By Matt Chaban 12/21/12 2:54pm

Road Rage

Dare ya! (Getty)

Crash, and Burn: City Dismisses Prospect Park West Bike Lane Foes’ Unusual Settlement Offer

It is clear by now, if it has not always been, that the opponents of the Prospect Park West bike lane do not trust the city’s Department of Tranportation.

They have insisted the project was “trial” with virtually no proof that this was ever the city’s position. They have dismissed city-run studies of traffic data that show the lane has improved traffic flows and reduced injuries. And they have sneered at the considerable majority of their neighbors who have voted time and again in favor of the project. Still, the efforts of Neighbors for Better Bike Lanes persist, especially now that their lawsuit against the lane has been returned to court on a technicality. The group’s response has been to offer the city a settlement that essentially amounts to little more than a barroom dare. Read More

By Matt Chaban 12/19/12 9:42pm

Road Rage

Not so fast. (Getty)

Flat Tire! Prospect Park West Bike Lane Suit Returns to Court

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

By Matt Chaban 10/01/12 10:14am

Road Rage

7 Photos

Central Parking

Central Parking: DOT Cuts Down on Car Lanes to Make More Room for Joggers, Bikers

Cycling in Central Park has gotten a lot of attention of late following a few nasty accidents and a campaign by the Daily News—repeated every few years—where intrepid reporters venture into the park, speed guns in hand, to make a stink about scofflaw bikers breaking the 25 mile per hour speed limit. (Hell, if you can get going that fast, that is pretty impressive.)

This is not to suggest that unsafe cycling is ever acceptable, but as more people take to bikes, and the city’s population continues to grow, park pathways are bound to get busier. Action by users is important, but also be operators.

As it has done with Prospect Park, following another spate of high-profile injuries, the city’s Department of Transporation and Parks Department have reached an agreement to change the arrangement of traffic lanes to make more room for bikes and runners and less for vehicles. The measure is meant to make everyone safer. Read More

By Matt Chaban 8/23/12 11:17am

Road Rage

Ford motors along. (Vanessa Rieger)

Would the Next Mayor Really Reverse Mayor Bloomberg’s Re-engineering of the Streets?

Former mayoral hopeful and social media lothario Anthony Weiner once infamously declared to Mayor Bloomberg over dinner that his first year in City Hall would be spent “tearing out your fucking bike lanes.”

It is a prospect that terrifies urban planners and bike advocates, who worship the public space rejiggering championed by current DOT commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan. Mr. Weiner is obviously out of the running, but some other mayoral candidates have expressed concern about these streetscape changes, as well, most recently Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, who called the commish a “radical” recently. But would he really go through with it? Read More

By Matt Chaban 8/21/12 5:48pm

Road Rage

How about some rainbow colored lanes? (Getty)

Let’s Roll! Two Out of Three New Yorkers Like Bike Lanes

Well, that ought to end the debate about bike lanes, even if former defender Bill de Blasio has become a skeptic. That would put him in the minority, as that numbers continue to climb in favor of the new bike byways crisscrossing the city. Last time we checked, it was a supermajority who liked bike lanes. Now, two out of three New Yorkers like bike lanes, according to The Times, no less, which has not always been a fan. And the gray lady makes a pretty emphatic point about it, too. Read More

By Matt Chaban 7/03/12 12:15pm

Road Rage

9 Photos

Protected Bike Lanes? Protected from whom?

New Eighth Avenue Protected Bike Lane Sure Is Nice When It’s Not Full of Pedestrians (Which Is Never)

On a recent night, we were leaving the office in The Observer Building (too late, as usual) when, turning onto Eighth Avenue, we noticed something unusual: the new protected bike lanes had begun to be installed.

We first noticed it a week or two earlier, as the old lanes, on the outside of the parked cars, were ground off the asphalt, but it took a bit of time for the new parking lane to be painted, then that bright green strip. The lane used to stop south of 40th Street, but now would run all the way to Columbus Circle, with a sister lane headed south on Ninth Avenue.

