Crain's is asking, not me.... You can read what they have to say here.
Here are the questions to study beforehand:
Yes. The only thing all these bike lanes have accomplished is the near impossible feat of making traffic in Manhattan even worse. If people want to ride a bike, let them go to Central Park.
No. Dedicated bike lanes are essential to making cycling in the city a safe, viable, totally green way to get around town.
10 comments:
In recent and not-so-recent years, every city administration has aggressively rolled out car lanes all across the city, snatching away space from pedestrians and cyclists and handing them over to drivers. A new report by Captain Obvious, however, found that the lanes in Manhattan aren't living up to hopes -- with motorists illegally speeding and parked in them, pedestrians and cyclists snarled in them, and traffic causing excessive air and noise pollution in them.
Should we pull the plug on Manhattan car lanes?
Traffic in Manhattan MUST be made worse. It needs to be so inconvenient to use a personal car that people are motivated to stop.
I have my own problems with bike lanes as a pedestrian, but anything that makes car ownership more of a pain is all right by me!
In my 'hood, the yunnies all have cars and claim they need them. Feh.
This is just silly. Let's wait for the city to step up and address the issue with a campaign of education and enforcement. Hopefully BP Stringer has started the ball rolling by listening to New Yorkers who feel that while bikes are a good thing, their safety has been compromised in this process. I honestly am in favor of bike lanes, but absolutely want responsible riders to use them.
It's time for the city to get off it's ass and gain control of the anarchy in our streets, whomever the violators may be.
ALL THOSE BIKKKERS KILL PEDESTRIANS AND BABIES EVERY DAY. WHY DO THEY GET A LANE. I AM GOING TO CRUSH THE NEXT EVIL BIKKER WHO I SEE IN MY PATH ON MY WAY TO WORK. I HAVE A RIGHT TO DRIVE EVERY DAY.
When I walk, an evil bikkker smashes into me on every corner. Without fail. EVERY TIME I CROSS THE STREET. There has not been one time in the past 10 years that I have crossed the street and not been severly injured by an evil bikkker. Also, I can get hurt on the sidewalks. THOSE ARE SUCH A BAD IDEA. I PROPOSE WE ALL TAKE CAPSULES TO WORK TODAY ; also I FORGOT TO TAKE MY MEDS.
I am doing a project whereby I take photos of cyclists that obey traffic laws. I would post them but, for the last three months, I haven't seen any.
We need to change our way of thinking. LESS cars in Manhattan. More bikes. Let's model Amsterdam or Portland - and change the social norms in nyc.
It's only been a few weeks and already their shitty bike graphic is fading.
...Should we pull the plug on Manhattan car lanes?...
Half the time, I think it comes down to, yup, pulling the plug on cars. Yes, opening up some fraction of the streets to bikes is going to cause a tiny bit of grief to drivers but, well, okay, I can live with that. So far, what infrastructure has been made bike-friendly is just scraps and places, like the green ways, that weren't built for cars in the first place. If we want to get real about using bikes, and make bike safe enough for, say, kids and the elderly, we're going to have to, say, shut down a few avenue lanes, and generally kick a few more cars off the streets. We're not talking anything too drastic but it's going to take an effort to make it work and, doh, cars are going to have to deal with it.
8:45am on 12th and 1st ave. I'm crossing the street west to east on the south side. I stop in the bike lane median to see if I can spot a cab and let a light's worth of traffic pass by. The light is now red for northbound traffic on 1st ave. I turn around and begin to cross from the median to the west side of the street to walk up to 2nd avenue when I hear a bike bell and shouting as a bicyclist barrels past in the bike lane. As he passes me he yells, "nice work buddy" presumably congratulating me for getting out of his way.
Now I could be wrong, but I was under the impression that bicyclists were held to the same traffic laws as motorists as far as red and green lights are concerned. I'm not sure bike lanes in general are a problem, but this isn't the first time something like this has happened to me and it's really become much more prevalent since the lanes were installed.
Whatever, I guess some people are going to be assholes either way, but it's getting really old.
Amsterdam? Portland? Let's not get carried away here.
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