NY Post Now Simply Publishing Anti-Bike Lane Letters

John Del Signore/Gothamist

The NY Post HATES the bike lanes because they take street space away from cars, and they inconvenience columnist Steve Cuozzo when he walks to work through Times Square. But it's a challenge to come up with a new rabble-rousing anti-cyclist article seven days a week. So to fill the gap when there's no bike lane "news" to "report," the tabloid has come up with an easy solution: just pull some anti-bike lane mail from the inbox to fill the column inches. Voila, the haterade is stirred another day! Here's what NY Post reader G. Davis of Staten Island has to say:

God bless Police Commissioner Ray Kelly and the NYPD for cracking down on violations by bicycle riders. These bikers are arrogant, obnoxious and dangerous to pedestrians and motorists. They obviously think that they own the streets and are above the law. This applies not just to food delivery people, but to bikers who commute and recreational bikers, as well.

To be fair, the Post also publishes a letter from a cyclist—who hates the bike lanes, too! And then there's Upper East Side resident Mark Robertson, who says the NYPD's crackdown on cyclists hasn't gone far enough. "Most evenings I count several delivery guys riding on the sidewalks and bicyclists going the wrong way on one-way streets—both of which pose a very real danger to pedestrians," writes Robertson. "If the city is cracking down on this blight, I've yet to see any evidence in my neighborhood."

We're all for ticketing cyclists who ride on the sidewalks and put pedestrians at risk. But the NYPD's obsession with cyclists is so seemingly disproportionate to their pursuit of reckless drivers that it's getting a little fetishistic. Careless maniacs on bikes can do just as much harm as careless maniacs behind the wheel, but the overwhelming majority of injuries and deaths in the city are caused by drivers, not cyclists. Just ask the neighbor of Liz Padilla, who was the first to comment on the Post's latest cyclist smear:

I suppose this ticket blitz crackdown initiative is Bloomberg’s way of placating a few loud constituents upset by bike lanes. In June 2005 my next door neighbor, newlywed pro-bono lawyer Liz Padilla, was killed on 5th Ave (Pk Slope) as she swerved her bike into traffic avoiding a swinging trucker’s door. She was riding within the “suggested” bike lane. Rather than waste inane efforts (licensing+ticketing) that discourage bikers, let’s be bold and promote more 24/7 bike-only avenues... We need more dedicated bike-only lanes and avenues.

For the record, the first ghost bike installed in NYC was for Elizabeth Padilla. After the accident, the NYPD did not make any arrest or issue any summonses.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By John Del Signore in News on January 27, 2011 2:55 PM

Comments [rss]

69GeorgeWBush69

Whenever I'm on the subway and see someone reading the NY Post, I can automatically assume that they are of low intelligence.

MagyarKornel

This article convinced me to join to my first Critical Mass event.

Mystery_man

I go on like 4 hour bike rides almost everytime I ride.......shit is the best.

Mystery_man

Biking is like one of the best things anyone could ever do. Go fast on two wheel, and see things that you normally don't see around your neighborhood. Take breaks, walk, hit my b**l. lol. Mad fun.

Mystery_man

Wow! Ppl complaining about bike lanes. Oviously some farty, lazy, outta shape heads saying that shit. F**kin snoots.......damn. Everyone jump on their bikes!!!!!!!!!!!!!

MagyarKornel

In Europe where I'm from, the media is showcasing New York City
as a good example of the bike friendly metropolitan city. In the
Big Apple there are improvements and progress towards a more
bicycle friendly traffic. The statistics look good, on the screen!

From the other hand, I used to live in Queens and worked at JFK
mostly commuting by bike back and forth my job. It was intense!
For the bad luck, my bike got stolen from my van parked one
block far from the police station. I got over it with time.

Soon after I moved upstate NY
and still riding bike all year long.

In my eyes, people got themselves isolated from each other
and lacking connection to others. We've got remote control
garage doors so we won't have to leave our car, but at the
same time we can't talk to our neighbors either.

Bikes and cars are here to stay. It's a two way street
and everyone should be courteous to each other regardless
how many wheels they are on. It all shimmer down to eye contact!

Here's an eye opening link to the subject:
http://momentumplanet.com/vide...

