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 6/23/11 9:17pm

Road Rage

Don't stop us now, we're having such a good time, we're having a ball.

Bicycle Backlash Over, Says, Uh… The Journal?

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