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Today’s Headlines: Good Friday? Let’s Make it a Great Friday

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By Streetsblog

12:01 AM EDT on April 19, 2019

Today’s Headlines: Good Friday? Let’s Make it a <i>Great</i> Friday

A video still shows the moment when bus driver Dave Lewis passed too closely to cyclist Dan Hanegby, who had the right of way, killing him. DA candidate Liz Crotty argues that the city's "Right of Way" Law shouldn't criminalize such crashes, which she calls "accidents."

What a busy day it was yesterday — so we won’t waste your time telling you all the great stories that are out there. We’ll just show you right here:

Streetsblog grilled the mayor on his new plan to speed up buses. The Post and amNY also covered the bus speed announcement.
We also challenged the mayor on his stubborn, data-free belief that e-bikes are a major public safety threat (which they are not). Gentleman and scholar Vin Barone at amNY followed up our e-bike scoop with his own story. We like that.
Two Daily News crime reporters did not challenge the police narrative that the cyclist who was run over and killed by a truck driver actually fell under the wheels of the truck by himself. We’ve seen that false narrative pushed by cops after many crashes, most famously, the killing of Citi Bike rider Dan Hanegby, who was run over by a bus driver whom cops initially held blameless. Gothamist wasn’t buying it this time.
The Gateway Tunnel is in trouble again. (WSJ)
NY1 offered its take on the OMNY fare-payment system.
There was also some good news yesterday: the city set a date to close the infamous Second Avenue bike lane gap.
And, finally, a city announcement (Patch) of a few car-free hours on a few blocks on Earth Day (a weekend!) was greeted with the predictable cynicism on Twitter:

NYC again announces a car-free 8hrs that is intentionally designed to avoid actually forcing anyone to go car free.

What should car free DAY look like? HOV3 on all bridges/tunnels into manhattan midnight-midnight. No-parking on ALL streets in CBD.https://t.co/pvMfq4Hsip
— Jehiah (@jehiah) April 18, 2019

https://twitter.com/BrooklynSpoke/status/1118887554164645891

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This piece was the work of the Streetsblog staff.

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