Dubai Directory

Leave this to government, instead of posting your own ideas why you people are arguing and leaving comments on the posts of other...

random transplant

"Fetishistic" is a good way to wrap your head around all of it.

As in the automobile fetishist's insecurity about something which challenges their greatest investment & expression as a consumer while simultaneously suggesting their unhealthy lifestyle could be improved if only they got off their fat asses.

The Great Arturo Bandini

Projecting jealousy and "fetishistic" tendencies onto your perceived enemies is the internet equivalent of "well, my Mom still thinks I'm cool."
Do you have a riding a bike for ten miles in the snow fetish?

You know, I've ridden a bike in NYC for 25 years and never felt the need to make it political. I think this is just more of the "Look at me" attention seeking that pervades our fat ass do-nothing culture you pretend to rail against.

random transplant

I wasn't posting in this thread yesterday because I was out on a ride, yes.

In the psychological sense of the word, yes I do have a 'material/symbolistic' fetish for my own bike. And, to some extent, my car.

If you've been riding anywhere in America for the last generation and haven't felt the need to make it political, you've been letting other riders pick up your slack.

I've been biking almost daily for 75% of my life, a generation as well -
its unavoidably political. Such a simple thing shouldn't have to be.

The Great Arturo Bandini

To someone, like me, who uses all four modes of transportation discussed here, or to any normal person, you sound like a lunatic.
If you continue like this you will never do more than preach to fellow bike activists.

random transplant

Who do you think you are?

You think your exceptional because your a transportation omnivore?

Factually, is there anything I've said that is nonsensical? I'd like to know. If your going to call me names, you should say why.

The Great Arturo Bandini

For all or even most people to bike to work is an impossible thing. Most simply live too far. You want to give a small percentage of people living in Manhattan and 3 or 4 neighborhoods in Brooklyn 25%-50% of the road space. The sense of entitlement here is ridiculous

Rod

this is again the fault of people like you who voted for rudy and bloomtard, who helped evict over 400,000 manhattanites and push them far away from their jobs.

and now manhattan enjoys 200,000 + units of empty luxury condos.

Ragingsemi

Like someone else was saying on this post...everyone talks about how cyclists are dangerous to pedestrians...I think it's the other way around pedestrians are dangerous to cyclists. I can't count how many times I've narrowly avoided hitting a pedestrian, (which would have injured me as well) that was jaywalking, or in cellphone/ipod land. Peds need to be more aware of us cyclists just as cyclists should not ride like assholes pedestrians shouldn't walk like assholes either.

FallOut

So you don't ever walk? You are never a pedestrian?

Ragingsemi

Of course I walk...But when I do I'm mindful of my surroundings, and that includes cyclists.

FallOut

Oh, I see: pedestrians are "assholes" -
except if the pedestrian is you.

ROTFL

Ragingsemi

are you ROTFL, not just regular old LOLing, but not quite to ROFLMAO or PMSL?...Dumb Ass.

JimboGold853OKG

If you read any Steve Cuozzo writings on food, transportation policy and bikers, you quickly realize he's filled with hate and bile for everyone who isn't white, rich, male and over 50 -- with the exception of the blonde arm candy usually attached to said men. On the other hand, he's a decent commercial real estate writer, though not in the class of Lois Weiss, Charles Bagli or many others.

Tom Hughes

Biking makes cities more livable, cars make cities less livable. It's true in every city in the world, New York is no exception.

The Great Arturo Bandini

Ask the guy from Ozone Park how "livable" it would be to ride his bike to his Midtown office job in January.

Rod

well that's republican bloomtard's fault that the guy can't choose to live within walking distance of his job.

smorrebrod

Like most car-discouraging societies, he could depend on public transpo for commuting to the CBDs and bicycling for quick trips around the neighborhood. And even keep a car for long-hauls and COSTCO or IKEA to stock up on toilet paper and shitloads of orange juice. Instead of the bus to the train, he could ride his bike to it and leave it securely there.

No one has to be restricted to just one mode of transport, one can enjoy them all in a transport cocktail!

