Here were a few of our favorite things, spotted while out on the Lower East Side: the problem of vehicles blocking bike lanes, the notorious Grand Avenue bike lane, in particular, and the recurring gripe about diplomats parking willy nilly and otherwise acting as scofflaws. Read More
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
So the Battery Conservancy wants to move The Sphere, Fritz Koenig’s sculpture that survived the attacks and has called the park home for a decade. The conservancy defends the decision because it is holding up long-planned renovations to the park, which have taken place everywhere but on the site of The Sphere, the installation of which was always meant to be permanent.
The hope was the sculpture would be reinstalled at the World Trade Center site, but as that project has dragged on, and uncertainty continues, its fate is now uncertain. The sculpture moves to JFK this week, and will hopefully find a home at the site, possibly on a park planned for the space where the old Deutsche Bank Building used to stand.
Whose to blame here, though? Read More
Maybe it was just the shortest route home.
Over the weekend, Chuck Schumer was spotted in the most unlikely place one might expect him, even though it is right outside his door. Senator Schumer has generally eschewed the controversial Prospect Park West bike lane, which his wife, former Transportation Commissioner Iris Weinshall, vociferously opposes in lawsuits and op-eds. An avid cyclist, the state’s senior senator has neither supported nor opposed the lane. Perhaps he is now voting with his feet? Read More
Casey Neistat became a hero to millions of people when he created a video last June about the dangers of using the bike lanes in New York City, or at least that’s the impression given by his YouTube hit counter. This was not the first video Mr. Neistat had ever made about bikes, though it was by far his biggest hit. Way back in 2005, he made a little film called “Bicycle Thief,” not a nod to De Sica but a call to arms for New Yorkers to look out for each other. (Jodi Applegate was not a fan.) So have things changed over the past seven years, as bike ridership in the city has tripled?
Of course not. Read More
After all the attention Casey Neistat brought to the perils of biking in bike lanes, and how it is not actually illegal to bike outside of them, you would think the NYPD would stop issuing tickets for this non-offense. But alas, the quota-driven cycling crackdown continues, and it has led one biker to sue the state DMV. Read More
The road rage is not only on Prospect Park West but also inside the Park itself. After two serious bike-on-pedestrian accidents left two women with significant brain injuries, the Prospect Park Alliance set out to redesign Park Drive, the busy thoroughfare inside the park that is often clogged with walkers, cyclists, and during rush hour, motorists. It can get hectic at times.
Now, the Alliance has unveiled a new proposal that will give each group its own dedicated lane, cutting down the car lane from two to one and giving peds and bikes their own dedicated space. There will be space for running both ways and for both slow and fast bikes, a more even allotment on the street. Read More
If brownstone neighbors thought challenges to the Prospect Park West bike lane were a nuisance—they point to community board votes and supportive surveys—it has turned out to be an expensive one at that. According to documents obtained by The Brooklyn Paper, the riotously named Neighbors for Better Bike Lanes has so far cost the city $140,000 in legal fees defending the lane, a price that will no doubt rise now that the suit has been appealed. Read More
It may not be the best weather for cycling, but the Prospect Park West bikelash is heating up again.
On Friday, Neighbors for Better Bike Lanes, the cleverly named community group opposing the lane alongside Prospect Park, appealed an August decision in Brooklyn Supreme Court not to hear its legal challenge against the city. The group still contends that the bike lane was an experiment, a trial never completed with community consultation, one that persists without community support—despite widespread polling and surveys to the contrary. 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
