FDNY Commissioner Salvatore Cassano: Bike-Share Racks Are Not In Our Way

We have a message from FDNY that should once and for all take care of fabricated concerns about bike-share docking stations getting in the way of emergency vehicles.

Here’s a statement from Fire Commissioner Salvatore J. Cassano, which we received via email:

Contrary to a news report today, FDNY EMT’s had absolutely no problems responding to and providing medical care to a patient on Sunday on West 13th Street in Manhattan. The FDNY has been working closely with DOT on this initiative and we have not experienced any problems nor do we anticipate issues operating at or near bike racks that have been situated on city streets.

Hear that? It’s the sound of tabloid narratives and NIMBY lawsuits deflating.

ALSO ON STREETSBLOG

How the Post Engineers Bike-Share Bashing, Facts Be Damned

By Brad Aaron |
It took a few days, but the Post found someone to go along with its bike-scare nonsense, according to the Post. Here’s the latest: “The bike racks present challenges to firefighters and frankly, trying to get around the city now is harder than ever before,” Uniformed Firefighters Association President Steve Cassidy said at a press […]

FDNY: “We Haven’t Had Any Issues” With Bike-Share Locations

By Stephen Miller |
Republican mayoral candidate Joseph Lhota, on WNYC’s Brian Lehrer Show yesterday, said that while he didn’t “know this for a fact,” he views the bike-share program as an example of failed agency coordination in the Bloomberg administration, because he’d read press reports that people were complaining about new bike-share stations potentially impeding emergency response. Despite […]

Marcia Kramer Exposes the Threat of Pedestrian Refuges [Updated]

By Ben Fried |
I had to pull this Marcia Kramer segment out of the headline stack and post it, because you’ve got to see it to believe it. Earlier this week, CBS2’s chief political correspondent went down to Borough Park to expose the pedestrian refuge threat. Intro: “The Department of Transportation has struck again.” With its outlandish Safe […]