The Great Arturo Bandini

Again. Please read my comments before assuming that I'm only for cars.

smorrebrod

You said "Ask the guy from Ozone Park how "livable" it would be to ride his bike to his Midtown office job in January. "
Well, biking to work clearly does not work everyone. There's no way I'd ride a bike from Ozone Park to Midtown.
You're implying that cycling advocates want the bicycle to trump all other modes of transpo. That simply is not true.
But perhaps, someone could ride their bikes from Ozone Park to Roosevelt Avenue or Woodhaven Blvd on the Queens Blvd Line, instead of taking the slow tedious route with the bus or with the J.
Cycling advocates just want to make the bicycle a more prominent part of the transport cocktail.

petercow

The #1 thing that would make Ozone Park more 'livable', and also increase property values there, is re-activation of the old Rockaway Branch of the LIRR with some kind of service to Manhattan.

The Great Arturo Bandini

Which is just parroting what I said above. Reading is fundamental.

JarekAF

I see where you're going but you're really making Tom's point.

Because are you suggesting that the Automobile is the answer? The way things stand today, if he were to drive (i) it wouldn't be much quicker than the train; (ii) it'd cost a hell of a lot to park; (iii) think of the mad traffic; and (iv) now, imagine if most people who live in Ozone Park who commuted to Midtown, did the same thing. That'd add a lot to Congestion.

I say, take the train. Cheap, no fuss, you can read a magazine and listen to the ipod.

And, I know quite a few ppl who make similiar commutes by bike. My longest was UES (the part not close to the train, but, would've been close to the 2nd ave subway, whenever that happens) to FiDi, 6 miles each way, all season around. It was great exercise.

Livable isn't just about bikes. And my immediate neighborhood, LES, we get tons of cars passing through b/c of the WillyB. They're not stopping in my hood, they're just passing through and it's annoying seeing all these cars pass through all day. These streets are also neighborhoods and it's about time we reclaim them (marginally, not saying eliminate all cars or anything remotely like that), such that, they serve the residents and not just people in transit in their cars.

The Great Arturo Bandini

You must have breezed past my half dozen or so comments about improving our public transportation infrastructure as well as our highway infrastructure.
Reading comprehension, people!

JarekAF

I was responding to your direct comment. You have a million posts on here, I don't keep track.

***

You were much more civil yesterday. Bad morning?

petercow

Right. People don't need parks in the wintertime either. What a waste of space!

The Great Arturo Bandini

Your facile analogies are getting tiresome.

petercow

LOL. This is from a guy who mentions Disraeli and Mark Twain in response to data?

Still waiting for ANY, ANY data you have...

I thought so.

The Great Arturo Bandini

I'll take common sense over fraudulent data.

According to you, taking away a lane of traffic on PPW doesn't make traffic more congested, nor does it make for more congested traffic on 8th or 7th Avenues. That is physically impossible. Where do the cars go? Are you honestly saying all those drivers, including families bringing small children to school, the elderly, handicapped and delivery drivers simply said "fuck it" and grabbed bikes? Should the old ladies, toddlers, infants and wheelchair bound just get off their fat asses?

petercow

Translation: You have no data. If you did, you'd be trumpeting it to the high heavens.

Newsflash: facts aren't fraudulent just because you don't like them, or can't understand them.

If you were at the meeting - you could have asked your question, and in fact the question was raised.

PPW wasn't congested before, nor is it congested now. The issue on PPW was speeding by cars, and bicyclists riding on the sidewalk.

The lanes have ameliorated both.

If you had one scintilla of data supporting your position, you'd be running your mouth - as clearly that is something you don't have a problem doing.

Who knows if Steisel/Weinshall/Carswell will bring some kind of legal action - I tend to doubt it, but if they do, I pray that you are the witness they call to refute the data.

Did name-dropping Disraeli or Twain have your fifth grade teacher fawning over you?

http://picasaweb.google.com/In...

The Great Arturo Bandini

You sound like you're still in fifth grade.
Grow up.

You still didn't answer my question.
Where do all the cars go?

Rod

peter's right: you are an IDIOT who can barely read.

petercow

You're an idiot. The cars are still there. Read the data.

petercow

OK, for those interested, here are pictures I took of the slides presented by DoT at the CB 2 meeting last week at the Old Reformed Church in Park Slope.

Apologies for the quality and any dupes. I haven't looked through them. I was just clicking.

http://picasaweb.google.com/In...

SwampYankee

Thank God we had bike lanes today so we could all cycle to work!!

Rod

yay!

I DID!

adeez

"Fetishistic" is right. The fixation people have with bikers is bizarre. It's definitely some weird ego thing.

