Post Opinion: Strangled by Bikes
Brooklyn residents yesterday rallied against an ugly, two-way bicycle lane on majestic Prospect Park West — just the latest costly and increasingly destructive traffic-rerouting scheme imposed by city Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan.
Sadik-Khan’s department dishonestly calls the bike lane “temporary” pending an analysis of its impact on traffic and safety, which won’t be done until January. Does she really expect anyone to believe her?
The Department of Transportation also promises to take into account Murray Hill residents’ concern over a “proposal” to install useless, concrete-barricaded bus lanes river-to-river on 34th Street. Sure. Although DOT has for now backed off an absurd scheme for a $30 million pedestrian mall, if history is a guide, count on the bus lanes to go forward.
DOT previously promised to heed local complaints about other disastrous, bike-centric schemes that it has imposed all over the five boroughs — and its ruinous Times Square traffic rerouting and pedestrian “plazas.” Just temporary, folks! You won’t be stuck with it until we find out how it’s working!
Every time, the DOT concluded that its brainstorms worked just fine — even though it’s failed to persuasively document any improvement in vehicular flow that was the nominal rationale.
The latest horror is on Columbus Avenue north of West 77th Street. The DOT dangerously narrowed auto lanes from 12 feet to 10 and replaced an entire parking lane with a little-used bike lane. Cars must now park in the middle of the avenue.
To push an agenda superficially plausible — urging people to leave their cars home for mass transit — Mayor Bloomberg tapped into Sadik-Khan’s zeal to put everyone on two wheels. But lots of people must drive through town, as mad as it strikes those of us who don’t. Many corners of the five boroughs, even Manhattan, are far from subways. The MTA is slashing train and bus service. Could there be a worse time to make driving harder?
Yet, in a city where the smallest actions are often subjected to withering public review, the DOT’s wholesale remaking of the streetscape escapes meaningful oversight.
The DOT’s street redesigns — like the closing of Broadway to vehicles in Times Square, shunting traffic and fumes onto overcrowded Ninth Avenue — have far more impact on those who live and work in a neighborhood than incidental Building Code variances requiring approval by the City Council.
The DOT’s cityscape-altering decrees, on the other hand, are subject to no meaningful oversight. Community boards — typically dominated by anti-auto activists out of touch with their own districts — rarely raise a peep.
Business leaders who hate the changes are mute. They fear retribution by myriad agencies — not only the DOT but also Sanitation, Buildings, Health and even the NYPD. The views they share privately often are very different from their public statements.
Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz is the rare elected official to call unambiguously for public oversight of the DOT’s do-as-it-pleases ways. “The City Council should be involved,” he says. “The council has not had an opportunity to vote on, or to let residents know whether they’re for or against re-engineering our streetscape to the vision or lack of vision of the leadership of the DOT.”
But until Bloomberg steps out of his limo long enough to see how much less hospitable our streets have become for ordinary pedestrians and drivers, count on only more misery.
chayaF
I agree, I drove down Flatbush avenue, and the lanes are narrower, it is a harrowing experience. The head of the DOT is out of control, building concrete inserts everywhere. These are accidents waiting to happen.
yitzchokaizik
so bikes strangle us more than cars … hummmmmmmmmm, it sounds there is something else behind your thoughts ….
EVERYBODY......
GET BLOOMBERG OUT NOW!!!!!
Ora
Bike lanes are great! Bike riding is good for the environment and good for your health. The world does not revolve around cars!
adsg
of course change is difficult.
its part of growing up.
times square is a lot more accessible and pleasant, not to mention safer, and driving past is not too bad.
for your stops that are too far from a station, a 15 minute walk will probably get your endorphines pumping and less cranky. if its still too far for you, bikes are allowed on the trains, and then you can actually make use of the vilified lanes.
bike lanes are good for you and god for everyone
DANGEROUS
Driving a bike is about 100 times more dangerous than driving a car.
Driver of a bike is in 4x more danger than a Drunken Driver.
Bikers and cyclist are a small “minority” but they make up about 15% of accident deaths.
Were you ever in a minor car accident?
