Monday’s Headlines: Weekend of Carnage/Morning of Times Idiocy Edition
Yes, the NYPD will still show up to these kinds of crashes. But cops will no longer respond to minor crashes — a policy change with massive ramifications that remain unvetted. File photo: Gersh Kuntzman
There were a lots of crashes over the weekend, so try to keep up:
- A woman was hit by the driver of a Brinks truck near Columbus Circle on Saturday (NY Post)
- A drunk, off-duty cop was in a fatal crash on Sunday. (NYDN, NY Post)
- Three pedestrians were hurt in a crash on Saturday night that cops were quick to blame on a "medical episode" (yeah, right!). (Streetsblog)
Meanwhile, in other news:
- On Monday morning, we woke up to the latest affront in Clifford Levy's increasingly brainless anti-bike Times Metro Section, this time from his newest hit man, James Barron. In his latest attack on cycling, Barron seems to question the existence of bike lanes themselves, suggesting that they leave pedestrians completely unprotected. Yet the only examples he gives is of pedestrians who enter the roadway without looking. Every single complaint Barron has against cyclists apply about 20-fold for drivers, whose culpability for the carnage that has killed 202 people this year is barely acknowledged.
- There was some road rage between a firefighter and a Sanitation worker. (NY Post)
- Apparently, Mayor de Blasio and Council Speaker Corey Johnson are in a Cold War (despite actually getting a lot done this fall). (NY Post)
- Meanwhile, the Tabloid of Record also claims that Gov. Cuomo won't sign the e-bike legalization bill because he's pissed at its sponsor, State Senator Jessica Ramos.
- Those LinkNYC internet kiosks are a little like Citi Bike: for now, they're mostly in high-end neighborhoods. (NY Times)
- Nicole Gelinas takes a deep dive on the MTA's contract deal with the Transit Workers Union. We're not sure we agree with Gelinas, but she's always worth reading (more so on urban design and less so when she tosses raw meat to the Post's base). (NY Post)
- Very late on Friday, Police Commissioner Dermot Shea revealed that mediocre Transportation Bureau Chief Thomas Chan had been replaced by Chief William Morris, currently overseeing personnel. Things can only get better, as Placard Abuse observed on Twitter.
- And, in case you missed it, our old editor was out riding on Sunday and he confirmed that the new gates on the Queens side of the Kosciuszko Bridge won't be used to cut cyclist or pedestrian access. (Streetsblog via YouTube)
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