Apparently there were even more frustrating delays than usual at the annual Five Boro Bike Tour yesterday; Twitter is littered with complaining cyclists who were stuck standing around in massive bike traffic jams repeatedly throughout the day. (Enjoy the schadenfreude, bike lane-hating drivers.) This comment from @jivecracker seems pretty representative: "Terrible planning, execution and communication by the organizers of the #5boro bike tour." Some participants, who each paid $75, say they had to wait upwards of two hours to get through an insane cyclist bottleneck on the BQE, and one Gothamist reader describes the scene: more ›

The well-connected Park Slope group Neighbors for Better Bike Lanes—whose members include former NYC DOT commissioner (and wife of Chuck Schumer) Iris Weinshall and former Sanitation Commissioner Norman Steisel—are calling for a moratorium on new bike lane construction throughout NYC. In a recent press release, the group, which formed to abolish the controversial bike lane on Prospect Park West, applauded City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and Councilman James Vacca for backing a moratorium. There's just one problem: neither politician has taken that position at all. more ›

It's always a gas when you try to explain the law to an ignorant cop writing you a ticket—it's like trying to explain to Paula Deen that butter is a condiment and not actually food. The NYPD's cyclist fetish has intensified to such a degree that cops are not even bothering to write tickets for things that are even technically illegal (like blowing through a red light in the park). Here is the infuriating story of one David Curtis Lettier, an Air Force veteran who was pulled over on West 127th Street while riding his bike to class today: more ›

As we've seen time and again, if you ever want to rub somebody out in NYC, simply get behind the wheel and floor it. Stay at the scene until police arrive, and odds are they'll let you go without even a summons. Hey, accidents happen! But what if you're a hit man who doesn't own a car? Not a problem if you're targeting a bike rider! Manhattan DA Cy Vance explained last night that as long as you can at least get access to a car, you can easily take out a cyclist without doing any time. more ›

Last night the DOT presented the results of its Prospect Park West bike lane study to the local community. As we noted yesterday, the report asserts that the bike lane has made PPW dramatically safer and greatly reduced speeding, while also encouraging cycling (and complaining). But critics of the bike lane, including the group Neighbors for Better Bike Lanes—which is led by former sanitation commissioner and deputy mayor Norman Steisel, as well as former NYC DOT Commissioner Iris Weinshall—say the DOT's glowing report is fishy. more ›

Unlike the backtracking New Jersey Assemblywoman who withdrew her proposal for mandatory bicycle licenses, City Councilman Eric Ulrich (R-Queens) is serious about his bill, and he says there's support for it in the City Council. Reached by phone, Ulrich elaborated on his proposal, which he cautions hasn't been officially drafted or introduced yet. "This is so premature," Ulrich tells us. "I have no specifics about what it will look like. But I imagine that when it is finalized I'll gain a number of co-sponsors. Many of my colleagues feel similarly and will be supportive." But it's not that premature—Ulrich hopes to introduce the legislation on February 2nd. more ›

Cyclist Joel Custer is recovering at Cornell Hospital after he was attacked by a half-naked elderly man while biking over the Queensboro bridge yesterday morning. He lost a few teeth and suffered a split lip and possibly a broken jaw that he underwent emergency surgery for yesterday. One reader painted a portrait of the scene which made it sound even worse than that: more ›

Friends of two unidentified bicyclists are begging for help finding the worthless P.O.S. driver who almost killed them in an accident in Greenpoint on October 23rd. The two "sustained massive injuries" while headed south on Franklin Street near Calyer in Greenpoint. We know this intersection, and we're not at all surprised it happened here. more ›

Yesterday, we learned that a 4-year-old could be sued for negligence, after a Judge ruled that the estate of Claire Menagh could sue one of the two children who hit her while they were racing their bikes (with training wheels) in April 2009. Menagh suffered a broken hip, which was "caused by the negligence, carelessness, recklessness and gross negligence of [children Juliet and Jacob]," and died a couple months later of natural causes. The case has caused a lot of discussion among parents about the responsiblity and expectations of children. more ›

In April 2009, Juliet Breitman and Jacob Kohn, who were both 4 years old, were riding the bikes, equipped with training wheels, down the sidewalk on East 52nd Street. Their mothers were with them, but they didn't stop Juliet from knocking over 87-year-old Claire Menagh, who suffered a fractured hip and died after surgery three weeks later. A hell of a way to go, but there may be justice (for Menagh's estate) yet: This week a judge ruled that her estate could sue Juliet, who is now six and might want to think about opening an upscale lemonade stand. more ›

