Sunday, March 6, 2016

Monster Track 2016



The 17th annual street race (brakeless, fixed gear) started yesterday in Tompkins Square Park...







Photos by Derek Berg

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

so these are like most bikes already on the street?

Anonymous said...

What is going on in these photos? Anyone?

Gojira said...

This is a thing?

Giovanni said...

You never want the last two words you ever say on earth to be "no breaks!"

nygrump said...

Messenger specials

Anonymous said...

Yesterday I had the displeasure of encountering this stupid thing. First as I walked along the fifth street traverse through Village View. Some guy came blazing through at full speed yelling at people to get out of his way. Scared the hell out of some little old lady pushing her groceries home in her little cart. She had to stop and sit down. Then when I got to the Avenue A sidewalk another two barreled down on me yelling for me to move. As I was trying to cross A I don't know how many came along from all directions ignoring the traffic lights and weaving in and out of the moving cars. This thing is really stupid. I wonder how many of them got hurt or hurt people in the process.

Anonymous said...

I see the Ninth Precinct was nowhere in sight for this permit-less race. This is Exhibit A why I think EVERYONE who rides a bike on NYC streets should be required to have a license plate and insurance.

Re: that guy who almost ran over the old lady. If I saw that, I would calmly track him then follow him until he was alone and there were as few people around as possible. Once that happens would put on gloves, go up to him to ask him about the bike race like I was all cool, strike up a good rapport with him then as soon as I see there are no eyes on him and me, I'd say "This is for the old lady you almost ran over.", punch him dead in the face, walk away, pull off the glove I used to hit him with my other gloved hand, toss it in the garbage a few blocks away. I'd also remove items I wore when I decked him so I'm not readily identified and grab a cab out of the area then go nowhere near it for a month (easy to do.)

Remember 99.9% of these assholes and really any asshole in NYC is unprepared for something like that. They do what they do without thinking so why would they be alert to what I would do?

derek berg said...

Anonymous 1.55 p.m. It's a race around the city. It started in Tompkins, where they were given the first destination where they were to be given the next destination. I believe it ended in Brooklyn. There were no NYPD around for the 1/2 hour I was there. The photos show the "starting pistol" moment. There was no pistol.

5,966 injuries/deaths and 38 prosecutions in 2014 for "Failure to Yield" in NYC ... How're we doin'? said...

@Anon 5:36PM : I am intrigued by your carefully thought out approach to dealing with this reckless cyclist who "failed to yield" to that old lady.

Please submit a proposal for dealing with the motor vehicle operators who kill and injure by "failure to yield". Your input is vital; the NYC district attorney offices apparently have nothing to offer here.

I have a spare pair of gloves if you think it will help.


TA found that hit-and-run drivers are almost never held accountable in NYC. Of 4,000 hit-and-run crashes in 2015 that resulted in injury and death, fewer than 1 percent of drivers were prosecuted, the report says, with just 50 cases handled by trained NYPD crash investigators leading to 28 arrests.

While 70 percent of pedestrian deaths in 2014 were caused by driver behavior, according to New York State DMV data, the report says DAs brought homicide charges in less than 7 percent of fatal crashes. TA found that prosecutors brought charges in fewer than 2 percent of crashes where drivers were not impaired, fleeing police, or intentionally attacking the victim.


http://www.streetsblog.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/dwi_fty.jpg

http://www.streetsblog.org/2015/12/08/ta-report-nyc-district-attorneys-are-failing-to-lead-on-vision-zero/

Anonymous said...

Q: Why no permit for this? I was passing through the park and ran into them there, then on way back up Ave. A (from the last day at St. Mark's Books... waah) they were on 5th Street and heading back into the park. Not much in the way of police presence, but traffic (vehicles and pedestrians) were, well...you know... in their way.