"Topless" Bedford Bike Lane Protest Draws Media, Clothed Cyclists

Pussy-ass Bitches !

lyla durden obviously a fake name. based off of tyler durden from fight club.

...standing in the snow with fake rubber breasts hanging outside her coat, told us, "I'm really clumsy, and without a bike lane I'm a sitting duck."

Seriously?

I am very supportive of increased bike lanes in NYC, but why aren't the bicyclists in the pictures above wearing helmets?

Bike helmets dramatically lower the likelihood of you being injured or killed in the event of an accident.

To participate in a protest about improving bike safety on a snowy, slippery road and not wear a helmet sends a very mixed message and speaks to a broader problem within the bicycling community. It is akin to protesting for more funding for AIDS care while refusing to use condoms yourself.

That being said, it's completely disgusting that Bloomberg caved on this and many other environmental issues-- they should restore this bike lane and create many more.

Anybody that rides a bike in this city has a death wish.

You f-ing idiots, there is a bike lane three blocks over on a much less busy street. Did anyone ever think they're taking the bike lane out because it would be better if bike traffic through this area took this much safer alternate route? It interesting how many people who comment that they need a bike lane for safety reasons are totally unwilling to wear a helmet.

You're making the curious and incorrect assumption that people riding bicycles will go only where there are bicycle lanes. I ride one, and I use Bedford Avenue when it's convenient regardless of whether lanes are painted on the street. In deference to the wishes of the Hasidim, however, I now make sure to take up a full traffic lane the whole time I am in the South Williamsburg area.

no, starrygordon, I'm not assuming that bikers only travel where bike lanes are present, I'm stating that bike lanes denote major arteries where bike traffic travels and that there is a much safer route for that artery three blocks over. You can make the curious and incorrect assumption that this is some religious conspiracy against bike riders all you want, but I think you should probably take up the whole lane no matter what neighborhood you are in if you don't want to be ran over.

A couple years back I was walking down Tottenham Court Road in London doing a little shopping when a mob of hundreds of nude cyclists made their way down the road. I'm not sure what they were protesting, but they certainly stopped traffic and every passerby in their wake. It was shocking...and hilarious...and awesome...and also very, very COLD!!!

Whether right or wrong, I'd say the Brooklyn cyclists missed an opportunity!!

This is weird..actually I am not sure whether the people able to get whatever they are protesting,..yeah, they were able to be notice by lot of people but not the thing they were up to(just my opinion)...

Search Criminal Records

You probably saw the "World Naked Bike Ride" or whatever it's called which takes place in a bunch of cities, including NYC, every year.

Yes I remember that event. And the world supply of cheap Scottish whiskey was depleted for almost a year.

Fuck these Hasidics.

Want to live where you're not subjected to scantily clad women?

Go live somewhere else assholes.

Tired of BS religion trumping common fucking sense.

OK I read the report. In the report it stated.

"The main cause of crashes seems to be 'failed to look properly'. In my incident I looked properly and it was the two idiot bicycle riders that didn't look properly.

Motorcycle riders are now required to have their headlights on in the daytime. SO THEY ARE MORE VISIBLE! How about doing something like that so bicyclists become more visible? Like wearing day-glo vests similar to highway workers. And having a license number on their vests so idiot riders can be tracked.

Also New York at last look isn't in the UK. What are you a blathering fool?

The above was meant as a response to Jym

All these shenanigans about bike lanes is silly, but if the Hasidic Jews have an issue with people's clothing they should suck it up. You're the one choosing to follow a ridiculously strict set of rules. If seeing someone in lycra is that offensive, go somewhere else. It's not like they're harassing or hurting you.

The Orthodox Jews probably pay 5000% more in property and city income taxes than the hipsters that rent and have little taxable income do. Their mega event halls and Temples are very pretty and border some rough areas (Crown Heights, Bed-Stuy). Those also come with huge taxes.

So why shouldn't their opinions---when it comes to city planning---be listened to?

So I don't see the big deal here. This is what representative government is about. It's not about everyone being progressive or everyone being conservative.

Their temples & halls are tax exempt... and the Hasids have one of the highest rates of welfare of any ethnic group in the city. Don't assume that they are paying their fair share of anything!

=v= Think this through. Hipsters, for the most part, are north of the Williamsburg Bridge. The contested bike lanes head south, to the non-hipsterly parts of Brooklyn.

uh, jym, bedford ave head NORTH!! google map it.

as for lack of lycra, its not just a brooklyn thing; its just a roadie thing. d-uh!

And that's a perfectly good reason to suspend the separation of Church and State?

If they want to live in a Theocracy, there are Vatican City, Saudi Arabia or Israel. Three choices. Not America.

