In the end the resistance that she and the city have encountered has to do mostly with parochialism and selfishness. Some New Yorkers seem offended by the notion that we should be more like such biking havens as Copenhagen, Paris, or for that matter, Portland, Ore.: life here is too urgent and blunt and brutal for such crunchy-granola niceties. Besides which, no one wants to give an inch, literally: not the Prospect Park West gripers who lost parking spaces to the bike lane, not the drivers of delivery trucks whose jobs are sometimes complicated by such lanes, not the Manhattan traditionalists who feel that sharing just a few of Central Park’s transverse paths with cyclists — as the city decided in July they must do — requires too much in the way of vigilance from people ambling among the trees. The complaints were loud and passionate.

”

—

NYT op ed Bicycle Visionary

And misleading. Several polls have shown that a majority of New Yorkers favor the creation of bike lanes, at least in the abstract. The problem is that it’s a relatively soft, quiet support, reflecting the limited use of those lanes. According to Department of Transportation figures, about 15,500 cyclists daily entered Manhattan’s central business district between Battery Park and 59th Street in 2009, the most recent year for which statistics are available. That’s in contrast to 762,000 cars.

But ridership is definitely growing. A decade earlier, only 4,700 cyclists entered that part of Manhattan. And over the last 20 or so years, the percentage of New Yorkers who use cycling to commute has doubled, to 0.6 percent in 2009 from 0.3 percent in 1990, according to an analysis of census figures by John Pucher, a Rutgers University professor who studies bicycle trends worldwide. That still leaves New York behind Chicago, with 1.2 percent of commuters on bikes; Washington, D.C., with 2.2 percent; San Francisco, with 3 percent; and Portland, with 5.8 percent.

WHAT’S keeping more cyclists in New York from doing so? “The indifference of the New York City Police Department is the biggest obstacle,” said Charles Komanoff, a mathematical economist and past president of Transportation Alternatives. He and other cycling advocates said that police officers too seldom ticket drivers who ignore cyclists’ rights, particularly by treating biking lanes as temporary parking spots and thus forcing bike riders to swerve into and out of traffic. As prevalent as such lane-obstruction is, I’ve noticed more news reports on cyclists blowing through red lights, and I’ve found myself envying, of all places, the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius. Its mayor recently deployed a tank to crush a Mercedes-Benz illegally parked in a bike lane.

Without going quite that far, our city’s police officers must do more. And the transportation department must expand markedly the number of bike racks citywide — the official city count is about 12,800 — so that riders can rest assured that they’ll find a safe place to stow their bicycles. Pucher is the co-author of “City Cycling,” a forthcoming book, which notes that Paris has about 1,490 bike parking spaces — slots in racks, for example — per 100,000 people, London about 1,670 and Tokyo about 6,400. And New York? About 152. “It’s lousy, lousy, lousy,” Pucher said.

With one person being killed almost every single day, the kind hateful, deceitful garbage Kramer and her ilk are spewing forth is a crime, pure and simple. Everyone’s who lost a loved one to a car should sue her, Markowitz, the NBBLers and every other low down, lying anti-safety putz. Put the blame directly where it belongs. Honestly, the more time goes by, the more furious and disgusted I get with them.

”

— Maimonides Hospital, FDNY: Boro Park Ped Islands Don’t Slow Response Times (via n8han)

(via n8han)

We ride and walk with love in our hearts, with sadness for what has been lost, with rage that these crashes did not have to happen, and with hope that we never, ever have to do this again.

”

—

excerpt from speech given at each ghost bike during the 6th Annual Memorial Walk and Ride in NYC on March 13, 2011. Yesterday’s ride passed through the Bronx, Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Staten Island, stopping at each of the ghost bikes installed during the previous year before culminating in a rally at Brooklyn Borough Hall and the dedication of a ghost bike for the unnamed and unknown whose deaths never made the news.

