportunity. These people should get with the program, and stop trying to control a country they're not yet psychologically ready to become a part of.

it does suck, that these relatively new bike lanes are going away. but while I have been nearly run off the road by several minivans in that section of town (while in the bike lane), i have also witnessed numerous cyclists completely ignoring traffic laws there: going the wrong way down one-way streets (or on the wrong side of the road), riding on the sidewalks, not yielding to pedestrians... i do think it's interesting that the ones who are crying "special treatment!" the loudest are the same people who think they should get special treatment themselves.

it's all about sharing the road, people. the drivers aren't going away; neither are the cyclists. the sooner we all accept that, the sooner driving and riding in the city will both become much less stressful.

that Kent ave bike lane sucks, they should've taken out the sidewalk on one side and put it there. Drivers are getting eFFed by that transit nazi lady, these issues should go to local community boards before being shoved down peoples thoats ermm streets. Cyclists don't use them or respect traffic laws anyway, why all this special treatment.

agreed.

To some of you other commenters. You fucking racist , stereotyping , bigots are such a laughable bunch of idiots. You know less than NOTHING about these issues.

The article doesn't have to mention the Hasidim. I lived in the Marcy Projects at Nostrand (Lee) and Flushing in 1950 and even then, the shtetl started at Flushing Ave and ended at Division Ave. Things have gotten more intense there, but the boundary is the same. Removing the bike lane will change little, there will still be the vans and school buses double parked in the same places, only now drivers will be even less understanding when cyclists have to move out and take a lane to pass.

Kent Ave is absolutely not a viable daily detour route for Willy B bike traffic. The added distance down Flushing and back up hill on Broadway or South 5th, plus the 2 turns onto and off of Kent Ave add up to a major safety problem, versus continuing to ride up Bedford, even without a marked bike lane. Flushing has heavy traffic. Kent under the BQE has chaotic traffic, and the right turn from the left hand bike lane is another crash risk. No, the suggested alternate route is far more hazardous. Bad design.

it's funny how the article makes no mention of the hasidic community whatsoever, but almost every comment does. is the fact that the hasidic community is centrally involved in this issue not relevant? does "objective" news reporting dictate that this fact be left out? Just curious.

i live on spencer and park - this sucks... though i don't commute this trajectory every morning, i still ride down bedford to the Parks pool on Metropolitan, Williamsburg/Greenpoint, and the Williamsburg Bridge. bike lane or not, i'll still use bedford... but now i suppose i'll just to be more cautious.

we should organize a ride down bedford to demonstrate our distaste with the removal of the bike lane and that we have the right to bike lanes on major, high traffic thoroughfares.

As a 22 year resident on Williamsburg's Southside, I can say with certainty that members of the Hasidic community are generally arrogant and disrespectful, the community is extremely powerful and corrupt, and that the negative stereotypes tend to generally be true.

...that everyone should start locking old bikes to

they nee more room for all the busted up min vans and station wagons they drive around in

Finally! Something Bloomie did right after we voted him back to office! We don't need ANY bike lanes in Brooklyn, Manhattan nor anywhere else in NYC! Fuck Billburg and the disgusting hipsters, I am sure they "forgot" to vote on Election Day!

Bikes reduce the number of public buses and taxis, which pollute. Power plants provide juice for the subways.

New York has the 100% best public transportation system in the world, bar none. Get off your bikes and use it.

Yeah, stop exercising and get some heart disease instead. Heart attacks don't hurt that much. Honest!

Yeeaaayyy!!! I can't wait for all of the new parking spaces that I'm sure this will create for me. =]

I don't care where they put the bike lanes...

I'm going to ride me bike wherever the fuck I please.

(except the sidewalk of course)

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/02/world/middleeast/02mideast.html?_r=1

I love bike lanes. They are the express lane for my chopper.

The DOT giveth, and the DOT taketh away.

Screw it, I'm still going to ride on that part of Bedford, bike lane or no. It's the best route to the bridge and I use it three or four times a week.

Ride Naked my brother.

ironic that most of the people who ride bikes in brooklyn would identify themselves as earth/human loving liberals, yet they're all so quick to bring out the antisemitism card and blame the undesired outcome on the evil jews.

this thread smells like fox news. you can't live by that double standard. it's time cyclists became open game. 10 points for every native new yorker hit, automatic win for every transplant.

Right on. These people want to view themselves as eco-warriors, meanwhile they leave the MTA - the best public transport system in the world - short their lousy few dollars. You want to make an environmental statement with a bicycle, do it in St. Louis, KC, LA, somewhere.

These folk are only really good at self-righteous.

You really want all those people who currently commute by bike to crowd onto the already-crowded subways and buses instead??

I don't think you've thought your brilliant plan all the way through.

The MTA could handle it as long as they didn't bring their bikes on the train with them.

