Bicycle Infrastructure

In Case You Need a Reminder: This is How Drivers Treat Bike Lanes

The latest example popped up on Reddit — and shows again how painted bike lanes are, essentially, meaningless stripes that drivers drive over or park on.

By Gersh Kuntzman

1:29 PM EDT on June 24, 2019

In Case You Need a Reminder: This is How Drivers Treat Bike Lanes

Drivers — they'll drive in anything that isn't barricade-protected.

A typical Friday night on the bike lane on Plaza Street West in Brooklyn. There are lots of drivers frustrated that they can’t go faster — and, frequently, drivers who commandeer the bike lane because, well, they can.

The latest example popped up on Reddit — and shows again how painted bike lanes are, essentially, meaningless stripes that drivers drive over or park on (warning: inappropriate language below).

This bitch was driving in bike lane near prospect park to cut through traffic. I don’t believe in reported app anymore but want her punished
by inNYCbike

“She was driving through bike lane to dodge traffic,” our tipster told us. “[She] could have run over cyclists easily as she had loud music in her car and [was] completely unworried about law she was breaking.”

To its credit, the Department of Transportation does not label the two-way lane on Plaza Street West as a “protected” bike lane, but it is a crucial portion of the route many cyclists take from Prospect Park West’s two-way protected lane to the Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges.

The ease with which drivers can seize cyclists’ space is hardly limited to this spot. Drivers encroach on the DOT’s “protected” bike lane on Second Avenue so frequently that the NYPD has had to put up its own barricades.

Streetsblog ran the North Carolina license plates on the car in question. It has three tickets — two for running red lights.

Gersh Kuntzman

Tabloid legend Gersh Kuntzman has been with New York newspapers since 1989, including stints at the New York Daily News, the Post, the Brooklyn Paper and even a cup of coffee with the Times. He's also the writer and producer of "Murder at the Food Coop," which was a hit at the NYC Fringe Festival in 2016, and “SUV: The Musical” in 2007. He also writes the Cycle of Rage column, which is archived here.