Bike Lane Hate: A Road to Nowhere

Via Grist.org.

…Sadik-Khan argues that the opposition toward initiatives like bike shares, while vocal, does not always speak for the majority.

“Seventy-two percent of New Yorkers support the bike share program,” she said, citing a poll conducted by Quinnipiac University. “If this was a political campaign it would be a landslide.

So who are the 28 percent who hate on bikes? Among the more high-profile opponents to the Prospect Park bike lane was Iris Weinshall, Sadik-Khan’s predecessor and the wife of Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer. Meanwhile, Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz went so far as to call the cool and collected commissioner a “zealot” for wanting to “make it hard for those that choose to own their automobiles.”

Sadik-Khan shrugs off these criticisms. “Some people have tried to paint bike lanes as elitist, which is really hard to believe because [the bicycle] is the most affordable way to get around town other than walking, and it’s really heavily used by a wide range of social and ethnic groups.”