Imagine you be be on a bike?
TO EVERYBODY #3
You want bloomberg out?
Who will take over?
Another Dinkins? New Gangs and Riots in CH?
nsker
As a user of the roads in both roles (as driver or biker) since long before biking became so fashionable here, I can comment for both sides.
First of all, some of the new bike lanes made my daily commute to Manhattan much safer and more pleasant. Those are some of the lanes in Manhattan (Prince, Grand St, West Side path and the one along East river), the Manhattan Br bike path and Sands/Navy/Fort Green lanes. They are either off the street or a row of parked cars separates bikes from car traffic.
But many of the new lanes are a disaster. One example is Empire Blvd. I think the redesign itself has made it better for pedestrians and drivers. The former four-lane scheme with no left turn lanes and densely parked cars on the sides was certainly unsafe. We all remember too many devastating accidents along Empire blvd. However, when there is a bike lane, bikers are implicitly expected to stay in it, which is not always possible. If you ride there you are squeezed between traffic and parked cars. It takes one driver to open the door at the wrong time to make the biker fall into the traffic. In fact, this type of accident is the most common cause of biker casualties. It also takes a very small pothole to force the biker to swerve. Not to speak of the mess when there is a car stopped in the bike lane.
Yet another disaster is Eastern Pkwy “green path”. DOT has decreed that pedestrians and bikers stay on different sides of the brick line that divides the southern former walkway into 2 unequal strips. Nobody observes the rule, making it impossible to follow even if you try. Besides, making a bike lane over brick pavement is a torturous insult to anyone not in possession of a mountain bike with a fancy suspension system. It is just safer to ride in the service road. The drivers there, of course, are not happy (what? not enough bike lane for you?).
On Ocean Pkwy they have a divider fence for this; ugly, but at least it keeps pedestrians and bikers safely separated.
Finally, there is no bike path at all between the museum and Prospect park. Law-abiding bikers are offered a choice of walking to the park or riding Eastern parkway in its most dangerous section. It invites accidents.
In short, some of the new lanes are not really good for bikers; it looks more like a promotional tool for the city and its mayor.
Ticket the reckless bikers!
Bike riders, MANY often not even wearing helmets, ride in the wrong direction in bike lanes on one-way streets!
What a nightmare for an unsuspecting driver trying to park or trying to pull out of a parking space that’s right next to a bike lane!
I really resent being put into the position of possibly being the unwitting cause of a bike crash (or worse) merely due to my opening my car door after looking in the proper direction, since I DO check in the proper direction for bike traffic! Now I have to look for wrong-way bike riders too!
Why don’t the police ticket bike riders who don’t obey the rules? I hear about a few tickets when the bike riders ride on the sidewalk, but that’s about all. What about all of the other illegal bike-riding acts?
Rights without responsibilities
If the city is going to cater to the bike riders like this — not entirely a bad idea even though I’m upset about the bad bike riders — then it’s only fair that enforcement of safe biking rules be stepped up big time!!!
Or else, why spend the money building the lanes? Another classic case of liberals granting rights without demanding that those gaining these rights take on any responsibility to be good citizens.
Conceivably, the city could end up defending itself in court one day. A hot shot lawyer could name the city as being among those at fault, when there’s an accident where a pedestrian is hit by a bike while trying to legally cross the street, and a bike rider who failed to stop at a light (or stop sign) hits the pedestrian.
The argument would be that the city facilitated the bike rider’s use of the street, but that same city has a poor pattern of enforcing bike riding regulations.
nsker
They often do ticket bikers, but instead of concentrating on real problems, they prefer the same tactic as with drivers, like watching the sidewalk where there is a pothole in the bike lane and the cyclist has to choose between the moving traffic and the sidewalk. Should he swerve into the sidewalk for a few meters, there is a ticket for him. They should instead ticket bikers riding against traffic direction or through red lights, or really riding on sidewalks (although experienced bikers would generally not do that).
But the city will indeed be liable some day for endangering pedestrians and bikers on the Eastern Pkwy by putting them on the same walkway. It is a matter of time before someone gets seriously hurt ch”v.