I also posted this on Streetsblog:

Please take two minutes to call the Brooklyn Borough Commissioner at (718) 222-7259 to register a complaint. A very friendly staffer is keeping a list of people who have made inquiries. This allows folks to register our displeasure in a concrete way, and an official will give a call back to explain what's going on. (That's what the guy said, anyway). I know we're all pissed, but it's best to channel this energy into something productive. Bury them in e-mails and phone calls and maybe they'll realize that raw political pandering can have unintended consequences.

you want to be angry about - read about Palestine.

Fuck Williamsburg.

Why don't they just build a big wall around their neighborhood?

Beyond this wall women lose all their rights. Forget this imaginary wall they've created. Let's get down to real business!

Who cares about what the city really needs. What's more important here is that we demonize women and sexuality...

Oh wait... I think a group of people already built a giant oppressive wall to keep out people who had different beliefs

Who was it that did that again?

got to love the power of orthodoxy!

When radicals win any argument we all have lost centuries of progress.

And you can prove what you're asserting in your post exactly how?

now where were those bicyclists who said they're voting for bloomberg because if thompson got elected he'll replace all the commissioners????

I know there were some. let me find it on the local bike forum. enjoy those 14 blocks. must be worth it.

look no further than streetsslog....... uh, i mean streetsblog.

also, look for "I'm voting for Bloomberg because I love Janette Sadik-Khan" on FB for more.

Serves them right. From City Hall News:

Janette Sadik-Khan

Ever since Bloomberg declared that he would be looking to ease out at least a third of his cabinet, critics and even some Council members allied with the mayor have offered a torrent of less-than-charitable suggestions. One head they want on the chopping block: Sadik-Khan, whose aggressively pedestrian-friendly reforms have rubbed some outer-borough advocates the wrong way.

“A lot of elected officials do not like her—Democrats and Republicans—and they have made that known to the mayor,” said one Council member who is close to the administration, adding that it would cost nothing, politically, to cut Sadik-Khan loose. “She doesn’t represent any sort of ethnic group or constituency that the mayor’s trying to pander to.”

Those critics have apparently flooded Sheekey and Skyler with requests to make Sadik-Khan one of the commissioners to get the ax in a third term. But Bloomberg’s advisers and Sadik-Khan herself have indicated to transportation advocates and people close to her that her job is secure. According to a person familiar with the conversation, Bloomberg’s verdict on Sadik-Khan's post-election fate was simple: “More, better, faster.”

“I am of the understanding that people at City Hall and a majority of City Council members are supportive of her tenure, and supportive of her agenda,” said Paul Steely White, the executive director of Transportation Alternatives, which has been supportive of Sadik-Khan. “I think the mayor is inclined to support Janette for many reasons.”

The grumbling from Council members and community advocates, Bloomberg’s aides say, has had no effect on the mayor’s confidence in Sadik-Khan.

“If anything, that would get you promoted around here,” one administration official quipped.

I don't go on those sites but I found the comments on Bike Forums and they really did have a hard on for Janette sK.

I know most of them voted for bloomturd.

It appears some people are getting jewed here.

douche

I think Time's Up! should take this as a call to action. Spend the next six months planning and publicizing a Critical Mass-style ride on Bedford. With two differences: wear as little as you can (bikinis and Speedos recommended) and make it a weekly event through September early in the afternoon in full daylight.

I don't see what difference it makes. I bicycled up Bedford before they painted bike lanes there, do it now, will continue to do it in the future whether or not there are bike lanes. No one pays much attention to them anyway. Yesterday, riding from LIC to Battery Park City, about eight miles, I counted 22 vehicles parked in bike lanes on my route, somewhat above normal but nothing astonishing.

Well, the cars have to go somewhere if they can't be on kent...

Can't say I'm not surprised as it seems like a tradeoff or deal with the Chasidic community over the uproar of Kent Avenue, etc. However, as a cyclist, I'm not comfortable with having bike lanes all over the place. I'm more than willing to ride my bike two blocks over to Kent if I want to stay in a bike lane. It's what I'm used to as a cyclist...

I'd defend the 9th ave'er. It's a bit short (ppl coming from further uptown probably take the west side greenway), and yah, it's a super nice bike lane, but, when I used to live in Chelsea, I'd always take it downtown.

But yah, the Broadway bike lanes are simply too overrun with pedestrians, tourists, and office staff pushing dollies of office supplies, for it to be used as a bike lane. But, it's still nice that Broadway is kinda calmer for pedestrians and bikers generally.

Wonderful news. Perhaps they can get rid of the useless bike lanes on 9th Avenue and also on Broadway. I've seen more people riding bikes on my block than I've ever seen on 9th Avenue or Broadway. They are waste of resources, serving a useless goal.

grandzu, thats not standard procedure for those schoolbuses, that blocking tactic started when the bike lanes were installed on kent, its a protest tactic not a safety tactic.

you prob seen it then thought it was normal, its not.

its a new recent thing.

