Monday’s Headlines: Paradise Lost Edition

bike NOLAWell, our editor is back from New Orleans and he won’t shut up about what a great time he had — except for one thing: The Big Easy doesn’t live up to its name for cyclists. The Crescent City could be a paradise — it’s almost entirely flat and the weather cooperates almost the entire year — but there’s a dearth of protected bike lanes, gas is $1.89 a gallon, and drivers speed around like they own the place (which, alas, they do).

On the plus side, the Blue Bike system — a dockless bike share run by Social Bicycles (aka Jump) — is pretty good.

But enough about our editor’s weekend. Here’s the news:

  • Car carnage kills two on Conduit, and one in Bayside. (NYDN)
  • We were pleased to see the Post write an editorial based on David Meyer’s Streetsblog scoop that Gov. Cuomo’s plan to swipe half of the money from the speed camera expansion for the MTA. Also in the Post, Mary Huhn channeled her inner Streetsblog when she condemned how rarely killer drivers get jail time, thanks to lax DAs and incomplete investigations by the NYPD.
  • A woman in Bay Ridge is killed by her own car. (NY Post)
  • Fair Fares is a joke, argues Josmar Trujillo in an amNY op-ed. The city provides basic services such as sanitation and fire protection to its taxpayers — so why not transportation?
  • The Times offers a deep dive on subway pickpockets.
  • The L train will be lousy overnight this week and all weekend. (amNY)
  • Good get by Gothamist, which interviews an air-traffic controller, who said he called in sick to protest Trump’s “racist fantasy.”
  • Oslo has banned cars from a big portion of its center city, Fast Company reports, and we bring it up here only as a reminder that Mayor de Blasio will not even consider doing that even in a tiny part of Manhattan.
  • Has anyone noticed that very-ex-State Senator Marty Golden is still tweeting as @senmartygolden? For the record: Marty Golden is no longer a state senator, having lost in November to Andrew Gounardes.
  • And, finally, here’s a reminder of how much better cycling is in Holland — and how much further we have to go:

  • Fool

    The more heavily subsidized the local transit is, the worse it gets.

    It is one of those behavioral economic flukes where consumers (citizens) satisfaction has less direct impact on quality.

  • Marty isnt alone.

    “The latest Tweets from Governor Christie (@GovChristie). Official Twitter Account of the 55th Governor of New Jersey. Husband and proud father of four.”

  • Joe R.

    The bike path on the lower left looks like something straight out of Avatar. The one on the upper right is really interesting. Reminds me of the express run from 59th to 125th on the D where you see tracks changing elevation.

  • AMH

    I guess they get to keep the title forever, kind of like “President”.

  • Larry Littlefield

    Having ridden buses in the Capital District, following my NYC tax dollars there, and in NYC, I have to disagree.
    While the headways are long Upstate, the buses move fast, are on time, and less crowded than they are here — not to mention half the price.
    Although I get the feeling I’m the only non-poor person on the bus up there, riders are treated with more dignity there than they are here.

  • The word “sen” in Esperanto means “without”. So we can rejoice that we are “sen Marty Golden”.

  • AMH

    “We’re keeping our commitment to perform the track, switch and signal replacement work that was always part of the L Project…”

    Honest question–why do signals need to be replaced on the one line that has modern CBTC ?

  • AMH

    Interesting story on pickpockets–reminded me of this excellent story on The Moth:

    https://themoth.org/stories/pickpocket-school

  • Larry Littlefield

    Unfortunately, I suppose, all the wayside equipment was damaged by the flood.
    My guess is that everything inside that tunnel was (relatively) new and being replaced for the second time in recent years.

  • AMH

    My understanding was that the CBTC equipment was easily removed before Sandy (and reinstalled afterward, which got the line back up so quickly).