Following are the articles and blog posts that I’ve been reading and forwarding lately:
- Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire, and Kevin Dillon bike through the East Village. Their mode of transport was deemed uncool by an onlooker. I tend to disagree.
- This Page Six article from last August notes celebrity riders and has sidebars on bike shops, bike parking, and new bike routes.
- Two weeks ago Robert Sullivan’s biking etiquette article The Wild Bunch caused quite a stir. The comments page saw a flury of activity and the story got picked up by many blogs. The author’s main premise is that as more and more cyclists take the streets, we need to begin to adhere to the law. Or at least be more respectful of other users of the street. His four main suggestions: Stop at major intersections, ride with traffic, stay off sidewalks, and use signals. One of the commenters suggested that we write into law the Idaho Style Stop. This allows cyclists to treat stop signs like yield signs and stop lights like stop signs. I think this is what most respectful cyclists do now anyway. They approach the intersection, slow or stop, and if it is clear they go through the light (usually along with dozens of jay-walking pedestrians.)
- Robert Sullivan’s next bit of controversial work was introducing the concept of schluffing. His video shows him standing on the bikes pedal and pushing the bike along like a scooter. He suggests this method as a more respectful way of traveling on a sidewalk. The video was panned in the blogosphere, particularly by the bike snob. I don’t know how useful this technique really is, and it looks awfully awkward. That and it probably still won’t save you from a ticket from a cop that might not feel like arguing the nuances of the term “riding”.
- Mayor Bloomberg caused a bit of an uproar by suggesting that bikes do not belong on subways. Bloomberg famously rides the Lexington Avenue line, the most over-crowded train in the city. As much as I love biking and multi-modal trips, its absolutely crazy to bring a bike onto a 456 during rush hour. The mayor’s right, you shouldn’t do it. The MTA posts these guidelines for bringing bikes on subways. The MTA does not recommend bringing bikes on during rush hour or on using the 456 if it can be avoided. Again, its all about common courtesy and judgement, and if people in the city thought about how their actions effect others, the city would be a much better place. However, the MTA could clear out some seating at the front or back of the train and create a designated bike area and restrict cyclists to these cars. That might not dramatically improve the situation during peak hours, but it would probably help.
- Finally, this great post on Streetsblog suggests that the installation of bike racks might be outpaced by the removal of conventional meters, thus actually leading to less bike parking opportunities. Sacramento repurposed these meters as racks, which seems like a terrific idea.
That’s it! Going forward my news posts will be more timely.
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Filed under: News
Leo Dicaprio…huh????
bikes huh??? i do like the good MPG you get from them. second to none!!!