Too many of the bikes there are going too fast. That's really the bottomline.

Bikes and all forms of traffic must always yield to pedestrians.

If you don't know the law you should not be allowed to own your mode of transport.

I'm looking @ these comments and must say I'm a bit disgusted. The word "civility" comes to mind. "Civility" is the capacity for graciously handling the inevitable inconveniences of sharing public spaces with others. Cyclists, would it KILL you, to waive being righteous about this issue and UNDERSTAND that the Brooklyn Bridge walkway is PRIMARILY a promenade for New Yorkers AND tourists alike? Also, where does this anti-tourism thing come from? NYC is a PART of America and arguably the greater free world. Most of the bashers are probably here for 5 years and now think they own the place.

I'm a biker and I say, give the fucking bridge to the tourists and the peds. In return, bikes only, on the Willieburg!

Though tourists may regard NY as a place to go "ooh, pretty..." and blindly wander into bike/car traffic, it's actually my home and I intend to protect it every day without exception. I feel no obligation to make blind tourists feel comfortable and will say "Open your eyes, jackass" whenever it's appropriate, such as on the Brooklyn Bridge. Then they'll have a good story about the mean New Yorkers to take with them back to Akron.

"Then they'll have a good story about the mean New Yorkers to take with them back to Akron."

So you mean your hometown?

idiot.

I'm not sure if you know this, but those tourist dollars pay for a lot of the shit in this city. Stop being such a jackass. Do you not ogle at stuff when you travel overseas? If you're not, then you're not seeing anything that fantastic.

Chill out, dude. Just slow down.

I don't see why you wouldn't take the 10 minute detour and ride over the Manhattan bridge. The time you won't have to spend yelling at tourists, and bouncing over wooden planks would make up for it. I NEVER ride over the Brooklyn bridge. It's common NYC sense.

But I don't yell at tourists and the wooden planks don't bother me. Next argument?

My argument is that:

1. You'll get a touch more exercise.

2. A few minutes (if that?) is not a big deal.

3. You'll make the tourists on the Brooklyn Bridge that much safer. They traveled the world/country to see it. You see it every day. Give them some space, especially since the Manhattan Bridge is right there. I'd be hard pressed to see why it would be more than 5 minutes to go out of the way.

If you work way downtown it makes all the difference in the world. Some of us are not interested in leaving earlier for work just to make tourists happy and comfortable. The Brooklyn Bridge is not some closed attraction, it's still a pathway available to the residents of NYC to use so that they don't have to spend that extra 5-10 minutes biking down from bowery.

And my argument is that if you never ride the Brooklyn Bridge, you cannot make statements about it and assert them to be true. I'm offering overwhelming evidence that suggests this entire argument is overblown.

I hope you don't think I've never ridden the Brooklyn Bridge, because I have on many occasions both in all 4 seasons. I don't think the arguments are overblown, but I'm willing to just chock this up to difference of opinion. I, for one, just rate the Brooklyn Bridge as 0 - Never Use on http://ridethecity.com and let the internets find me a good way to go. There are times (albeit extremely rare times) where I go over the Brooklyn Bridge, but that's for people/tourist watching at low speeds more so than actual transit.

A typical ped cannot hear the bike soon enough before the bike comes whizzing by. Too many of the bikes are simply going too fast on a narrow path.

Tourists are an unpredictable bunch. You'll lose a finger. Tread lightly, don't use flash photography, and god help you if you're having your period.

I would like to second (or third, fourth, whatever the case may be) the opinion of several cyclists here that no reasonable cyclist uses the Brooklyn Bridge between after 7:30am or before 7:30pm between March and October.

In the rare case that riding over the Brooklyn Bridge is necessary, I either come to terms with the fact that I will have to ride slowly for the safety of myself and others, or simply just walk my bike and enjoy the scenery.

The only people who ride like banshees over the crowded bridge are jerks looking for a confrontation who think they're in the velodrome and n00bs on their 1K fixies from the midwest. Real cyclists just take the Manhattan (unless they work right next to the bridge).

I've mentioned it before, but I will reiterate it here: I really think the city should remove the left lane of traffic Brooklyn bound on the car level and dedicate it for bicycles between March and September/October. There is enough bicycle traffic to justify it, and it would allow the elevated pathway to be dedicated purely for pedestrians. It would slow down car traffic some, but the overall impact for other modes of transportation would (in my opinion) outweigh it.

I'm a reasonable cyclist who commutes every day via the BB. I'm one of many. As I explained above, using a bell is very nearly always effective at clearing the bike lane or, at the very least, to signal to someone about to absentmindedly step into the lane to look up. The vast majority of cyclists I encounter on the bridge each day are also reasonably well-behaved (though don't get me started on cyclists not wearing lights during the dark winter months) and the majority of peds on the bridge stick mostly to the ped lane. The screechy generalization that cyclists all ride too fast and act like assholes is false, as is the idea that the bridge is never suitable for two-wheeled transport during the weekday in warmer months. While there are most certainly isolated incidents of assholery (I've seen it and maybe have even been the cause of it once or twice), remember, a single observation does not make a trend.

It's a much more direct route for me (Red Hook -> Financial District). That said, I sometimes take the Manhattan home in the summer. Depends on which is the smaller headache: the Brooklyn Bridge or navigating through not uncrowded and definitely smellier Chinatown.

Just at of curiosity, as someone who sounds extremely reasonable and a good biker, why not take the Manhattan? Is it that much out of the way?

+1 on the cyclists not wearing lights during the dark winter months. Fuck those guys. And fuck the ones going the wrong way on a bike lane on a 1-way street without lights even harder.

Are you out of the fucking mind? There is already a bike lane. The City is not going to turn the already 10-20 minute ride over the Brooklyn Bridge ALONE into a 20-30 or even more minute ride over the bridge by closing a lane for bicycles. That means the line to enter the bridge on the SB FDR in the right lane will now back up all the way to Houston instead of the South St exit which is ludicrous enough.