You're WRONG? - The hasidic bus drivers have been blocking off streets that way long before hipsters were in Williamsburg - their thinking is youre not supposed to drive around a school bus when its dropping off kids so they park that way so that you can't go around them.

It didnt start with the bike lanes.

Disgusting piece of shit humans with their brainswashed mentality. Talking about the hasids, and the hipsters, but mostly the hasids because they are so easy to define.

This is highly suspicious. I know one girl who will not re-route to Kent. Just because there isn't a bike lane there doesn't mean Bedford's off-limits. And if it's really a clothing issue, I'll be sure to wear my best bathing suits henceforth.

Pics or GTFO.

I will be right there with you, in my finest unitard. I'm jewish, but seriously. wtf. That bike lane was my favorite.

hahahahahaaahhaaaah! and just think of all the TA/SB folks who voted for slumberg just to keep their JSK wet dream alive! you know that there are rumors she may get the axe afterall.

oh, man, this is getting juicy! what's next, ticketing cyclists riding over the willy b? oh wait, that's awready been happenin'!

I use this path almost every day, and I can say for sure that Kent is hardly an alternative. I can also say that this MUST be on the urging of the Hasidic community, who have never ceased to demonstrate a near-total disrespect for — or at least galling ignorance of — other members of the community, especially when it comes to bike transit.

Contact the DOT and write letters to them, and TRANSPORTATION alternatives. they usually advocate for bike lanes.

http://www.nyc.gov/html/dot/html/contactdot/assist.shtml

http://www.transalt.org/

The removal of the bike lane is perhaps a small "reward" for voting how they were told to in the city council and mayoral races? Best guess.

+1

bowing to Hasidic pressure? shocking.

I live at Spencer at Myrtle Ave and take Bedford Ave to the Williamsburg bridge literally every day. I cannot think of any other explanation for this than somebody wants me dead. I'm not sure what motorists think they're getting out of this: The cyclists aren't going to go away. We need to get to the Williamsburg bridge. One lane of traffic will still be blocked by bicycle traffic. It will just be less safe for cyclists now. What is wrong with our society that we are willing to sacrifice human life for... Well, I don't know what it's for, another lane of automotive traffic that will end up being used by cyclists and double-parked delivery trucks? This is sadistic.

how long before a cyclist gets hit by a minivan on that stretch of Bedford. now they'll think they can REALLY run cyslists off the road there

I ride bedford all the time. This is just caving to the demands of the Hassids. thats all. same for Kent bike lane-- most probably the developers who built the high rises funded the bike lanes so they could push the trucks & etc off the road and into the inland streets.

IT ALL SUCKS

WHere are the advocates now?

That section between Flushing and Division is dangerous even with the bike lane. I always go slower and take greater care there due to bus-blocking, double-parking, jay-walking and aggressive drivers.

I accept most of this as just having to share the road, but the bus-blocking is really dangerous. The first time I took kent I had a bus do this without warning--no blinker, no stop arm--and I was following behind in my lane. Had to stop short, almost crashed.

Also, there ISN'T a bike lane on Kent Ave between Williamsburg Street West and Clymer St, which is about 2/3 of this distance. So they're diverting bikes from an existing, well-functioning bike lane to a nonexistent one?

just put a bike lane in the G train... it's not like it ever comes.

This is really stupid. This is a direct link from the neighborhoods to the south to the Williamsburg Bridge. The proposed detour is substantial and indirect. The point of building a bike network is that it's a network: you can't pick and choose individual streets based on misguided, unfounded opposition from local residents.

as a bike rider im not shocked that community pressure forced this lane out of one specific highly controversial hood. rerouting to kent wont help, theres a big traffic protest going on every day on kent, bedford and whythe, the only place in nyc where school buses regularly and frequently make large perpendicular stops blocking all two way traffic.

Thats the SOP for Jewish school buses whenever they stop.

Not sure why they'd do that - Bedford is a straight shot all the way to Sheepshead Bay.

I had heard the Jewish community didn't appreciate "scantily clad" female cyclists on Bedford Ave. In my myriad times cycling in this section, I have seen them often walking and push their strollers in the bike lane, I assumed as a passive aggressive way of telling us they don't want us there. And I was once verbally harassed by a Jewish male child. I don't know what he said to me in Hebrew, but I could tell by his inflection that it was not complimentary.

I think he called you bitchcakes.

That I would not have minded :) I don't think anyone has ever given me as disgusted a look as that child. I will never forget it.

Don't worry, in 7 or 8 years that kid won't be allowed to look at or talk to you while he's huddled under the bridge shooting smack and playing circle jerk with his oppressed Hasid buddies.

You guys set that up backstage before commenting, didn't you?