"These bikers are arrogant, obnoxious" says the genius at the Post. So, when I'm riding my bike around the city, I'm an arrogant asshole, but when I'm walking or behind the wheel of my car, I'm cool?

Maybe they're jealous in some weird way? I dunno. As someone who does all three of the above - as well as take public transit - with frequency, I think the bike hatred is fuckin ludicrous.

The Great Arturo Bandini

Jealousy, huh?
Do you really think they're jealous of you for riding a bike in traffic?

Or that because they think many/most bikers are obnoxious they therefore don't think drivers are?

Rod

of course peds and cars are jealous of cyclists.

we're free AND "free"!

Purp

The safest route for cyclists is avoiding the bike lane.

There are so many strollers, joggers, car doors, delivery trucks, cop cars, food carts, pedestrians, cars turning left etc that riding in the bike lane has become MUCH more dangerous for cyclists than riding in the street.

It is VERY difficult to avoid every pedestrian and parked car in the bike lane, and the only way to do so is to suddenly swerve into moving traffic. It's much safer to just always stay in traffic.

random transplant

The bike lane is that strip of pavement between you & the doors.

I'd rather ride in a road with a lane than a road without a bike lane right next to cars.

FallOut

I agree with you. These whiners who are fighting for bike lanes likely learned to ride in some cul-de-sac in the suburbs, and want to turn NYC into that safe, little, secure cul-de-sac.

facted

Yes, god forbid we turn NYC into a a SAFER city for bikers and pedestrians alike. I just LOVE the thought of cars going 50+ mph, crashing into bus stops, sidewalks, and the pedestrians that are in the way. It makes the city seem like a such a great place to live.

As someone said earlier, your opposition to any improvement in the city must mean you're old. And I'm sticking to my assumption that you're from SI.

Ragingsemi

agreed.

Rod

sadly you are often right

schmeep

I disagree with everybody here. Discuss.

The Great Arturo Bandini

I think bike lanes can give a dangerously false sense of security to inexperienced bikers. I'm all for biking but at a time when our roads aren't large enough for the cars, when vital city services are being cut, the money spent on bike lanes, rather than on new roads or public transit in the outer boroughs, looks like nothing but class warfare by the Manhattan elites to the many working and middle class NYers who live miles from their year-round Manhattan jobs.

smorrebrod

I concur that bike lanes provide a false sense of security. Why should someone on a bike be restricted to a pithy lane in a narrow residential street like Bergen Street where the fastest anyone should go is 20mph? Bicyclists should be respected on the road with laws that cater to them, lanes or not.

random transplant

Bike lanes are a false sense of security but you want to go faster?

There are no roads around Bergen where cars go 20+ mph either. At all, not even by the time you get to the BQE.

Realistic expectations & the self restraint not to speed until you get out of the middle of downtown are the best bike lane protection you can have.

cmdrogogov

I live miles from my year-round manhattan job and as it stands I can't safely get from my apartment to my job because there is no safe route (IE no protected biking lane) down 2nd avenue.

If roads aren't large enough for the cars, there should be fewer cars - simple. The attitude that cars are a suitable solution to transit in large cities is a fallacy I'm sure we'll be attempting to collectively wake ourselves up from for many, many years to come.

smorrebrod

How does Paris handle their bus+bike shared lanes? Can't we apply the same formula here?

JarekAF

Take Lexington, that's what I did for my bike commute from the UES to FiDi.

The Great Arturo Bandini

Try this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N...

facted

Or maybe all the cars on the road should try the same thing? And god forbid the OP try to get some exercise in on his way to work. After all, obesity in this country is scant.

And if you think bike commuting doesn't work with proper infrastructure, take a look at Portland, OR or Boulder, CO or even London w/ it's new super-bike lanes.

The Great Arturo Bandini

Which is why we should be raising money for a better public transit infrastructure for the outer-boroughs instead of spending all our Federal earmarks extending the 7 train one stop to Bloomberg's buddies' luxury condos on the already-too-congested west side of Manhattan.
Comparing the size and/or climate of any of those cities with NY is a facile analogy.

facted

This false sense of security in unprotected bike lanes are the exact reason we need more PROTECTED bike lanes. As for cars not having enough road, look around you. Everywhere you look there is road. Perhaps people need to drive a little less, especially in a city with such great public transportation as ours.