Press roundup:

A Tour of Ghosts on Two Wheels

Advocacy Group Honors Cyclists and Pedestrians Killed in Traffic

6th Annual Memorial Ride and Walk Honoring NYC’s Fallen Bicyclists and Pedestrians

Pause for a moment of cyclists

NYC: 6th Annual Memorial Ride and Walk

New York: In August 2010, Gov. David A. Paterson signed a vulnerable user protection bill, known as Elle's Law. The bill states that drivers who break traffic laws and seriously injure pedestrians in the process can lose their license for six months or one year for repeat offenders. »

NYT Photo of the Day: Photo #10 »

A ghost bike memorial intended to raise awareness of cyclists in New York City was removed from the corner of 40th Street and Broadway. The memorial, which was damaged by traffic and vandals, honored Franco Scorcia, a 72-year-old retired cabdriver who was killed by a charter bus in 2007.

Photo by Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times

high heels & two wheels: Why can't we all just get along? »

acitycycled:

kateziegler:

“I begin to worry that hate crimes will be committed against bikers, people in cars mowing us down for no reason, other than the perception that we are taking their right to that extra 2 or 3 feet of road away.”

Yes. I worry about this, as well. The rage, the spitting, the swerving - it’s all so unnecessary for two seconds I may have cost you in your race to the next red light.

highheelsandtwowheels:

“Expansion of Bike Lanes in City Brings Backlash”

There was only one valid argument against bike lanes by opponents in this article, that they take away parking spaces for delivery trucks. And that was only a few business owners. But everyone else, I don’t understand; especially in NYC…

It’s a big, huge, gigantic grey area. As I’ve said in the past, it’s everyone’s fault. Peds jaywalk and cross into the bike lane without looking, then get mad at a cyclist for almost hitting them. Drivers cut you off and act as if you have no right to be in their lane, despite the fact that NY law says we do. Cyclists act like assholes and blaze through red lights and don’t signal to cars that they need to change lanes. Cops don’t enforce the laws on either side. Department of Transportation hasn’t offered any kind of education - for drivers, cyclists and peds - to keep up with the huge boom in cycling in the city.
 
The blame goes all around, so there really isn’t an easy answer. This morning a car sped up and cut me off, causing me to almost crash, just so he could make a right turn in front of me. It was the closest I’ve come to wrecking (knock on all sorts of fucking wood) so far. The driver was a complete asshole, and I yelled that at him and shook my first (side note: how pathetic does shaking your fist at someone make you feel? It’s lame and ineffective. It’s like saying “I’d love to do something, but I don’t know what! So here is an action meant to reflect my anger!”). But does that mean all NYC drivers are dicks? No, of course not. Likewise, just because some cyclist was a jerk one time doesn’t mean all cyclists here are jerks. But as is often the case in life, people can focus on the negative a lot easier than the positive.

The city’s culture is changing, and as that happens, there are going to be growing pains. It sucks but that’s just the way it’s going to be. I always wonder what it’s like biking in other cities - is it as intense as it is here in New York? I hope this whole thing doesn’t come down to violence toward anyone, but at times when I’ve been biking, it seems like it’s almost inevitable. Me, I prefer to shake my fist in the air like a grumpy elderly man in a retirement home.

(Source: highheelsandtwowheels)

It’s also emphatically not the case that it’s “only a matter of time” before you get hurt riding your bike in a city. Cyclists, like all human beings, exercise agency in the decisions they make and can learn to adjust their behavior and habits to make themselves much, much safer. Knowing that you don’t have to ride near parked cars is one way of doing this. It’s true that doorings are an epidemic in NYC, and it’s true that our streets are still unacceptably dangerous if you’re on two wheels. But we shouldn’t give further impetus to the idea that getting injured or killed on your bike is “just a matter of time, period.” It’s a matter of many things, including the imperative of drivers to understand the potential hazards they can cause, the imperative of cyclists to understand those hazards and not create new ones, and of the larger way in which urban space is conceived and treated by those with the means to shape our cities. There are vast numbers of people in this city and in many others whose lives could be changed for the better and who could contribute to re-shaping their cities in a sustainable, sensible, healthy, efficiently-moving way by riding their bikes–but many of those people will look at something like Jasmine’s death and conclude that it’s just not worth it, unless they understand the potential for their own dynamic role in changing the situation where this keeps happening.

