Bicycling

At Mayoral Forum, Albanese Stands Out With Reality-Based PPW Response

The question of the Prospect Park West bike lane, posed by WNYC's Andrea Bernstein at the Park Slope mayoral forum on Monday, may have been intended as red meat. But it's also a serviceable litmus test.

By Brad Aaron

2:00 PM EDT on May 8, 2013

The question of the Prospect Park West bike lane, posed by WNYC’s Andrea Bernstein at the Park Slope mayoral forum on Monday, may have been intended as red meat. But it’s also a serviceable litmus test.

If a candidate can’t get behind one of the city’s premiere cycling facilities, which grew from the grassroots and transformed a dangerous speedway into a humane neighborhood street, it’s a pretty good indication as to where that candidate stands on the issue of street safety in general.

So congratulations to Sal Albanese for setting himself apart from a pack of know-nothings and fence-sitters. From CapNY:

Sal Albanese, the former Brooklyn councilman who is probably the most pro-transit Democrat in the race, said he “absolutely” would have been installed the bike lane, and that there was “enough community input.”

An honorable mention to Bill de Blasio. Though he repeated the fiction that public input was lacking, said de Blasio: “I think in practice it has worked. In the end, I think it has worked.”

Yes, Bill, it has.

Brad Aaron

Brad Aaron began writing for Streetsblog in 2007, after years as a reporter, editor, and publisher in the alternative weekly business. Brad adopted New York's dysfunctional traffic justice system as his primary beat for Streetsblog. He lives in Manhattan.