I Bike NY

NY Times City Room Spokes investigates how bike commuters deal with sweat.  Also on Spokes: Adults learn how to bike, how to find a beater bike (for $50 or less), and  bike parking problems.

Chicago’s bike parking center makes New Yorkers jealous.

A Post editorial uses the Hunter College bike study as ammunition, declares bikes (not cars) the biggest menace to pedestrians.

Depression Economics: Bikes outsell cars and trucks in 2009.

The cyclists wins TAs commuter challenge, beating a taxi and the subway from Sunnyside Queens to Columbus Circle.

Mathew Modine eloquently describes why he loves biking. Like me, the actor/activist likes to ride with his hair in the wind, but NYMAG thinks he should wear a helmet.  The League of American Bicyclists are wary of using him as a spokesperson because of his choice, refusing to link to this great video.  Copenhagenize defends his choice and blames America’s love of helmets on helmet manufacturers.

Roosevelt Island begins removing bikes from bike racks.  Its good that they are taking action to remove abandoned bikes, but prohibiting overnight parking seems a bit excessive.

David Byrne reviews Jeff Mapes’ book, “Pedaling Revolution”.

Brian Lehrer has his bike stolen.  All together now: Lock the frame, front wheel, and back wheel with locks that costs nearly as much as the bicycle.  Problem solved.

Map bicycle crashes, hazards and thefts at the new website www.bikewise.org.

Schumer gets an ‘A’ from Politicycle.

DKNY sponsors a cycle clothing design competition.

Surprise, surprise — Staten Island doesn’t want bike lanes.

Sarah Goodyear discovers the beauty of slow biking.

Cops on scooters follow critical mass cyclists.

Bicycle access bill is making its way through city council (Streetsblog1, Streetsblog2, Streetsblog3, CityRoom, Observer, NYFI).

TA charts the “safety in numbers” effect that NY is experiencing.  Tom Vanderbilt posts “safety in numbers” stats for London, Copenhagen and the Netherlands.

The Open Planning Project is developing an application to make bulk order requests of bike racks.

Streetfilms covers the Tour de Brooklyn.

Park Slope BID thinks bike lane should be a double parking lane (Streetsblog and Brooklyn Paper).  A follow-up investigation by Streetsblog reveals that local businesses have a delivery problem, not a bike lane problem.  Brooklyn Paper’s follow-up editorial says, no, bike lanes are the problem.

How long is too long for a UPS truck to block a bike lane?

Fox News writer rams cyclist in Central Park.  I needed another reason to hate Fox News?

Ever wonder what a bike theft looks like?  Help me Howard has surveillance video of a bike theft that the NYPD was too busy to investigate.  I feel bad for the woman, but one more time: Lock the front wheel, the back wheel, and the frame with a heavy chain and sturdy ulock.

Streetfilms features the Queens Blvd Bike pool.

The New York State DOT kills the Long Island bike and pedestrian program.

The new plan for the Kent Avenue bike lane was presented to the community board this month.  Brooklyn Paper and Streetsblog have the details.

An accident leads to new plans to regulate the pedicab industry.

Broadway improvements go beyond Times Square, the DOT is working toward better bike lanes from Columbus Circle to the Flat Iron.

The bicycle film festival ran from Wednesday to Sunday.

Streetsblog explains how bike and ped programs are federally funded.

Let the debate begin: Do pedicabs belong in bike lanes? Though regulations are necessary, I see no reason why they can’t share the lane.  They are after all bikes, despite their carlike capacity.

LADOT compares cyclists to insects.  Get outta the way, or get squashed!

New Department of NY Health Commissioner afraid to bike in New York.  Oh wait, no, not afraid, uh, just waiting for his bike.

If you haven’t read about it on the Times Spokes Blog, be sure to check  out the article and comments page, where a fierce  debate is being held.

First of all, I had Professor Milczarski for a few classes and I know him to be passionate about transportation planning and an advocate for cycling.  He spent a semester teaching in Paris and happily used the Velib bike share system to travel around the city.  I don’t think that this study was an attack on cyclists, but rather it was an attempt to draw attention to an issue they felt affected public safety.   I don’t doubt that the results of the study are representative of cyclist behavior in New York, but I do wonder if this behavior represents a serious threat to public safety, one that warrants such intensive study.  Unlike the distracted motorists that Professor Tuckel studied previously, a cyclist is not piloting two-tons of steel at 50 MPH.  Given the relative threat posed by the two modes of transit, I think further study on bad driving should be the priority.

