DIY Bedford Ave Bike Lane Fades to Black in South Williamsburg

Lets not forget Bloomberg ist juden.

"the issue is about the safety of our children."

if this is true, why then do Hasids almost universally jaywalk? They must think themselves immortal or invincible. I've seen mothers wantonly push strollers into dense, moving traffic on a daily basis.

Why do none of the "news" sources talk about this fact? If it is truly a safety issue, then the Hasidic community is essentially demanding that culpability be placed on anyone other than themselves. Considering this, their complaints of cyclists disobeying the law ring hollow (at least to me).

Personally I'm of the mind that the bike lane here serves more as an impediment to the flow of traffic since it provides some buffer between traffic and parked cars - i.e. a perfect place for jaywalkers to lead off from the curb and for the ubiquitous minivans to double-park. If cyclists ride IN traffic as a part of it, at least they don't have to live in perpetual fear of getting doored or slamming into a Rebbe who decides to stroll across an avenue without so much as a glance toward traffic.

"Kids are being knocked over by bikers almost every day."

I don't know about everyday, but about a month ago I plowed into a child on Lee Ave. Considering he ran across two lanes (three if you count the cyclists) of fast-moving traffic, that was my fault right?

This hypocrisy disgusts me. Game on. I refuse to play the villain to their several-millennia-long sob story.

just so we're clear, anyone who has an opinion on this one way or another is automatically a hipster (yes, even the jews).

crystal

The kids and the buses is something crazy. I live on Bedford Avenue. I drive my car when I need to go far and I ride my bike for everything locally.

There is no bus stops for the kids. The buses drop each kid off at their door. This means the bus pulls over diagonally on Bedford Avenue every 50 feet or so. Imagine this fast paced City with drivers who now just wants to get in front of this bus! People have schedules (work, trains and plain schedules). Cyclist are in the same position.

What they need to do is provide dedicated bus stops and their guardians should pick them up from these bus stops. That is what my parents did when I was a child. No bus dropped me off at my house (what a luxury). The buses on Bedford are aggrevating!.. Change the process, don't drop the lines for cyclist who can't win. If you ride on the sidewalk you'll get fined. If you ride on the streets you risk your life.

-M

Guys,

Please don't fear of sounding anti-semetic by going against a bike lane! This has nothing to do with religion or race on the other side. If anyone goes against the well-being of your life and the life of your children, you have a reason to fight.

The community argues that they don't want to see semi-naked women riding in their neighborhood. What kind of crap is this? Isn't this America. No laws are being broken when a woman to decides to wear shorts and a t-shirt and rides her bike in Brooklyn (or anywhere). Wake up! This is not fair and it is sexist.

Bike lanes gives a false sense of security? So does the banking system. So does the health care systems. So does our family structure. So does the food we eat and the bed we sleep in, but do we discontiue them? Do we hold our money in our mattresses? Do we try to cure cancer with vitimans? Do we sleep on the streets when we have the secure bed at home? NO! We try to provide some sense of security and removing the lines does exactly the opposite. It will prevent new riders from embracing the love for our planet and the next generation. Based on public survey, bike lanes is of the most importance.

We need to fight this crap! We own Brooklyn, not a small community dictating safety meassures.

Hey, if a bunch of doofuses dressed as clowns on bikes gets the Hasids all riled up, I'll all for it.

And for those of you who doubt scantily-clad cyclists had anything to do with this decision, take a moment to read the comments on this local Hasid blog.

I hate people... but especially stupid Hipsters who decide to have jazz funerals over their stupid shit.

"activists"

HA!

hee hee, bike post!

it's truly an 0rgy of cyclical proportions.

Agreed! I can't believe the trolls would have enough energy to argue in another bike post... but I guess that is what happens when you have no job and no life.

Clowns? Funeral processions?

We have now crossed the fine line into insanity.

www.forgotten-ny.com

Hey, speaking of insanity, have you ever heard the one about people spending their entire lives worshipping imaginary deities cooked up thousands of years ago?

I've seen one of these "New Orleans-style Funeral Processions" in Greenpoint.

A bunch of silly hipsters exploiting and mocking black culture and an American institution for their own childish purposes.

When are these Peter Pans ever going to grow up?

Is there something in the water in the midwest that inhibits the production of human growth hormone in these people?

And yet, strangely enough, nothing like what you talk about happens in the Midwest. Perhaps it's something in the water in New York...

Ok dude. We get it. You despise everyone from the Midwest. You've made that bias really clear. Duly noted.

Thing is - and I know I'm stating the obvious to the oblivious - that there actually are some bike-owners in Brooklyn, who are from ... yes, Brooklyn. Or even from other parts of NYC. I know that makes it harder to figure out who to hate, but reality can be inconvenient like that sometimes.

"thefacts" hates bikes and he hates out-of-towners. The latter attitude makes him feel superior just because of an accident of birth, despite the fact that many "midwesterners" have achieved far more and contributed more to this country in their lifetimes than he ever will. His is a mind filled with parochialism and bigotry. As for the former, he believes that bikes are toys that belong in the parks, not on the streets as a sustainable, low-impact transportation option.

I suppose that's as crazy as circling a live chicken over one's head and the killing it in a traffic cone.

Yes. It is. And what do two highly ridiculous and entirely incommensurate acts add up to again?

that, I don't know but obviously one group has the mayor's ear.

