Yesterday, after what felt like years of waiting, the city introduced us to the pricing scheme for its ambitious new bike share program, now dubbed CitiBike after its sponsor (Citibank). And the reaction was mixed. While many—including us! We swear!—are very excited to see the program prosper and bring more cyclists to the streets, its very aggressive pricing had us (and others) worried. Yes, New York's bike share will be the largest in the world but it will also be the most expensive. Well, sometimes. more ›

The organizers of the Five Boro Bike Tour appear to have delivered on their promise to work out some of the kinks that marred the massive group bike ride last year. It seems yesterday's the sublime weather and improved organization greatly reduced the consternation that erupted from last year's tour, which forced thousands of participants to a standstill in massive bike traffic jams repeatedly throughout the day. more ›

There have been a number of stories about cyclists colliding with pedestrians in Prospect Park during the past year—could it be the pedestrians are now fighting back? No, it's just the teenagers, doing what they do best: ruin everything. On Tuesday evening around 5:15 p.m. a man was biking through the Prospect Park loop when a group of youths knocked him off his bike near the zoo, sending him crashing face-first into the pavement. The NYPD tells us the unidentified victim was sent flying after the youths kicked his rear wheel, "causing him to fall off of his bike hitting his head on the ground and breaking his nose." more ›

After nearly six months of appeals, the family of Mathieu Lefevre, the bicyclist killed by a flatbed truck driver at an East Williamsburg intersection last October, has received all but one of the answers they have demanding. Yesterday, after denying a motion to allow live testimony by Lefevre's mother, Erika, Judge Peter Moulton listened to an oral argument on whether the NYPD met its obligations to the family under the Freedom of Information Law, and will decide in the coming weeks if family's suit warrants remuneration. more ›

[Update below] A cyclist from the Bronx was killed outside the Metropolitan Museum of Art last evening after the pickup truck he was holding onto stopped for a red light, sending him flying underneath. The NYPD press office says Daniel Martinez, 27, was riding south on Fifth Avenue while holding onto the back of a black Ford F-550 truck. According to the Daily News, he "flew off his bike" when the truck stopped, and "when the light turned green, the truck moved forward, uncovering" Martinez's body. more ›

More New Yorkers are commuting by bicycle than ever, and if you've been considering joining their ranks, the lovely spring weather beckons! Cycling in this hectic town can be daunting at first, but don't be dissuaded: the DOT has made great improvements to make biking a less harrowing experience. Take it slow, and consider making your first ride to a park on a weekend to get some practice. Once again, here are some basic tips for those getting behind the handlebars for the first time in NYC: more ›

A 13-year-old Bensonhurst boy was killed by a hit-and-run driver Saturday afternoon after he fell off his bike on 20th Avenue. Police say surveillance video shows the boy, Henry Garcia, falling off his bike and then getting run over by the driver of a green Ford Explorer traveling in the same direction. Garcia was unconscious and unresponsive when first responders arrived at the scene at 2:45 p.m., and he was later pronounced DOA at Cornell Hospital. more ›

[UPDATE BELOW] A motorist behind the wheel of a white BMW SUV killed a cyclist in the Bronx yesterday evening just after 7 p.m. Police say, the victim, 18-year-old David Oliveras, was riding his bike on the sidewalk on the east side of the Williamsbridge Road, headed south. According to a preliminary investigation, Oliveras tried to cross over to the west side of Williamsbridge Road when he was hit by the SUV driver, who was headed north. more ›

It's appallingly easy for drivers to get away with murder in NYC, as we've previously reported, and today Alex Goldmark at Transportation Nation tries to understand why this is so. According to the NYPD, there were 21 cyclist fatalities in 2011, but just two drivers were arrested in the wake of the deadly crashes. And on average, nearly forty percent of drivers who kill pedestrians or cyclists walk away without even getting a traffic ticket. Goldmark asked all five District Attorneys why so few drivers face criminal charges, and Joe McCormack, an ADA in the Bronx, gave him quite an interesting quote: more ›

The NYPD's not taking its all-seeing eye off cyclists, not for one minute. In February we learned that the NYPD ticketed more cyclists than truck drivers, and now the NYPD says it's going to start keeping track of all accidents involving cyclists. New rules now require cops to fill out full accident reports for any accidents involving cyclists. According to an uncited study mentioned in the Daily News, "500 pedestrians wind up hospitalized each year after accidents with cyclists." We don't know if that's NYC or nationwide or on the moon, but it will be interesting to see what the NYPD stats reveal. more ›

If the peace and quiet around Mayor Bloomberg's mansion or the forced sterility of Union Square isn't enough to convince you that the NYPD is using your tax dollars appropriately, let this arrest of a cyclist and Vietnam veteran after not breaking the law assuage you. more ›

The hundreds of miles of bike lanes added during the Bloomberg administration will likely be barren wastelands in a hundred years, once all the cyclists have died off without passing their fixies down to younger generations. We previously knew that male cyclists were suffering from erectile dysfunction because of bike seats, now another study says women, as one doctor puts it, "are having issues as well." Is the radical bike wing lobby dooming itself to obsolescence through natural selection? more ›

Some people see a clever subway advertisement for a prominent Brooklyn cultural institution, others see a cyclist without a helmet pedaling blithely along next to the ominous ad copy "BAM And Then It Hits You." One self-described "helmet crusader" is so vexed by the ad campaign that she's been modifying them by strapping a helmet to the cyclist's pretty, vulnerable skull. more ›