”

— excerpted from comment by Scott on Streetsblog notice about Saturday’s vigil for cyclist Jasmine Herron. According to witnesses, Jasmine was doored by the careless driver of a Dodge parked on the right hand side of the street, and knocked into traffic, where she was accidentally killed by the city bus. The driver of the Dodge tried to deny any involvement, claiming another car struck Jasmine, but witnesses riding the bus say she’s lying.

Brooklyn, NY: Saturday memorial ride for Jasmine Herron »

There will be a vigil ride for Jasmine Herron this Saturday, the 25th, starting at 8:00 p.m. at the corner of Atlantic and Washington. The vigil organizers — including the 77th Precinct Community Council, Brooklyn Community Board 8, the 77th Precinct Clergy Council, and Council Member Tish James — are asking cyclists to come and ride in tribute to the victim.

read more…

I am concerned that DSNY’s proposed rules extend the definition of a “derelict” bicycle too far and run the risk of subjecting a significant number of memorial bicycles to removal. Many of these memorial bicycles share characteristics with “derelict” bicycles, as they are defined in the rules, even though they are completely different, and should be treated ad such. For purposes of these proposed rules, I believe the Department of Sanitation should eliminate any reference to memorial bicycles. Considering the value that memorial bicycles hold, I think we should be more careful to not subject these sacred bicycles to seizure.

”

— The Council of the City of New York Statement Regarding “Memorial” Ghost Bikes by COuncil Member Letitia James

NYC's ghost bikes will not be removed by DSNY, after hundreds protest the removal. »

by Andy Campbell
Wednesday, September 1, 2010 

Those all-white memorial bikes scattered across the borough may have a new lease on life, after talks between “ghost bike” supporters and the city appear to have led to a compromise that would spare the memorials from new rules designed to rid the streets of “derelict” two-wheelers.

Sources told this paper that the Department of Sanitation is finalizing a new set of rules that would allow ghost bikes to be removed by the police if they are so run-down that “they pose a danger to pedestrians.”

Initially, the city intended to consider ghost bikes automatically “derelict” and suitable for trashing, but a group of activists, a community board and Assemblyman Joe Lentol (D–Williamsburg) rallied to prompt the change that would allow the department to remove bikes only if they are falling apart.

“We’re pleased that the [department] took into account all of the responses of the community and the families of those bikers who were killed,” said Leah Todd, spokeswoman for the NYC Street Memorial Project, which erects the memorials. “It’s good to see that these families’ voices were heard.”

The Department of Sanitation “won’t confirm or deny” the new policy, but sources close to the process said that the department will take all of the language regarding ghost bikes out of the proposed rules.

The new ghost bike laws would essentially give police the same power that they have now over dangerous bikes, which is to remove them upon request, complaint or imminent danger. Plus, the rules take away the Department of Sanitation’s role in removing the memorials.

Still, abandoned bikes are getting so bad in neighborhoods like Williamsburg and Carroll Gardens that cops have launched their own campaigns to remove them. Police have long said that removing bicycles should only fall under their jurisdiction if they pose a threat to pedestrians on the sidewalk, but heaps of metal and rubber in those neighborhoods have led precincts to all-out crackdowns.

The proposed rules — without the ghost bike verbiage — aim to put that responsibility back into the city’s hands.

We ask that language regarding ghost bikes be removed from this proposal altogether. Such rules should reflect that ghost bikes will not be summarily disposed of without special outreach procedures, to include families of victims.

”

— Brooklyn Heights’ Community Board 2 Resolution, passed in July, in favor of rewriting proposed new Dept Sanitation of New York rules for removal of derelict bicycles.