The Orthodox Jews probably pay 5000% more in property and city income taxes than the hipsters that rent and have little taxable income do.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but don't Gothamist commenters constantly complain that hipsters and other gentrifiers drive rents and property values up by paying too much? If they have the income to support such ridiculous rent, it stands to reason that they pay much more in income taxes compared with Orthodox Jews that generally don't have high-paying jobs, especially if you believe the reports that the community there relies heavily on government programs.

Of course renters don't pay property taxes. But their landlords do. Unless there's some kind of ludicrous imbalance in property tax assessments between Hasidic and gentile property owners in the same neighborhoods, there really shouldn't be a 50 to 1 disparity in tax payments as you claim. And if the city really was assessing Hasidic properties at 50x more than those they don't own, I would think we would have heard the howls of protest and seen lawsuits claiming religious discrimination.

Their mega event halls and Temples are very pretty and border some rough areas (Crown Heights, Bed-Stuy). Those also come with huge taxes.

Really? Religious property is almost always tax-exempt. Where exactly did you get that assumption from?

=v= Outside of the roadies training in Prospect Park, when do you actually see lycra on a Brooklyn cyclist? Not very often. It's just a stupid cliché.

True. It really doesn't have to be spandex. "Immodest" clothing can refer to shorts, halter tops or tank tops where the Hasids are concerned.

Their is nothing in Jewish law that prohibits the chosen ones from wearing synthetic fiber clothing. In fact most of the synthetic fiber clothing was at one time produced by those of the Jewish faith. Witness the pink polyester leisure suits that were so popular during the seventies.

When Hasids see lycra it reminds them of Nazi Germany. That's why they don't like lycra.

"I want to see some boobs," shouted a lone NYPD officer (seen here)..."

What, he doesn't see enough in the mirror each morning?

""I want to see some boobs,"

I thought that anyone who sat there in the cold for two hours hoping to see a few topless cyclists was a boob, too. What losers!

Damn, you beat me to it!

(+1)

"I'm really clumsy, and without a bike lane I'm a sitting duck." Classic!

Riding your bike in the snow is far more dangerous than riding in a bike-lane-less street in nice weather.

I was looking out the window two minutes ago and there was a poor guy on a bicycle with a basket on the front that looked like a food deliveryman doing his job.

In two blocks he lost control of his bike twice and the last I saw of him he was walking the bike.

Who are the heartless bastards that would call for a delivery in this kind of weather?

I was wondering why my Moo Shoo Pork was taking so long.

Meant to type shoe instead of shu. That's what I get for trying to be a snarky.

"I'm tired of seeing ghost bikes," Well if bike riders actually respected the rules of the road there might be a few less, bike lanes or not.

As I was parking my car today at Pier 40, one of the few crossovers on the Hudson River Park bike trail, not one but two aholes bikers went through the red stoplight that is suppose to prevent bikers from getting cross checked by vehicles crossing. I sped up and fake swerved like I was going to run him over. Boy did his eyes light up. And then the ahole looks at me like I was in the wrong.

=v= The notion that bicyclists are to blame for their deaths is blathered by anonymous blog commenters with dreary regularity, generally by motorists who don't give a second thought to all the laws they routinely feel entitled to break.

Problem is, this oft-blathered notion has never been supported by real collision statistics, and a recent U.K. study that actually focused on risky behavior found that even that's not much of a factor:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2009/dec/15/cycling-bike-accidents-study

wow. you are a total asshole. You might as well wave a gun in their faces and say the same thing. your car can kill someone, and it is your duty to operate it with civil responsibility. to use your car to "teach someone a lesson" shows you don't deserve to drive. maybe you should try riding a bike around the city for the winter and learn a little bit about what it means to be hassled by self-righteous drivers such as yourself.

This ride may have been a bad idea, and not accomplished much. But all you've accomplished is making me want to pull you out of your car and "teach you a lesson".

wow. really. wow. makes me even more proud for having slapped a driver through his window for such juvenile and dangerous antics. clown.

One more thing. Never bring a knife to a gun fight.

i would gladly bring a chain lock to your windshield, though, for threatening me with your car.

maybe that would "teach you a lesson" in the same sort of manner.

again, anyone who uses a potentially deadly weapon, such as an automobile, to make a point to another user of the road, whether driver or cyclist, demonstrates only that they do not deserve the PRIVILEGE of driving. Both "Snoopy" and "The Facts" are evidence of a dangerous mentality. You do not own the road any more than any cyclist, and you have absolutely no right to use your car to try and enforce rules of the road. Once you become a police officer, then you have some credence. Until then, you're just a road-rage fueled, overly entitled, self righteous asshole.