The Great Arturo Bandini

If they were like the 100 year-old bike lanes on Ocean Parkway, I'd be fine with them, but they sure as hell wouldn't cost $30,000. I think any system where bikers aren't protected from cars by a curb is a ridiculous short cut that makes Sadik Kahn's DOT guilty of negligent homicide. Bikes are fine for recreation, or for professional bike messengers who accept the hazards, but we should be focusing on re-building our railway and highway infrastructure. Anything else is just a distraction from the fact that we as a society can't build anything of significance or beauty anymore.

random transplant

This makes no sense. Nobody takes the OP lane because you have to stop every two blocks for cars which basically didn't exist 100 years ago when they built the lane - its a compromised bike path with historical value, not a protected bike path.

DOT & auto companies are responsible for 100x as much "negligent homicide". Building up highway infrastructure will increase the # of "negligent homicides". Bike lanes and bikers decrease the accidental deaths caused by cars.

anything else is just a distraction from the fact we as a society are too fat & insecure to let someone else bike to work.

The Great Arturo Bandini

Uh, do you think this is the Tour De France? Even cars have to stop at traffic lights for *like* you know, *pedestrians* and stuff. Welcome to urban living.

random transplant

The other major bike paths don't have pedestrian crosswalks every 2 blocks.

Your standards of urban living are low & 100 years out of date.

The Great Arturo Bandini

I'm glad that forward thinking people like you are here to push the cutting edge technology that is the bicycle.

facted

Well then why not support protected bike lanes like those that have been put up recently on Columbus Ave on the UWS or those that have been put up in chelsea?

The Great Arturo Bandini

As a NYC taxpayer I did support them.
Qui tacet consentit

petercow

I believe at the CB meeting last week, the DOT said the total cost was $30,0000 and 80% picked up by the Feds.

petercow

Oops. I can't type. Thirty thousand.

petercow

The city agreed on Monday to pay nearly $1 million to participants in the monthly Critical Mass bicycle rides who claimed they had been wrongly detained and arrested by police officers.

The lawsuit, originally filed in 2007, represented the claims of 83 riders who had been arrested or ticketed by police during the rides from September 2004 to January 2006. The awards to the plaintiffs range from $500 for those who were cited for minor infractions, to $35,000 for a plaintiff who was arrested multiple times and was injured because of the arrests, said David B. Rankin, one of the three lawyers who represented the riders. About half the settlement will go toward legal fees.

The settlements, totaling $965,000, do not include the many lawsuits filed by riders who were arrested during the Republican National Convention in 2004.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10...

wow mom cool

boo as well as hoo

Repaulsive

All the opposition to bike lanes has me confused. If opponents think bikers are a danger to pedestrians and drivers wouldn't they want bikers given their own lane? Nothing short of criminalizing biking will stop the cities cyclists and we all know that will never happen, so if someone is truly concerned for pedestrian safety wouldn't they want more lanes designed specifically for bikers?

Rod

the anger towards us is FAKE just like it is against gay marriage.

same brainless bigots are angry that they have to pay for cars and peds have to pay the mta and we are smarter, quicker, and free.

naturally they're going to LOATHE us.

souper_crackers

Bicycles are a mode of transport same as cars are, at least in a local scope. Why do cars automatically trump bicycles when these gripes arise? They take up far more space, have the weight and speed to injure people with greater ease, and cause pollution.

FallOut

" it's a challenge (for the Post) to come up with a new rabble-rousing anti-cyclist article seven days a week."

But it's not a challenge for Gothamist to come up with rabble-rousing pro-bike lane articles?? LMAO

The reason for the Post's news coverage is simple.
Most NYers, that is the millions upon millions who do not own bikes, are sick of the pampering and coddling the bike lobbying and their whining advocates have been getting from Bloomberg and are fed up with it, like they are fed up with lots of Bloomberg's policies and appointments.

Your day has come and is fast going. The elected officials, the papers, and the vast majority of New Yorkers all agree: TIME'S UP!

IvoryJive

"Most NYers, that is the millions upon millions who do not own bikes, are sick of the pampering and coddling the bike lobbying and their whining advocates have been getting".

