The #sneckdown is now a phenomenon, with nature's traffic-calming gaining international media coverage and photos popping up from across the U.S. and Canada.
"The snow is almost like nature's tracing paper," Streetfilms' Clarence Eckerson told the BBC. "It's free. You don't have to do a crazy expensive traffic calming study. It provides a visual cue into how people behave."
The sneckdown dates back to at least 2001, when Transportation Alternatives wrote: "[T]he next time someone tells you that you can't have a neckdown on that corner or this corner because there's not enough room, show them what happens every year when it snows."
Clarence first documented "naturally occurring neckdowns" for Streetfilms in 2006. Seven years later, Streetsblog founding editor Aaron Naparstek coined the hashtag, and the rest is history.
Here are pics from yesterday's storm. Keep 'em coming.
Seventh Avenue and 36th Street. Photo: ##https://twitter.com/Tri_State/status/425706540423991297##@Tri_State##Seventh Avenue and 36th Street. Photo: ##https://twitter.com/Tri_State/status/425706540423991297##@Tri_State##
The Bowery. Photo: ##https://twitter.com/christamaeorth/status/425742294177034240##@christamaeorth##The Bowery. Photo: ##https://twitter.com/christamaeorth/status/425742294177034240##@christamaeorth##
181st Street and Cabrini Boulevard. Photo: ##https://twitter.com/UptownCurrent/status/425718871765823488##@UptownCurrent##181st Street and Cabrini Boulevard. Photo: ##https://twitter.com/UptownCurrent/status/425718871765823488##@UptownCurrent##
Broadway at 111th Street. Photo: ##https://twitter.com/glenn_mcan/status/426002518418939905##@glenn_mcan##Broadway at 111th Street. Photo: ##https://twitter.com/glenn_mcan/status/426002518418939905##@glenn_mcan##
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.
The NYPD wrote twice as many criminal court summonses to e-bike riders in two weeks than it wrote all of last year — an astronomical increase that is a remnant of a repudiated racially biased police practice.
The NYPD commissioner did not inform her counterpart at the Department of Transportation that police would begin issuing criminal summonses to cyclists.