As a driver and cyclist, you make me sick.

Fine put a chain lock through my window. I have a no deductible glass breakage insurance. Is your life insurance paid up?

Love it!!

You were 100% in the right. Some of these arrogant cyclists think their shit don't smell.

When I had a car, one day I sees in my rearview mirror a cyclist endangering himself and others as well as risking accidents by recklessly cutting in and out between fast cars on Fifth Avenue. Of course, if he were hit, the ghost bikes and lawsuits would spring up.

So, just as he gets to my rear bumper and attempts to squeeze into the narrow space between me and the adjacent driver, I just move a few inches closer to the adjacent car. Just an inch or two, but enough to prevent his reckless adventuring. The fucker went crashing to the ground, ego and bike bruised, as I innocently kept up with traffic.

Indeed, never bring a knife to a gunfight.

You're lucky it was probably some poor bike messenger. If you did that to me I'd have my lawyer take you to the shed.

You'd sue for what?

That I moved slightly to the left while safely driving within my own lane and some reckless cyclist almost rear ended me while he was cutting in and out of traffic at twice the speed of the cars?

You cannot be sued for being rear ended. It is presumptive that the person in the rear is at fault.

I take it you are not a lawyer, nor know what you are talking about in general, like most rogue cyclists.

When driving a motor vehicle it is not really a good idea to mess around with pedestrians, bicyclists, skaters, etc. Under many circumstances, like heavy traffic, one can do a lot of damage to a car and even attack the driver and then conveniently escape. The driver can attempt to get out and pursue the attacker, but while getting out he's at a considerable disadvantage to direct physical attack, and if he leaves the car the attacker may circle back and administer further damage. Often, too, rough types like messengers travel with friends, allies, gang members. To parody Machiavelli, if you're going to strike at a bicyclist or pedestrian you had better kill him.

Of course, blustering on this blog and telling tall stories about your driving derring-do is quite safe, so feel free about that.

Amazing. You keep managing to reveal yourself as more and more of an asshole.

Keeping up with traffic was the right thing to do. I notice a lot of drivers that are oblivious to the conditions around them and drive as if they all by their own lonesome. I normally come up real close to them and then lay on the horn to wake them up.

"hassled by self-righteous drivers"

Did someone rewrite a law saying that bikers need a bigger break when it comes to disobeying the law? Screw them. They have no more right to circulation around New York than someone who happens to be walking or driving.

And don't give me that carbon footprint shit. Anyone running a red light is fair game if you ask me.

"Anyone running a red light is fair game if you ask me."

So that means I get to take a bat to every motor vehicle I see blow through reds? I can't wait to see THEIR eyes light up. Thanks for the go-ahead.

Well, you weren't really in the wrong but you were still being an asshole. For every cyclist that ignores the red light at that crossing, there's a taxi or bus that goes through regardless of what signal is on.

OK so maybe I was being a jerk. But it was very enjoyable. I bet he will think twice the next time he approaches that crossing. That's called educating the masses one at a time.

Doctor Christopher Thompson decided to do the same "teach those cyclists a lesson" in LA. He's now facing 10 years in San Quintin. You ready to do a dime in Rikers for your theories?

He probably won't. He'll just remember the time he encountered some asshole there and ride obliviously onward.

Oh it was too "cold"... In December!!! These kids have been makin idiots of themselves over all this, but to pussy out cuz it's cold and snowing -EPIC FAIL.

Ther shouldn't be one more stupid thing about this bike lane or these idiot hipster on this site ever again.

I think the joke's on you, buddy.

=v= I wasn't supportive of this action and I'm glad that Ms. Loop backed off from her earlier, divisive remarks. I'm actually glad that they used fake boobs (something I'm usually very unfond of).

Let's not forgot that there are pro-bike lane Hasids, including some who worked to restripe that bike lane. So this whole "hipsters vs. Hasids" makes no sense, but I suppose the tabloids can't resist their alliterations.

Thanks for one of the few level-headed comments in this conversation.

For real. What happened to all the threats and manifestos? Did the Weather Underground documentary not come in time from Netflix? Were they unsure of what to do? Since when do protests have weather delays?

Agreed.

These guys have lost all credibility. This is the second major failure by these charlatans and attention-seeking whiners, these YUNNIES who really believe in a city of over 8 million that "It's all about me".

>>>A group of 15-20 fully clothed cyclists pedaled by, trailed by almost twice as many photographers, TV news crews, and assorted media.

Jeez, I wish I had their publicity people to work for...

www.forgotten-ny.com

Just host a Forgotten NY event promising nude women an you're guaranteed a solid response.