Ignoring the fact that you believe you are speaking for millions of people you have never met or spoken with... how are you so sure that "most New Yorkers" don't own a bicycle? Do you have statistics on bicycle ownership in New York? I don't, but a little digging on Google and I was able to find data indicating that 63% of households own a bicycle in the San Fransisco Bay Area, and 62% in Toronto, so I am inclined to believe New York City may be in the same ballpark.

What I DO know is that less than 50% of households in New York City own a vehicle. But judging by their advertising content, it seems that this vehicle-owning minority makes up a HUGE bulk of NY Post readers, and THAT is who is being pampered and coddled here, with substance-free diatribes to make them feel justified in their bike-hating disposition.

Riding a bicycle is quick, efficient, healthy, economical, and environmentally-friendly. There is absolutely no good reason that the city shouldn't be doing what it can to make sure that New Yorkers wanting to ride bikes are safely able to do so.

FallOut

"Riding a bicycle is quick, efficient, healthy, economical, and environmentally-friendly. "

So is swimming. Let;s have the City build a couple of swimming pools in every neighborhood to appease the swimmers.

IvoryJive

Swimming and cycling are totally different - swimming is just recreation and but cycling is also transportation. But putting sarcasm aside, NYC has 54 public pools and 7 beaches spread throughout the City's 59 community districts. Facilitating active recreation is smart policy for many many reasons

smorrebrod

What is this coddling of bikers by the DOT you speak of? Some bike lanes here and there? Every ten blocks, a bike lane or so. Some plazas benefiting more New Yorkers than a stupidly laid out lane of traffic. It's just the DOT throwing a bone to the people whom they've forgotten over the years when building behemoths of expressways and widening the avenues.

FallOut

This is responding to you and the commenters immediately above you who are so blinded by their cycling fanaticism not to realize how disliked the cycling lobby has become.

Why do you think TV and print media as well as myriad elected officials and community groups are up in arms?
One more time: they are sick of your whining, your illegal riding habits, and your arrogant attitude.

Ask someone - a stranger, a pedestrian standing on a corner - the next time you run a red light what they think of cyclists.

I dare you.

Rod

wrong again.

(I've started setting my clock to you.)

I'll do you one better: every day I ride my bike on sidewalks where need be and I am always polite to peds and say "pardon me" if i come near them. literally hundreds have said to me "no problem", b/c I showed them respect.

guess you owe us yet another apology you aren't man enough to give

smorrebrod

Just stop. I don't run red lights. I only salmon or ride on sidewalks for a block or so, slowly, I'm cautious and aware of my surroundings. I "whine" because I have a reason to, and I don't think I'm above everyone else.

TV and print media usually need stories to retain viewership for profit (they are businesses) and it's profitable to expose nonexistent problems.

FallOut

Thank you for proving my point that cyclists arrogantly feel they are above the law, break it when they feel, and live by their own set of rules, not those of society.

So, so typical.

Rod

but you just described peds and cars too.

from now on I'm calling you a Klansman because, by your own admission, you discriminated against only minorities.

at least that sheet will cover up you jumping around in your dirty underwear!

TIMES UP!

JarekAF

"Why do you think TV and print media as well as myriad elected officials and community groups are up in arms? "

Re: TV And Print Media,

Because they're biased against bikers. It's a small but visable community that's easy to target. That, and also most members of the local press get press parking placards. Giving them a "windshield" perspective which distorts their understanding of the issue b/c it lends them to think that most people in this city drive too.

re: community groups

Every bike lane is approved by the local community board. You may quibble with whether the redesign comes from the DOT or from local groups, like Grand Prospect Alliance which advocated for the PPW bike lane. But the Community Board does vote to recommened (depending on how you word it) and/or approve the bike lane.

Here, for example, is the Kent bike lane dual track: http://www.streetsblog.org/200...

It required CB approval/recommendations from 3 different CB's. And it's a great bike lane, in a part of town that doesn't see too much traffic and it has made that part of town much safer because what little traffic that Kent gets, is mostly big trucks.

Ask someone - a stranger, a pedestrian standing on a corner - the next time you run a red light what they think of cyclists

Most bikers are also, at other times, that pedestrian on a corner. And as a biker, I don't like other bikers who drive recklessly, because it makes us all look bad. But to answer the question, if someone yields, looks, and then proceeds on red, I don't mind.

