Friday, December 31, 2010

Bike lanes cleared to make wrong-way bicycling safe again

Earlier today, city crews cleared the bike lanes on First and Second Avenues...





[Updated: I changed the original headline... was more inflammatory than I had intended... not to mention factually incorrect!...]

19 comments:

blue glass said...

oh, that's what the sanitation foreman(?) in uniform with his sanitation car was doing this afternoon when he directed the snow plow to move the snow around and then toss it into the center of first avenue.
now that i look back they were clearing the bike lane not making it easier for the snow to melt.
some poor chap got an expensive ticket yesterday clearing snow and tossing it into the street exactly where sanitation tossed it today. unfortunately he was clearing the sidewalk not the bike lane.
and a lot of the side streets are still a mess.
doesn't make it any easier for us walkers to cross the street does it.

Anonymous said...

Gee, Grieve, tell us how you REALLY feel about bike lanes. What a misleading headline. The bike lanes were cleared this morning. If you have proof of a side street in the neighborhood that wasn't cleared by this morning, I'd love to see it.

Not to mention that clearing the bike lanes keeps bikes out of mixed traffic and off sidewalks - which is better for everyone.

Look, you hate the bike lanes. Fine. But lying to fuel the fire is pointless.

elkue said...

Szold place was fucking clear yesterday, as was every other side street I rode down. The bike lanes are still a disaster above 18th Street. What is your problem?

EV Grieve said...

I have no issues with bike lanes. I was making a joke with the headline. As I said, I was wrong with the original headline. I changed it and noted why I changed it.

Anonymous said...

@OWR said..

Oh yeah, That's right. Go after cyclists; Because automobile drivers and pedestrians ALL follow the laws. (rolls eyes to the moon)

blue glass said...

i personally am for biking around the city. for getting around they are more convenient, take up less space, don't use gas or pollute.
however, the bikers that ride on the sidewalk, streak in and out of all lanes, go in the wrong direction, etc. etc. etc. make it bad for all bikers.
there is no way to pick out an anti-social, hostile, dangerous, mindless biker from anybody else around until you are almost hit by one. mostly when you least expect it.
cars are big, never ride on sidewalks, and always go in the direction of traffic (unless they are lost or totally high).
let ALL the bikers obey traffic rules and folks will stop complaining about them.

LiberationNYC said...

Christ, some of the EV Grieve readers are on the rag today.

elkue said...

blueglass, thank you for never failing to deliver the same brainless slew of complaints about those evil bikers. I hope you can continue it long into 2011.

It's comforting to know we can always count on you to re-iterate on your personal feelings about bicyclists with no new information or constructive comments.

OWR said...

What new Info do you want BG to post?..The Bicyclists still ride recklessy, aggressively and in the wrong direction. To add insult-to-injury, we now have the Chinese delivery people riding motorized bikes recklessly, aggressively and in the wron direction. Crackdown is going to be a bitch and I will watch with a huge smile when the city (very soooon thanks to the backlash) starts policing!

elkue said...

Oh yeah, the NYPD is definitely going to be effective with their crackdown.

Like parking in the 1st avenue bike lane and ticketing cyclists who leave the lane to avoid the cop car.

JM said...

bloomie got pissed when albany wouldn't go for his midtown auto tax, and the bike lanes are his pouty revenge. whatever. I still find it amazing that this disproportionate favor to a very small minority (bikers), along with money for street furniture and other unnecessary items, continues to go on while fire houses are scheduled to close, sanitation supervisors get a demotion, and the police force is quietly trimmed through attrition. well, that east river walk is well worth it. first things first, after all.

OWR said...

RBB I cant wait till I see those new little shiny license plates on the back of your expensive bike and NY's Finest patrolling those shitty bike lanes and handing out VERY expensive tickets to you two-wheeling miscreants. (Deserved and UNDESERVED to make for all your prior violations and near-misses).

Anonymous said...

Agreed with OWR.
-H

Anonymous said...

Yay for cleared bike lanes. I'm an east villager and a cyclist. I don't ride against traffic, I yield to pedestrians and generally ride just like I do everything else in public--with consideration for others. Don't lump all bikers together. I see pedestrians engaging in the same kind of thoughtless reckless behavior that people like to stereotype bikers as having. Just go to 3rd avenue and St marks if you want to see people on foot abusing traffic laws not to mention putting lives at risk.

elkue said...

OWR - I will personally give you 10 bucks if that happens in the next decade.

OWR said...

Will happen within next 12-18 months. Guaranteed.
Public clamor and outrage will necessitate it (just wait till Spring and Summer comes....)

Anonymous said...

If you think that a massive new bureaucracy to license and monitor bicycle ownership is going to happen any time in the next century you are out of your mind.

You are also operating on a false assumption that without license plates and special bicycle operating permits the NYPD can't enforce laws and write tickets to bicyclists.

Recent history shows that this is just not the case. Licenses for bikes is not going to impact ticket writing for bikes one way or the other. It's just a useless waste of money.

Bikes that ride the wrong way, and rides that are arrogantly aggressive can be ticketed.

But, before you start clamoring for the police state to clamp down, you might want to think about your own actions. You want cops to ticket everyone that walks across a street against the light? I know I don't.

I have nothing against bikes that "downgrade" traffic rules (stop signs become yield signs, red lights become stop signs). Just don't be an ass about it.

Cars really are the primary problem on our streets. If there's going to be a ticketing blitz, let's start by enforcing red light rules for and the speed limit for cars first. They are the real threat to safety.

I also want people to stop talking about "almost being hit" by a bike and ignoring that they are "almost hit by cars" on an hourly basis.

breath in... CARS OUT!

esquared™ said...

somewhat apropos...

cops block bike lanes to ticket cyclists for not using lanes

elkue said...

Hey OWR, we're coming up on 12 months, no license plates yet!