Results tagged “bikes”

The number of commuters riding their bikes to work has increased by 26 percent over the past year, according to city statistics. In a "dramatic" uptick, the portion of New Yorkers traveling to work on bikes has doubled since 2002. This spike comes after an increase of 35 percent last year and amidst the Department of Transportation's ambitious — and at time controversial — push to bolster the city's bike lane network. Over the past three years, the city has laid down 200 new miles of cycling routes including loved and loathed paths on Kent Avenue in Brooklyn and Ninth Avenue and Grand Street in Manhattan.

The more things change, the more they stay the same. The Times' cycling blog, Spokes, reports today that the paper's coverage of bike-related issues has remained strangely consistent over the past century. In the Gray Lady's 1890s "Gossip of the Cyclers" column — which was apparently the StreetsBlog.org of the McKinnley administration — the paper covered strikingly contemporary bike issues including reckless cyclists, brake-less bikes, and even concerns about bicycle access to the Brooklyn Bridge. In fact, the Times has covered each of these issues within the past few months. Though the Times no longer refers to bicycles as "the wheel" or fast cyclists as "scorchers," it's remarkable that more than 100 years later, both the paper — and the city — are still arguing the same topics.

The real New York Post (not the far superior, global warming hoax edition) is reporting that the NYPD has cracked down on illegal bike rental vendors. Apparently, you need to be licensed to rent out bicycles, but some illicit pedal pushers have been running their businesses from the sidewalks around Central Park.

We've heard about driver vs. bicyclist fights before, but Streetsblog has a really unusual one. Unusual because the bicyclist was charged with criminal mischief for slapping the side of the SUV! From Streetsblog:

[Ray] Bengen, 63, was riding down the Ninth Avenue bike lane on May 21 when he came across the Ford Excursion you see in this photo (curb weight: 7,190 lbs). A long-time city cyclist, Bengen had a green light and wasn't quite sure what to make of the vehicle in front of him. The car wasn't moving and its brake lights were off.

Ever wonder how the NYPD treats cyclists on Bizarro world? Instead of locking horns with Critical Mass, or writing ridiculous tickets, or ignoring drivers who turn bike lanes into double-parking lots, or parking in bike lanes themselves, perhaps they'd take a less adversarial approach to pedaling commuters who brave this car-clogged city. Well, as a contrast to last year's infamous cop vs. bike bodyslam video, here's a look at the kind of treatment cyclists get from the police in the Bizarro world that is Denmark: free helmets and hugs. Awww.

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?

        

The Red Hook Bicycle Design Master Plan Competition is over! Probably before you even knew it began. The contest was sponsored by the Forum for Urban Design, and they describe it as follows:

The design competition has three components: 1. retrofitting a bike garage (or “loft”) at the Smith/9th Street Station, and 2. connecting this elevated train stop to the rest of the neighborhood via dedicated bike lanes and other bike amenities, 3. identifying funding sources such as the reauthorization of federal surface transportation legislation, foundations, and commercial sponsors.

Continue reading "Bike Friendly Red Hook Renderings"

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.

Bike-friendly city Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan told reporters last night that August's street closures in Manhattan will be back next year. The Summer Streets program, which prohibited traffic on a 7-mile stretch from the Brooklyn Bridge to Central Park on three consecutive Saturdays, was "clearly a hit on Park Ave," Sadik-Khan tells the Daily News. She also says it's "highly likely" Summer Streets will be extended next summer to the other boroughs. While some retailers complained that they lost business from customers who couldn't drive to their locations, cyclists and pedestrians were mostly enthusiastic about the car-free oasis, relishing the chance to play music, dance, and practice yoga in the middle of the street. [Photo Cred.]

      

Last summer a rented garage on the outskirts of Queens, NY served as a workshop for a group of Trinidad teens living in the borough. They worked day and night on "enormous stereo systems jury rigged onto ordinary bmx bikes," with Randall Stevens on hand to document the creations, from scraps to mobile dance parties. The group is touted as America's first stereobike crew; Stevens's short film called Made in Queens and you can watch the trailer here.

With approximately 30,000 participants, it's not unexpected that a few cyclists might get in an accident during the 5 Boro Bike Tour. Still, it's alarming to read emergency wire updates like the report that there was an accident on the Queens side of the upper level of the Queensboro Bridge. Multiple cyclists are down and the extent of injuries is still unkown.

