All the News that Fits, We Print
I’d say this parody of a New York Times article on bike lanes pretty much nails it.
The Second Avenue Subway bike lane is the latest pro-biking measure proposed by transportation commissioner Jeanette Sadik-Khan. Since becoming Mayor, Bloomberg has closed much of Broadway to automobiles and has overseen the addition of 225 miles of bike lanes, many of them physically separated from the main flow of traffic. This has led to some backlash, most prominently regarding a dedicated bike lane on Prospect Park West which critics say prevents only a small number of deaths, compared to how much harder it is for Senator Charles Schumer’s wife to receive deliveries at her Prospect Park West apartment from FreshDirect, Crate and Barrel, Sherry-Lehman and Interflora.
It’s About More than Just Bike Lanes
As if the great weather hasn’t been enough to lift your spirits, Streetfilms knocks it out of the park with this antidote to the hysteria over bike lanes, traffic calming, and pedestrian plazas. Viewing it, I could only think of how lucky I am to live, work, play, and ride in a place that’s starting to come alive in the way New York is right now. What’s happened to Times Square, Columbus Avenue, Prospect Park West, and 1st and 2nd Avenues in recent years only makes this great city even greater.
The First NYPD Bike Crackdown?
Is this a picture of a New York City police officer issuing the first ticket to cyclists? It’s from the Museum of the City of New York and is is listed as depicting “Bicyclists standing with policeman, Dewey Celebration.” Dewey was George Dewey, the Admiral of the U.S. Navy and hero of the Spanish-American War who was feted in New York upon his triumphant return from Manilla Bay. MCNY says the picture is from ca. 1900; most sources say that Dewey Day happened on September 30, 1899.
Who knows what the officer is saying to the man in front of him while the other cyclists look on, but I have a feeling it’s not an instruction to trade the bowler hat for a “helment.”
Your Movement is Our Movement
Enjoy your weekend, everyone. Should be a beautiful one for riding.
Real New Yorkers Ride Bikes
Via Streetfilms. Anyone who says bike lanes slow down emergency vehicles should remember that the people who respond to emergencies need to get to work first and get there on time. Good thing Sarinya Srisakul has a fast and efficient way to do that.
Quote for the Day
“Gas is expensive, subways are slower than ever, so the bike is a good way of getting around. As long as the police don’t give too many asinine tickets for running a red light when there’s no traffic, I think bicycling will be on the increase.” – Hal Ruzal, Bicycle Habitat.
Back Soon…
By all measures the New Amsterdam Bicycle Show was a huge success. When I turned the corner onto 22nd Street, bikes were locked to just about every available post and railing. Inside, the show was really busy, with great displays from a wide variety of vendors selling everything from track bikes to townies. Plus, how can you beat twenty-five-cent beer? The entire show was a healthy sign of things to come for biking in New York City. Many congratulations to Transportation Alternatives and the New York Press for pulling it off. I hope it becomes an annual kick-off to Bike Month.
Personal highlights included meeting the people whose blogs I read religiously, including Marc from Amsterdamized and David from Bikehugger. I was thrilled to meet Ann Lutz-Fernandez and picking up a copy of Carjacked. The biggest highlight, though, had to be meeting so many people I follow on Twitter and finally getting to put faces to the handles.
I’m on a big deadline at work, so I’ll be on a light publishing schedule this week. You can still find me over at Twitter, though. If anything pops up, I’ll put up some random posts here and there — with Bike Month now underway there’s bound to be something to write about — but don’t expect much. I’ll be back up and running here on May 9th.
In the meantime, don’t miss this great analysis of bike lanes in the New York Post…from Post readers. Could the editors not find one letter in the ol’ mailbag from a raving lunatic willing to defend their editorial? Was even Steve Cuozzo too busy to send an anonymous email? Maybe this weekend was bigger for New York City cycling than I thought.
The New Amsterdam Bicycle Show
A representative from the Humber Bicycle Company at the 1896 bicycle show at Madison Square Garden. Image via the Museum of the City of New York.
The New Amsterdam Bicycle Show is happening Saturday, April 30, from 10 AM to 7 PM, part of the big kick-off to Bike Month. It’s New York’s first big bike show in years and there’s a lot of great stuff going on all day, including giveaways, gear demonstrations, an “urban bicycle fashion show,” book signings, and more.
I’m speaking on a 4 PM “Bikelandia” panel, “Building a Better City for Biking with Bike-Centric Blogs,” with Ben Fried from Streetsblog, Marc van Woudenberg of Amsterdamize, and possibly others, moderated by Caroline Samponaro, the Director of Bicycle Advocacy for Transportation Alternatives. There will be a Q&A, so please come and give us your best.
The New Amsterdam Bicycle Show will take place at Center 548 on West 22nd Street, not far from the West Side Greenway. I hear there will be valet bicycle parking, so there’s no excuse not to ride there!
Royals for Better Bike Lanes
Think there’s no possible way to link the royal wedding to bicycles? Think again. This is a picture of the archway at the Royal Horse Guards that William and Kate’s processional rode through. Here’s a closer look at the sign on the left:
Horses, carriages, and Rolls Royces are okay, but not bikes. I hope these two hipsters on their vintage bikes know that the Queen is a founding member of Royals for Better Bike Lanes.
Ladies and Gentlemen, Your Borough President
Via Sheesphead Bites comes this video of Marty Markowitz resurrecting his anti-bike-lane song parody at the Kingsborough Performing Arts Center on April 16.
I’ve already done you the favor of watching this four-minute video, so please spare yourself. Before singing his “Bike Lane Cantata,” Marty delivers a preamble in which he lambasts bike lanes and the people who support them, woefully miscategorizing even an inch of bike lane support as an effort to ban the automobile. Like many politicians, Marty isn’t against bike lanes, of course, he’s just against most bike lanes. He’s really against the bike lane that has absolutely zero effect on traffic or congestion, despite the doom-and-gloom predictions of his 2009 letter to Janette Sadik-Khan. [PDF] Just as in that letter, Marty makes no mention of safety in this speech.
The man just can’t ever admit when he’s wrong. If only a borough as great as Brooklyn had the true leader it deserves, not some Chuckle Hut comedian pandering to the convenience of one constituency over the safety and health of all others.
Brooklyn Spoke 