Today’s Headlines

Truck Driver Who Killed Renee Thompson on UES Gets Three Tickets, No Charges (News)
With Infrastructure Funds Fast-Tracked, Stringer Backs Midtown East (Crain’s, Observer, Post, News)
New Bronx Metro-North Service Could Be Hamstrung By Promises to L.I. Electeds (City & State)
NYPD Sign Tells Cyclists and Pedestrians to Avoid “Accidents” on Street Full of Traffic Cops (WNBC)
Bowery Boogie Takes Note of Bike Ticketing Blitz on Chrystie Street With Zero Safety Benefits
14-Month R Train Montague Tube Closure Begins Tonight (Post, DNA)
Crain’s: Prendergast “Has A Lot on His Plate”
Brownsville’s First Bike Lane Gets Some Coverage in Brooklyn Based
NIMBY Woodhaven Block Association Doesn’t Want Queens Way or Trains (Times Ledger)
Is Your Citi Bike Station Gone? Chances Are It’s Temporary for Construction Work (Lo-Down)
Man Who Helped Design Subway Map Has Released a New Version in Personal Project (NYT)

More headlines at Streetsblog Capitol Hill

Steve O’Neill

I saw the sign board on Tillary last night. I read it as cautioning drivers to watch out for cyclists and pedestrians.
paul

Nyc motorists do not yield while turning. nypd, too busy writing tix to bikers, has proven incapable of changing this. Time for widespread exclusive ped crossing phases citywide. This will kill vehicular LOS but better than killing children. We cant wait for next mayor. Innocent new yorkers are dying every week.
carma

i wouldnt count on the next mayor changing anything for the better.

while under the current administration, nypd has ticketed silly things like “dangerous” cyclists, at least bloomberg gave us some infra for biking and introduced bike share. traffic fatalities actually were reduced under him.

i am highly skeptical ANY of the candidates, repub nor dems can offer anything better considering they stink on all the issues.
Reader

I think it says “Attention Bicyclists and Pedestrians…”
Peter

Traffic hacks: elderly woman in China ties sex doll to tree to slow down motorists

http://boingboing.net/2012/08/02/traffic-hacks-elderly-woman-i.html

Perhaps she’s on to something…
Anxiously Awaiting Bikeshare

I actually see the vast majority of drivers in NYC as being very pedestrian aware when making turns versus any other locality in the US. The problem is it only takes one and this is also a low bar.

This of course justifies even larger penalties for failure to yield as the vast majority of drivers respect pedestrians and would be unaffected. (versus speeding, for example, where the vast majority of drivers speed)
Steve O’Neill

It says

“caution bicycle riders
and pedestrians
accident prone location ahead”

Without punctuation (or even knowing which line is supposed to come first) it’s hard to say. But I’m willing to accept the blame-the-victim interpretation, especially considering the name of the city agency on the sign.
Travis Eby

We need to start making noise at the local level. Yesterday I wrote my Council Member an email asking what could be done about speeding on an avenue in my district. She responded within three minutes saying she would contact the NYPD to set up an enforcement plan for that corridor.
Dan Berkman

The sign is stupid blame the victim nonsense.

But, every day at Jay and Tillary, I see tons of cyclists trying to cross north/south via Jay Street during the turn phase for cars traveling on Tillary. Sometimes it’s fine, but lots of times it’s a dangerous little clusterfuck at the median as cars make u-turns and bikes stop in the pedestrian area as people are jay-walking. It’s such a horrible intersection and I have never gotten the appeal of trying to run that light.
kevd

I read that – and the position of the sign – as informing drivers that their are Bicyclists and Pedestrians.

As in “Attention! Bicyclists and Pedestrians”
Of course, a little enforcement of dangerous driving would go a lot further.
Anonymous

That intersection is a microcosm of New York City’s terrible street culture. *Everyone* behaves terribly there–and generally in a way that’s obviously not even in their own self-interest.

But the worst are all the drivers who push through crowds of pedestrians trying desperately to cross Tillary on what is, given the distance and traffic, a very short light.
kevd

Riding home on Flatbush last night the traffic enforcement officer at 4th avenue directing traffic said to me “Not a good place to ride ya bike!”

Is it a sign that I’ve been in this city too long that the first response that came to mind was “Fuck you, meter maid.”

Thankfully, I just kept riding home. If they actually enforced traffic laws there, it would be a perfectly good place to ride!
Anonymous

That is partly the result of preventing east bound cars on Tillary from turning left onto the Brooklyn Bridge but then allowing u-turns a block later at Jay so that they can swing back and hit the bridge on a right turn. I’m not sure what the point of that is.
Anonymous

About a month ago I was about get on a Citi Bike on Jay St. when a delivery truck right hooked a cyclist about four feet away from me. The cyclist was barely able to keep from going under the wheels and had to bang on the side of the truck to get it to stop.

Two cops came over to see whether the cyclist was okay. Of course they said nothing to delivery truck driver about maybe, you know, taking that turn a bit more responsibly.

Anyway, I talked to one of the cops and his take was, basically, that the bike lane was to blame for all of the problems on Jay. I pointed out that there was also a wee bit of double parking, speeding (at least going way too fast for the conditions), etc., And he had to acknowledge that, but he used that to argue that’s why bikes shouldn’t be encouraged to take that route.

The idea that enforcement could perhaps make it a safer road for everyone had apparently never occurred to him. So it’s easy to see why a victim-blaming sign would go there of all places.
Rob

Reminds me a safety campaign in the Netherlands (where else?), where some TOPLESS blonde beauties shook their assets at motorists while holding a sign asking them to slow down. Needless to say, it worked.
moocow

Thanks for engaging them, it always seems so fruitless to me.
Nicole Gelinas

Ah, punctuation … !