The 5 Boro Bike Tour is this Sunday, the one day of the year where 30,000 cyclists will have total right of way throughout New York City. The tour begins in Battery Park and ends in Staten Island after winding 42 miles throughout New York. In addition to the approximately 30,000 riders, The 5 Boro Bike Tour happens with the help of about 1,500 volunteers. Video and photos of last year's event can be seen at Bike NY's site here.

          

The endless debate over how to classify hipsters has been tearing this city apart for years, pitting brother against scenester, native New Yorker against arriviste, trust funder against squatter, even self-hating hipster against himself. So it's important for everyone to step back a bit and acknowledge that while we may never agree on a singular definition for hipster, like Supreme Court judges watching porn, we know it when we see it. Sure, the word hipster is a tired cliché, but the cliché still walks, talks, and parties down in Brooklyn, with bottles of whiskey stashed proudly down the back of its Speedo. Your hate only makes them stronger, and let's face it – they do know how to have fun.

DKNY is usurping a grassroots campaign to memorialize cyclists killed in New York City's traffic, with a guerrilla marketing campaign to push their product. Above is a picture of several orange-painted DKNY bikes, first widely noted at BikeBlog.

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a police officer struck on 125th St. and St. Clair Pl. in Manhattan, a double stabbing on West 181st St. and Audubon Ave. in Manhattan, and a person under a train at Queens Blvd. and Broadway in Queens.
• The six-year-old who started the blaze that killed a firefighter is sorry. His mother says he's been crying since that night and repeats "I didn't mean to do it. I didn't mean to do it."
• Streetsblog describes yesterday's 3rd Annual Ghost Bikes Memorial Ride.

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a fatal fire on Pennsylvania Ave. in Brooklyn, a train derailment on 41st St. and 1st Ave. in Brooklyn, and a shooting on East Gunhill Rd. in the Bronx.
• Anthony Marshall's––Brooke Astor's estranged son––lawyer pleaded not guilty to forgery in the sordid case of her will.
• BestWeekEver.tv's Michelle Collins manages to compliment Tony Bennett, fling a t-shirt at Nick Lachey, stump Josh Groban on the definition of "Cougars", covet Sean Kingston's 14K Crayolas, and be disappointed by Celine Dion, all in one 4-minute segment. That's jam-packed talent.
• Community spokesperson Al Sharpton and mayoral hopeful Council Speaker Christine Quinn fell over themselves denouncing hateful speech yesterday.
• Pimping your motor vehicle rides is for LA suckers. New Yorkers pimp their bikes with mega stereo systems––really.
• Managing Editor Choire Sicha is flying the coop from Gawker.com.
• A construction worker was rescued after being buried alive in Morningside Heights up to his chest.
• Ray Kelly flips Councilman Simcha Felder the bird, literally. He gave him a plastic pigeon in recognition of his somewhat controversial bid to rid NYC of what the councilman described as "flying rats".

On December 1, 2006 around 9:30PM, 22-year-old Eric Ng was biking north on bike path by the West Side Highway. Around the same time, 27-year-old Eugene Cidron, leaving a party at Chelsea Piers in his BMW, mistook the bike path for the actual highway, drove south on the bike path and fatally struck Ng near West Street - at least a mile from Chelsea Piers. Ng was hit so hard that his bicycle and shoe...

Trying to walk in certain city neighborhoods is fast becoming an extreme sport. Between the new, bigger newsstands and bus shelters, the perpetually metastasizing newspaper boxes on every corner, the increasing popularity of alfresco dining, the delivery guys on their bikes and – let’s not forget – tourists, wending your way down the sidewalk without reaching for your Taser demands a degree of patience not often found in your average New Yorker. A month after...

People may be talking the 2008 Presidential election, but when it comes to NYC, the aftermath of the 2004 Republican National Convention is still being felt. It was right before the convention when the NYPD arrested over 200 bicyclists during the August 2004 Critical Mass ride, starting more heated of NYPD vs. Critical Mass clashes.

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: A "large dispute" at JFK Airport; a school bus accident at Broadway and 37th Street in Manhattan; and a car-into-a-house on Murdock Ave in Queens. Rudy Giuliani says people giving him a hard time about rooting for the Red Sox "should give [him] a break." People to Giuliani, "No way, not when you make it so easy!" Awesome Halloween decoration in Greenpoint. A different kind of customized candy to...