Look, we all know that cyclists routinely break traffic laws. TA’s Wiley Norvel’s response is that bike infrastructure is poor and cyclists break laws to protect themselves.  He believes that when conditions improve, cyclists will break the law less.  For some behaviors this has indeed been true, and you do find significantly less sidewalk riding after the installation of the 9th Avenue protected lane.  For other behaviors this is not true, as it seems the extremely wide protected lanes have led to an increase in cycling against traffic.  This is undoubtedly because cyclists feel safer riding in a protected lane against traffic than they do riding in a regular lane with traffic.  The bikesnob has a serious problem with bike salmon, but I can understand why a cyclist might choose to ride counter-flow in 8-10′ protected lane.

The other problem with this argument is that even if every street and avenue had its own protected lane, we’d continue to see cyclist run lights.  The constant stopping at lights timed for motor vehicles makes cycling far less efficient.  Watch Spencer Boomhower’s great video to understand why we hate to stop so much.

Probably the only thing that would stop cyclists running lights would be a draconian crackdown by the NYPD, which thankfully hasn’t happened yet.  While I’d like to see a law that would allow cyclists to treat stop lights as yeild signs, I doubt that will ever happen here.  So instead we are left with the status quo, which is weak enforcement of a bad law.  A bike is a unique form of transportation and the laws that apply to cars and pedestrians do not regulate this mode very well.  The reason why we see so many cyclists break the law is that it doesn’t match the cyclist’s idea of what’s safe and reasonable.

Because cyclists follow common sense rather than the law they are painted as reckless lawbreakers, but we aren’t the only ones breaking laws in New York.  Cars here often do not signal, run through red lights, and violate the city’s 35 MPH limit.  Pedestrians completely disregard “don’t walk” signs and jaywalk when the intersection is clear, and often when it is not.  I’ve had many conflicts with pedestrians when I have the light and they are jaywalking, yet they’ll be the ones to scream at me. I’d love to see a study documenting how many pedestrians stop at “don’t walk” signs.  The only people I see waiting for lights are confused midwestern tourists.

And that’s okay, because I believe peds rule the streets.  I don’t mind weaving in and out of peds as they jay-walk in front of me or even dodging them when they are standing in my bike lane.  I’ve even come to terms with people double parking cars in my lane, because it actually does seem a bit unreasonable to block a moving traffic lane rather than partially obstructing a bike lane.  I can get by, and I do get by.

I know that when I walk, I hate cars and cyclists.  When I am in a car, I hate people walking slowly through the crosswalk or darting out in front of me.   When I’m a cyclist, I hate cars cutting me off and peds with ipods in their ears.  And when I’m driving a horse drawn carriage, I hate everyone.  So when I’m walking, driving, biking, or horsing, I try to be respectful of others and not be someone I would hate if the roles were reversed.

An excellent NY Magazine feature profiles DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan and documents the remarkable change in the agency and on the streets of New York. Definitely worth reading.

Streetfilms looks at Brazilian bike parking and has Hal grade your locking one more time.

Critical Mass takes the NYPD to court and the NY Post follows the case.

Public Advocate candidate Norman Siegel campaigns on a bicycle.

Seven planners and developers contribute to a Times piece that wonders what it would be like to be Car-Free in America.

Streetsblog starts a debate about the perception of bike commuting and whether or not there is too much emphasis on safety.  In a follow-up post, Editor Aaron Naparstek talks about his helmet-wearing policy.

Colville Andersen promotes cycling in Copenhagen with the video “Copenhagen – City of Cyclists”.

AMNY plugs Bike to Work Day 2009 and Streetsblog has pictures and video from DOT Commissioner Sadik-Khan’s Bike to Work Day Ride.

Obama’s Energy Secretary bikes to work for a day, but no longer commutes regularly.

The Post reports a 143% increase in commuter cycling since 2000.

A British study says more cyclists means fewer accidents.

Roosevelt Island bans overnight bike parking on public racks to combat abandoned bicycles and gives cyclists a week to clear racks.  Its time we find a comprehensive solution to this problem.

An Illinois Senator is pushing for a bike-friendly transportation bill.

Streetsblog covers the launch of TA’s Biking Rules! campaign that offers a street code of conduct.

CB6 in Brooklyn asks for a curbed buffer for the new Prospect Park bike lane and CB 10 votes against the new bike lane for Adam Clayton Powell.

Construction on Broadway Boulevard begins!

Finally, a study released by one of my professors at Hunter says that NY cyclists routinely break the law. The story was picked up by the Post and the Times, and tomorrow I’ll give my opinion.