Drivers who maim or kill cyclists in NYC rarely face criminal charges, and at an eye-opening City Council hearing last month, we learned that this is partly due to the NYPD rules governing crash investigations. The NYPD's understaffed Accident Investigation Squad [AIS] only investigates crashes in which there is a fatality (and even when they do investigate, it's still rare that criminality is suspected on behalf of the driver). A new proposal from City Councilmember Stephen Levin would require the NYPD to investigate when there is serious injury, not just when someone is killed or likely to die. more ›

Over the past year, acclaimed traffic engineer Sam Schwartz has been pitching a form of congestion pricing that would lower the tolls on bridges uptown and charge cars traveling the Queensboro, Williamsburg, Manhattan, and Brooklyn bridges $7 ($5 with E-ZPass). The former traffic commissioner also wants to impose a surcharge on yellow and livery cabs heading over those bridges. This "congestion pricing" (or "Mucous Mulct," as we prefer to call it) would raise $1.2 billion annually. But part of that money would come from a 50-cent toll on cyclists crossing those bridges into Manhattan. more ›

Last week Time's Up! had their annual Ides (Pies) of March Ride, in which the environmental activist group uses clownish theatrics to protest issues such as police brutality and blocked bike lanes. This year the ride was renamed the "OCCU-Pies of March" ride, and had a special emphasis on Manhattan's banks, with cyclist-activists riding bike-powered police cars and limos to local financial institutions. Here's video of the extremely goofy street theater, which culminated in a pie fight at Astor Place: more ›

Soon enough, there will be one less lane of (car) traffic in Central Park. In addition to the new East/West pedestrian/bike path on 96th Street the Central Park Conservancy is now getting ready to drop one of the two car lanes on the open-to-cars-at-rush hour Terrace Drive in favor of a second bike lane. Olmstead and Vaux would be proud. more ›

While remembering those cyclists and pedestrians who were killed over the course of the past year, cyclists and pedestrians occasionally found their own lives endangered yesterday, during the 7th Annual Memorial Ride and Walk. On Staten Island, the mother of a cyclist killed by a hit-and-run driver last month told the Staten Island Advance that while putting up her son's memorial, she and others were nearly hit by a speeding driver, at the same spot where her son died. "We almost got run off the road," Nancy Tillman, mother of RJ Tillman, told the Advance. more ›

This Sunday the NYC Street Memorial Project will hold the 7th Annual Memorial Ride and Walk, to remember pedestrians and cyclists killed in NYC over the past year. (Details here.) Cyclists will ride from locations in Queens, the Bronx, Staten Island and Brooklyn and traverse the city, stopping at sixteen ghost bikes, laying flowers, and paying respects to bicyclists killed since 2011. Walkers, meanwhile, will visit the locations of pedestrian fatalities along McGuinness Boulevard since 1995. more ›

Court documents finally show why the NYPD's Accident Investigation Squad decided not to charge the driver of a flatbed truck who fatally ran over cyclist Mathieu Lefevre in October. The explanation doesn't seem very satisfying, to put it mildly, but for the first time we have documentation on the investigators' decision to let driver Leonardo Degianni off the hook—even though he did not signal his turn in advance, and left Lefevre to die in the street. more ›

Last fall the NYPD decided to do something about pedestrians being struck by cyclists in Prospect Park by going on a ticketing binge. The Brooklyn Paper today got their paws on some stats—and the cops weren't kidding! more ›

Cyclist Evan Neumann was biking up Allen Street on the Lower East Side last February when he was pulled over by an NYPD officer and issued a ticket for something that isn't against the law in NYC. As Neumann was approaching Stanton Street, he checked behind him to make sure there was no oncoming traffic, and left the bike lane to switch to the right side of Allen, in order to make the right turn on Stanton. He was then issued a ticket for failing to use the bike lane. Thing is, cyclists are not legally required to stay in the bike lane in NYC in every situation. more ›

A cyclist is in critical condition after having being struck by a vehicle shortly after making an abrupt stop for a car making a sudden left turn. According to the NYPD's press office, a 23-year-old man was riding his bike southbound on Second Avenue at around 9:48 a.m. yesterday and was "forced to brake suddenly for a vehicle making a left turn" onto East 18th Street. The official account notes that he then fell off his bike, and was hit by another vehicle. He was taken to Bellevue Hospital, and both cars remained at the scene. more ›

After two pedestrians suffered head injuries after collisions with cyclists in Prospect Park, a special task force has come up with a new design for the 3.3 mile loop. The plan will be officially shared with the public tonight at 6 p.m. at a public meeting in the Prospect Park picnic house. The new design would replace a lane of car traffic with a dedicated bike lane intended to keep cyclists, pedestrians, and drivers out of each other's way. (The bike lane would be halved in two to accommodate different cycling speeds.) more ›

The war is over! Or at least the unnerving merge onto Bowery from the Manhattan Bridge, where cyclists have been unceremoniously dumped out for the past eight months due to a detour on the bridge. In July, the DOT rerouted cyclists to the south side of the bridge, which was formerly the pedestrian side. The view of the Brooklyn Bridge at sunset was lovely, but the exit from the bridge onto Bowery was not specifically too good, according to some people. Especially not with police routinely blocking the joke of a bike lane. more ›

The driver who fatally struck a cyclist on Staten Island last week remains at large, and with each passing day the odds of catching him or her diminish. In this excellent article, the Staten Island Advance reports that an analysis of 15 fatal hit-and-runs on Staten Island from 2005 to 2011 shows that in all 10 of the solved cases, police either had the driver in custody or had a good idea of the driver's identity within 48 hours. In the five cases where the driver wasn't found within 48 hours, no arrests have been made. more ›

Francis's attorney argued that even though no witness saw Francis behind the wheel, there was no proof that she was there, and there was also no proof that that she received notices about not answering a traffic ticket and the subsequent suspension. But the Post reports that the jury believed a police detective who testified that Francis told him she had been driving. more ›