This past weekend David Byrne biked to Town Hall for his “How New Yorkers Ride Bikes” event. The night began with the audience viewing his helmet-cam footage of his journey there, and eventually he biked right up on the stage. Streetfilms was there and reported:

Of course our MC for the night, Mr. Byrne, who has been using a bike for transportation for 30 years, pedaled to the theater. In fact, the night started with helmet cam footage he shot as he biked thru Times Square to the venue. Some Byrne-musings which drew the most applause/ laughter as he navigated the entanglement of peds, cars, and street furniture included: “...once you get used to it, riding thru the city gives you a nice jolt of energy“, “42nd Street would make a nice pedestrian mall“, and probably the biggest laugh-getter, “if this was a bike lane, there would probably be a truck from New Jersey parked in it.”

There's a group of guys, younger than Tony Hawk but older than your average skater punk, who refuse to give up their skateboards -- though admittedly they say they have nothing to rebel against anymore. Skateboarding doesn't have to be about rebelling though, sometimes it can just be about...commuting?

Mayor Bloomberg spent yesterday in Paris and paid particular interest to the City of Light's bike-sharing program. The Parisian program started in July and has thousands of bikes secured around the city's streets. People who need a quick ride can rent the bike's by the half hour, with the first 30 minutes free and increasing fares for each additional half hour to discourage lengthy rentals. Bloomberg seemed curious about the program, but acknowledged that there were some differences between Paris and NYC that could make an identical setup difficult. He cited the sometimes poor conditions of city streets due to changes in the weather (i.e. huge potholes) and a lack of bike lanes. 100,000 people signed up to use the Paris bike-share program for a full year and five million rides had been taken since the program's inception.

There was very little else for Londonist to be concerned with when the threat of a Tube strike became a very unpleasant reality. The inconvenience was extreme: there aren't many alternatives to the Tube in London despite the best efforts of the Londonist team to get everyone from A to B. Brighter news came in the form of the first ever female Yeoman Warder, or Beefeater as the position is more commonly known, and several smiles as well as lots of cash were raised by some plucky urban ironing. London is apparently full of lies and whales: one of these things is true. We leave that up to you to figure out.

Critical Mass, which came to New York around 1993, hasn't always been a cause for concern amongst the city's police. After 2004's Republican National Convention coincided with that month's Critical Mass in Manhattan, things changed. The ride has taken a more political tone and there's often an air of protest circling it.

Yesterday a new bike safety law went into effect. The law requires all commercial delivery workers, which include delivery workers and bike messengers, to wear helmets on the job as well as have a horn and headlight on their bikes. And apparently the bike messengers are in an uproar about it. One tells NY Metro that wearing a helmet is "something that’s not cool. You look kind of dumb. I really don’t want to wear a helmet, but I will.”

Natasha Khan is better known as the singer-songwriter behind Bat for Lashes, a band recently nominated for the Mercury Prize. Khan weaves a world all her own with her music and artwork, and happily invites anyone to come join her there. We wouldn't be surprised if at university she majored in nostalgia, with so much attention drawn back to childhood in her work. Her wide-eyed world of yesteryear is a little bit magical, a little bit noir, and seems to be fueled by a never-ending supply of innocence, experience and anticipation.

Banner week for SFist as the site's new editor introduced himself -- hooray for Brock! While the NY Times weighed in on SF's mayoral race, only SFist had the hard-hitting latest on candidate/activist Josh Wolf. Coverage of a protest vs. gentrification spawned a fantastic debate amongst SFist's readers. Finally, from the sublime to the ridiculous: video of a man that confused a Board of Supes meeting with "open mic night" and sang a custom version of Madonna's "Borderline" to a much-beleaguered board member.

Yesterday saw two important moment in the Department of Transportation's handling of bicylist quality of life issues. One was the installation of bike racks on North 7th at Bedford Avenue in Williamsburg, which the DOT said was "the first time car parking spaces have been removed to accommodate bicycle parking in New York City." Previously, cops have sawed through locks chained to the subway entrance and impounded bikes, leading to community demand for bike racks.

The project runs through tomorrow and gives anyone free use of the bikes, which can be used for up to 30 minutes (probably not long enough if you're following Owen Wilson's NYC biking itinerary). So far about 25 riders a day have given the bikes a spin (we checked out the storefront earlier today and there were plenty of them available).