***

And I'm through with you. Plenty of people have tried to engage you on reasonable terms and you just want to HATE and RANT on everyone who doesn't share your opinon, or on Bike people more specificially.

smorrebrod

Thank you for being reasonable, and doing the difficult stuff.

cmdrogogov

Really? I'm rather sick of state and federal coddling of automobile manufacturers, users and additionally the big oil interests who profit off them.

The NY post is a tabloid rag unsurprisingly owned by the vulgarian rupert murdoch, and as such we all know exactly which demographic that kind of tripe appeals to.

facted

Is this a joke? the bike lobby?

Heck, why don't we get rid of the pedestrian lobby as well. Those pedestrians are just so damn pesky at intersections. Why don't we get rid of sidewalks all together and make it mandatory that any trip in NYC be taken in a car?

And if you want to talk about the "millions upon millions", why not talk about those who don't own cars and would rather some space in NY be dedicated to allow people to move more freely in NY taking up a 2 or 3 square feet vs. 30 of 40.

JMH

What about the millions upon millions who do not own cars, and are sick and tired of reading stores EVERY DAMN WEEK about some pedestrian being killed by a reckless/drunk/careless driver, who almost always gets away scot-free? When was the last time a cyclist riding in a bike lane killed a pedestrian or another cyclist? How many times does that happen per year?

JarekAF

If you're going to end your post with TIME'S UP! http://times-up.org/

You should know that, TIME'S UP! is the most radical of all the pro-bike advocacy groups. (I generally support them)

"and sick of the pampering and coddling the bike lobbying "

Who do you think is more influential? The bike/ped/transit lobby or the auto lobby?

The Great Arturo Bandini

The city shouldn't pander to either. Most of the newer bike lanes, especially in the outer boroughs in places like the Rockaways, are unwanted and arguably, unneeded.

petercow

To my knowledge, bike lanes have always been put in at the request of the local Community Board.

FallOut

Wrong, as usual.

facted

Unfortunately, you're wrong. Read about the topic a bit more. All bike lanes in NYC are put in after CB approval.

FallOut

No, predictably, you're wrong as well.

CBs have rarely requested bike lanes. The way it works usually is DOT puts a request into the boards for a bike lane that DOT wants; the CB then votes to recommend what they think of DOT's requests: pro or con.

Instead of wasting your time here, go back and re-read Civics 101.

facted

Like I said in my post, that's CB approval. Whether or not the CB requested the lane to start with (which many lanes were actually requested by the CB, such as the PPW lane and the Columbus Ave protected lane), no lane has been put in under this DOT administration that the CB did not approve at a CB hearing.

If you'd like to challenge that fact, find me some evidence (and make sure you have plenty of time on your hands, because you'll be searching for a long time as there is none ;) )

FallOut

Petercow: "To my knowledge, bike lanes have always been put in at the request of the local Community Board."
That fallacy is what I originally objected to! I responded, simply: "Wrong".

You responded, - OFF POINT: "All bike lanes in NYC are put in after CB approval. "

Peter and I weren't taking about "approval", we were discussing "requests".

I NEVER said that lanes were put in w/o CB approval, did I?
In fact, I wrote, "the CBs then recommend whether to approve or deny that request. If the CBs approve, the lanes invariably are built."

Until your Reading Comprehension skills improve, do not embarrass yourself any further by replying, in a vain attempt at extricating yourself from the corner you painted yourself into.

facted

Your implication was that bike lanes in NYC are a) unwanted and b) shoved down the throats of the community boards who wanted nothing to do with the lane and that the CB had no choice but to accept.

That is patently false (as evidenced by the fact that you cannot disprove my comment that all lanes under this DOT were put in with CB approval, instead choosing to run around this point by attacking me personally).

In reality, there are MANY bike lanes that were REQUESTED by community boards:
http://www.streetsblog.org/201...
http://www.streetsblog.org/201...
http://www.thevillager.com/vil...
http://www.brooklynpaper.com/s...

So to answer your original reply that lanes are put in without the CB actually requesting them, you clearly need to check your facts.

As others have also said before (getting to be a theme here, huh?), you clearly do not want to talk about the facts and are simply here to be antagonistic and attack others whose viewpoints you don't agree with. I am done with you so don't expect further replies.