As Mayor de Blasio was once again suggesting that he may propose mandatory helmet laws, we were thinking, as people do, about supermodel Kylie Kloss. Not because we care about Taylor Swift's former bestie, but because someone sent us a photo of Kloss riding a Citi Bike around town in the exact manner that the rest of us ride a Citi Bike around town: Without a helmet (though few of us do it so lavishly accessorized).
And then we thought of Leo DiCaprio. And Karolina Kurkova. And Chloe Sevigny. And Kate Bosworth. And the Lohans, Quvenzhané Wallis, Bruce Willis and Seth Meyers, and, of course, the granddaddy of them all: David Byrne. All of these people riding around in open defiance of the mayor.
Now, of course, celebrities ride around on Citi Bikes for the cameras (not you, David Byrne, you're the real deal). But very few of the tens of thousands of people who ride Citi Bike every day would do so if it was suddenly illegal to do so without a helmet. And suddenly plenty of innocent people would have their daily commute criminalized.
And where would that leave us? Well, Marcia Kramer would love it because there would be far fewer cyclists on the street, but that's not what the mayor says he wants. So why won't he start acting like it, already?
Until then, here's the news:
- Kudos to the Times Metro Section for Patrick McGeehan's nicely balanced story that looks at the merits and pitfalls of Lime scooters in Hoboken without presenting it as some kind of “war on cars.” Scooters have a place! And cities need to encourage car-less mobility! Yes, people drink and scoot — but they are far less dangerous to the public than people who drink and drive.
Who needs fare-beating cops when you can just make the subway more affordable? (NYDN, amNY)
- The mayor spent another day dodging why he threw his own Transportation Department under the bus and rejected its plan to give more pedestrians space in Rockefeller Center this Christmas. (NYDN, Streetsblog)
- The Post got yet another day out of its weeklong coverage of Ubergate at the Board of Elections.
- The Post's coverage of de Blasio's Faustian bargain with mandatory helmet laws was angled differently than ours.
- City & State looked at driverless cars — and how they may not really work in New York (ya think?).
- Like Streetsblog, Curbed wrote up the improvements coming to the 14th Street busway.
- And, finally, Aaron Gordon ran a tribute to a rock — but not just any rock, but an SUV-destroying rock! (Jalopnik)
Who needs fare-beating cops when you can just make the subway more affordable? (