[UPDATE BELOW] Sometimes the NYPD's inanity is so perfect, so immaculately risible, that you just want to burst into applause and toss a bouquet of roses onto the hood of a squad car. Today is one of those days. According to a tipster, a cop parked in the bike lane on First Avenue near 23rd Street proceeded to write tickets for cyclists who weren't using the bike lane, because they had to ride around him to get by. This is presumably part of the new crackdown on scofflaw cyclists, and hey—sometimes you have to destroy a bike lane in order to save it. (How come there's never a clown cop around when you need one?) Our source says: more ›

The city has agreed to pay $965,000 dollars to cyclists arrested during the monthly Critical Mass rides. This is on top of the money the city spends to have a small army of cops on scooters issue summons to cyclists during the monthly rides. And the settlement doesn't include the lawsuits filed by bike riders arrested during the Republican National Convention in 2004. That's when the troubles began; for over a decade the NYPD had cooperated with the monthly ride, treating it like a parade and even stopping traffic at intersections so cyclists could pass. Here's video documentation from 1999, around the 1:30 mark: more ›

New Yorkers, fed up with drivers zipping up and down Broadway at breakneck speeds, have demanded a gentler, calmer Upper West Side, and one politician is more than happy to oblige. Assemblywoman Linda Rosenthal has proposed placing speed bumps, or new signage, at the Amsterdam-Broadway "bow tie" (the intersection where Amsterdam crosses over the north and southbound lanes of Broadway on 71st Street—the one where a taxi cab drove into a subway station) to slow traffic down, reports WCBS 2. more ›

Yesterday was a gorgeous day to kick off the 2009's season of Summer Streets, the three-Saturday event that closes down a 6.9 mile stretch of roads—along Park Avenue and other connecting streets from the Brooklyn Bridge to Central Park—to vehicular traffic. As part of the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson's exploration of the New York, the Dutch consulate's NY400 celebration has 150 orange bikes that bicyclists can rent for free—there's even a photo competition for people to enter and win one of the bikes (details here). more ›

Mayor Bloomberg may like closing down streets to vehicular traffic for pedestrians and bicyclists and creating more bike lanes, but he doesn't think bikes belong on subways. On his radio program, when asked if anyone considered turning the subway into a "freight delivery system" during non peak hours, Bloomberg said, "There are messengers who do it. Some of them take their bikes, which drives me crazy, cause I’ve just never agreed with the M.T.A. I know bicyclists will now ring the phones off the hook, but they are just too big, particularly at rush hours — I just don’t think they should allow it. But I’m not running the M.T.A..." (the MTA allows bikes). This is not the first time Bloomberg has called out bikes on subways—last summer, he said (also on radio show), "I don't run the subway system, I don't run the MTA, but if I did - if I had total power - I guess I'd say it's too crowded for bikes." Next, will the Mayor go after baby strollers on the subway? more ›

Here's a fresh, hip-level view of what it's like to pedal at top speed through New York City traffic with a flagrant disregard for traffic laws, safety and basic common sense. The people behind the video say it's "a teaser for Empire, a film about having fun on your bike in the city." Sure, it's all harmless DIY fun until your fixie's painted white and locked at the corner where you ran your last red light. But be sure to stay tuned for the 2:30 mark, when a couple of these maniacs actually wear helmets! And at 3:14, there's a taste of what it's like to merge with highway traffic on a bike. more ›

This past Saturday was the city's second of three Summer Streets weekends. One of the bigger issues from last week's first try seemed to be that pedestrians and bicyclists weren't as aware of each others' space as they could be. And so the Department of Transportation responded with fast and slow lanes. more ›

Yay for dog days! Over the weekend, Times's Up! held its first annual Doggie Pedal Parade, highlighting bicycles adapted to transport pets and the benefits of adopting homeless animals. Bicyclists learned how to pimp their bikes for their pups pets and then humans and canines alike celebrated with a Pupnic at Washington Square Park's dog run. more ›

If you thought noticed a group of bicyclists playing dead on 6th Avenue near 33rd Street, your eyes weren't fooling you. Time's Up led a Bike Lane Action to "dramatize the fatal last moments of David Smith’s ride up 6th Avenue." Smith was killed when a passenger in a truck, parked in the bike lane, opened a door; Smith was knocked off his bike and into the path of a truck. more ›