I want to see a story about the public housing on kent ave. beautiful one story homes with driveways. all public housing. how come only hasidic families get them? How come all the gentiles are in the filthy projects? Please gothamist, do some research and a story on this.

Here, I'll do it for you: The Hasidim have a strong sense of community. Reap what you sow.

"all the gentiles are in filthy projects" - Wow! Reads like a propaganda poster - how large would you draw their noses?

there you go again CR, pulling out the anti-semitsim card again. it must be wonderful to have an answer for every thing that might be critisim. its anti-semitism!

please. the fact that I judge people who have 12 children and go on welfare and get the city to give them single story housing for free, cause they cant take elevators on weekends, and who dont get along with their neighbors does NOT make me anti-semitic. I'm a free thinking person who doesnt like injustice or inequality when I see it. One day when you're honest with yourself, you'll see I'm right.

I'm the liberalist liberal on Liberal Street, and I agree with freepalestine. In no way am I anti-semitic, no way, no how. It wouldn't matter what reason the Hasidic community gave for all of the crap they pull, be it religion or anything else. They could be Octopus Worshippers in clown suits and I would still think it's wrong to be systematically on public assistance while having wallets full of cash, and building housing with no zoning laws because they are their own community (upstate) plus driving like jerks and treating the world like a giant garbage can. The Amish have their own community and they keep to themselves, grow their own food and bother no one.

"I can't believe they are dedicating resources to make sure cyclists are less safe than more safe. Well Said Comrade. Watch Bloomberg do more damage that defies logic to reward back all his endorsers.

I would argue that a bike lane makes you LESS safe because it gives many a false sense of protection when all it is is a line in the road. Pay attention you whiny brats, or go back to Ohio.

"go back to Ohio"? can't you come up with a new one?

Seriously. And btw, Ohioans are very nice people who drive respectfully on the highways. Whenever I go there I am taken aback by the courtesy. It is possible!

oh then I guess you are against bike safety helmets as well? I'm not from Ohio. Not all NYers drive gas guzzling cars to McDonalds. Some actually are fit, active and progressive.

And yes we know cars "guzzle" gas, that is because they run on gas most of the time. Stop spoweing your filthy regurgitated liberal lines and think for yourself you filthbag.

I ride my bike just fine with or without a bike lane because I have eyes and ears.

Ok, it is great that you ride safely without a lane but why are you so against a lane for those who need to use a lane (beginner cyclists/ elderly cycists). Cars kill not bikes and Some cyclists need a lane. How does a Lane HARM You?

"progressive", or your definition of progressive.

NAKED RIDE IN BROOKLYN!!!!

Carl Solomon! I'm with you in Rockland

where you're madder than I am

guess those voters objecting to the Grand Street bike lane are chopped liver.

so now who's beholden to whom? The mayor is his own man. He's a self made billionaire and answers to no one? he's not politics as usual.

should I go on??????

I'd rather have a mayor answering to no one than a bunch of religious dickheads... oh wait.

"I can't believe they are dedicating resources to make sure cyclists are less safe than more safe

I propose banning cycling on all NYC streets as the cheapest way to make sure cyclists are more safe.

"Kids are being knocked over by bikers almost every day."

Makes perfect sense. Very reasonable. I can see that being perfectly true. No statistics are being skewed here. Case closed.

i call bullshit! bike lane is on the left, children are let out of the right side of a bus. so unless the busdriver is pulling to the left side of the street and letting children off directly into traffic the bike lane is not impeding buses in any way.

Believe it or not they pull the buses over at a 45 degree angle, blocking every lane of traffic and let the kids out that way. F*cktards

@petebfd: Actually, NYC school buses have doors on both the right and left sides because the one-way streets allow pick-up and drop-off on either side of the street. And in fact, on that stretch of Bedford there is almost always a line-up of school buses on the left (bike lane) side of the street. So no, while the argument of having kids walk 9 or 10 feet to the curb might be specious, it is not false.

NICE CATCH!

It doesn't matter where on the street the bus stops, once the stop sign is out, you can't pass it on either side. This applies to people on bikes also.

This is absolutely true, but it's irrelevant to the argument that Moskowitz was making: "...When buses can't pull into the bike lane, it's a safety issue. Kids are being knocked over by bikers almost every day. If you had kids would you want them dropped off nine or ten feet from the curb? "

What difference does it make if the bus drops the kids off next to the curb or 10 feet away when all traffic is stopped? If his assertion that kids are being "knocked over by bikers almost every day" is true (which I doubt, especially when not backed up by any evidence, anecdotal or otherwise) then the problem isn't a bike lane in this case, it stems for cyclists not following the rules of the road.

I've never been to williamburg but did see this story on the news, they show a school bus stopped diagonally across a one lane street to drop off children. and of course the anti bike bias shown by the reporter. I've never seen a school bus stop like that.

I suppose that's done to block the bike lane.

I've seen school buses stopped diagonally across the street in Wmsburg multiple times. They constantly do it. They worry about the "safety" of the children but continue to drive like a-holes and almost run down other people all the time. Kids get knocked over by bikes EVERY DAY? Sure they do.

Religious zealots who hide behind their children? Who would ever have imagined?

Although, if it ever did happen, it's unfortunate. Any cyclist who doesn't stop to let kids off a school bus is a cocksmoke.