This time last year, The Observer looked at the bicycle mania seizing the city, which seemed to be the last great culture war of a transformed, civilized, infantilized New York. Even Woody Allen hates them.
Perhaps we gave the cyclists too much credit, as none other than Bicycling magazine is pointing the finger squarely at the two-wheeled set for many of the on-street whoas engulfing the city. Read More
As if there were any question that the bikelash would continue for another year, it is only the second day of the year and the stories have already begun popping up. The Brooklyn Paper called the Prospect Park West bike lane fight one of its stories of the year, and now it looks like brownstone dwellers are not the only NIMBYs wary of new bike lanes. Read More
For the past year or so, The Observer, along with the rest of the press corps, has been chronicling the city’s, and the press corps’, reaction to our burgeoning bicycle culture. The Post, obviously, has been highly critical, to say the least, if not downright damnatory. The News has, understandably, followed suit. Even The Times has been playing against type, turning its back on its pinko-brownstone readership to criticize everything from a–gasp–European-style bike share program to streets czarina JSK (rhymes with DSK!). Read More
It used to be that biking in the city fell into the domain of messengers, mad men and David Byrne. Now, thanks to the Bloomberg administration and progressive streets czarina Janette Sadik-Khan, bike lanes are all over the damn place — the city has added 250 miles of the designated paths over Read More
It looks like the bicycle backlash is nothing new:
The Times described upper Broadway as “a regular race track” for speeding cyclists, one of them, operating without bell or whistle, killed 7-year-old Katie McGlynn just as she was exiting a streetcar at Broadway and 67th. “They make no noise Read More
While it seemed like the bicycle backlash of a year ago had finally cooled off, and those larcenous lanes were here to say—won’t someone think of the motorists!—the cold war is back this winter. The Columbus Avenue bike lane expansion was rebuffed by the local community board, bike share has been delayed a few extra month, Steve Cuozzo thinks bikes are a cancer on the city (O.K., so what else is new?), and now opponents of the Prospect Park West bike lane have finally won a court case.
After complaints over the lane were ignored in court in the spring, Neighbors for Better Bike Lanes appealed the results to a higher court, which today ruled that the lower court had to reconsider the case on technical grounds. The Appellate Division of the State Supreme Court ruled unanimously that judge Burt Bunyon erred in dismissing the case as lacking merit, and now a hearing must be held over the lane (you can read the one-page decision here). Read More
Hasn’t the Department of Transportation had enough headaches on Prospect Park West? Read More
Can we just install bike share already? Read More
The city has been in the thrall of a bicycle backlash for the past year, after the city’s Department of Transportation ran lanes through the East Village, Upper West Side and, most controversially, along Prospect Park West, which led to a lawsuit filed by neighbors living on the thoroughfare.
Things seem to be finally calming down—the lane lawsuit was defeated, recent polls have put bike lane support north of 60 percent—but how will the city react when the Department of Transportation and its love-her-or-hate-her Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan roll out a massive bike sharing program across Manhattan and Brooklyn next summer? Read More
The four outer-boroughs suffer the worst commutes in the country, according to the 2010 Census. No wonder drivers get so worked up about Transportation Czarina Janette Sadik-Khan. Even if the city’s D.O.T. is improving the roads for drivers, any efforts even perceived to be undermining cars, like bike lanes and pedestrian plazas, is seen as a threat, regardless of whether or not it improves transportation not only for drivers but bus riders, bicyclists and pedestrians, too.
Besides, whether or not Ms. Sadik-Khan can take all, or even any, of the credit (as some readers have argued to us, these programs have been in the works for years—still, all the experts we talked to applauded), a new report by IBM shows that New York’s commutes are better than many in the world and are getting better. Read More