Already, cars had moved into position, even though many of the markings still remained to be installed. Bikers would be zipping along the route any day now. Or not. When we saw the lane in day light, an unusual thing happened. Read More

By Sarah Grothjan and Matt Chaban 6/22/12 5:53pm

Two Wheelers

18 Photos

The Great Brooklyn Greenway

Painting the Boro Green: 14-Mile Brooklyn Greenway from Bay Ridge to Greenpoint Gets Rolling

Most New Yorkers with $14 million would likely opt for a pricey slice of real estate on the Upper East Side, maybe with a little left over for dinner for a thousand friends at Per Se. But in Brooklyn, they choose instead to spend that money on their bikes.

With $14 million in funding, secured by Congresswoman Nydia M. Velazquez, the Brooklyn Greenway Initiative and the Regional Plan Association, the borough will finally see the completion of the Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway, a 14-mile foot and bike path running from Greenpoint to Bay Ridge. Some segments of the greenway already exist on some streets and riverside parks, but these funds will help stitch the entire thing together. Read More

By Matt Chaban 6/05/12 7:50pm

Road Rage

Watch your head. (Edward Reed/Mayor's Office)

Two-Wheeled Trouble: Is the Helmet Law Just a Covert Attack on New York’s Bike Share Program?

Is it possible that requiring every New Yorker to wear a helmet while cycling might actually be more dangerous for bicyclists than letting them continue on their merry way—cranium at the mercy of crazed drivers, hapless pedestrians, flying rats and their own personal incompetence?

That is exactly the argument made by every cycling enthusiast from Mayor Bloomberg to Joe Twowheels after Brooklyn City Councilman David Greenfield proposed a bill last week that would mandate cyclists don a Styrofoam dome before hitting the streets. Right now, that applies to children under 14, who also have the right to ride on the sidewalk, and delivery cyclists, who believe it or not, do not.

Mr. Greenfield wants to charge cyclists $25 for their first helmetless offense, $50 for the second and $100 thereafter. He points out that a good bike helmet does not cost much more than that first ticket, so what’s the excuse? “It’s basically common sense,” he said of his bill.

But bike advocates argue that the bill will have the opposite effect, making the city less safe for cyclists because it will depress ridership—after all, most New Yorkers are more worried about suffering helmet head than head trauma. Read More

By Matt Chaban 6/01/12 1:27pm

Road Rage

Freedom from the tyranny of helmets! (Gucci Little Piggy)

Will Council Bike Helmet Law Drive People to Vote for Ron Paul?

The Observer got an alarmed email from a reader, whose thoughtful daughter sent her our article on the proposed bike helmet legislation, which the reader does not like one bit. Her email, cleverly titled “Will mom opt for civil disobedience?,” expresses some serious concerns about the possibilities of being forced to wear a helmet, and the reason such legislation does not make sense. Read More

By Matt Chaban 5/11/12 12:40pm

Road Rage

(Google Maps/NYC DOT)

Will One of Those 10,000 Citi Bikes Be on Your Block? DOT Unveils Preliminary Bike Share Map

Despite nascent fears of out-of-control teens and flying Dutchmen, New Yorkers are eagerly awaiting the city’s bike share program according to a new Quinnipiac poll, which found that 64 percent of city dweller favor bike share compared to 30 percent opposed.

Now, Gothamites can find out if there will be a Citi Bike station on their corner, as the city’s Department of Transportation has just unveiled the preliminary map for its new 600-station, 10,000-bike strong bike sharing network.

The Observer cannot quite walk out our door and hop on one of the new bright blue rigs, but there is a station one block north and south of our offices, an arrangement that seems to be the norm for a system stretching from 60th Street to Atlantic Avenue. These bikes will be everywhere.

Well, unless you’re a townhouse dweller. Read More