A bus driver smashed into a row of parked Citi Bikes on the Upper West Side on Sunday, the West Side Rag reported. You can only imagine what the driver said to cops: "That stationary bike rack came out of nowhere! I was driving so slowly — way below the speed limit. But those things are dark blue — they should wear lighter colors. And they should wear helmets!"
We've reached out to the MTA for an explanation. We'll update you when we find out something.
In the meantime, here are today's headlines for a cold sunny day:
- We were happy to see amNY writing about improved bus speeds along the 14th Street busway, but the paper didn't fully drive home the point that the ban on cars, not the camera enforcement, provided the biggest benefit to riders. We did. Meanwhile, the Tabloid of Record's un-angled story focused only on the fact that enforcement cameras will start issuing tickets today.
- Bus ridership dropped again last year — but by less than it has in previous years. Guse of the Newsuh sees disaster, but maybe just maybe the MTA is starting to turn this around. Meanwhile, the subway is getting better, per new stats in the Post.
- Riders Alliance has a new leader: Betsy Plum! (NYDN)
- Triple-duty Guse also ran a good story about how the Gerritsen Avenue protected bike lane has made the roadway safer, but it's unclear why he decided to revisit this particular patch of settled ground.
- From the assignment desk: The Bloomberg for President team will brief reporters today on the former mayor's infrastructure plan in a conference call. We'll have full-team coverage when the embargo lifts tomorrow. Also, city DOT will install the final 25-mile-per-hour speed limit sign on Third Avenue and Hamilton Avenue at 9:30 a.m. in case Marcia Kramer wants to brave the cold.
- It was kind of a weird day for Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, who honored Martin Luther King Jr. with some racially charged innuendo about white gentrifiers, which wouldn't be so bad except that Adams takes in so much money from the gentrification-promoting real-estate industry. That hypocrisy reminded @corruptbrooklyn of that time last year when Adams likened the watchdog account to the KKK, which prompted Friend of Streetsblog Charles Komanoff to remind everyone that Adams never disavowed the earlier remark. Of course, nothing Adams said was as directly confrontational to street safety advocates as comments by anti-safety pariah Rep. Adriano Espaillat, who said at the same MLK celebration, "I think King would have looked at this and taken this on. Affordability and gentrification is ripping our neighborhood apart. You see the stress of high rent. Now you got Starbucks, and bike lanes, and sushi. Where is my rice and beans?" Like we said, a weird day. (NY1)
- And finally, did anyone else notice that Mayor de Blasio was not mentioned in the kind-words-about-also-rans section of the Times's endorsement of Elizabeth Warren and Amy Klobuchar?
