Thursday’s Headlines: The Cycling Surge Edition

It's not the expansion of cycling that causes the epidemic of crashes. It's the lack of cycling infrastructure, the persistence of bad driving, and the proliferation of assault cars that do. Photo: Clarence Eckerson Jr.
It's not the expansion of cycling that causes the epidemic of crashes. It's the lack of cycling infrastructure, the persistence of bad driving, and the proliferation of assault cars that do. Photo: Clarence Eckerson Jr.

You know how the Times is famous for ignoring one-day stories like a cop in a bike lane yelling pro-Trump slogans, or a pedestrian run over by a speeding driver — but then come back six months later with some exhaustive analysis that ties up a major urban issue with a nice bow?

Well, not to be Cliff Levy’s assignment editor, but just such a perfect Times Metro story is playing out in real time this week: coronavirus is providing the perfect excuse to finally transform our streets.

Bike ridership is soaring (NYDN, NY Post), the subways are emptying out (NY Post), and there is evidence that people are driving less (Crain’s). Yet the mayor isn’t doing anything to change people’s long-term habits (heck, he won’t even take his own advice and bike to work, as we reported). Doesn’t he remember Rahm Emanuel’s famous dictum?

Again, not to tell Cliff Levy his job, but with its global heft, the Times could tie in reporting from Paris, where Mayor Anne Hidalgo followed Emanuel’s advice during a transit strike — and now streets are less choked by cars. And Levy’s minions, with their academic side interests, could review the history and remember that Amsterdam started taking back its streets from cars after grieving parents took to the streets to “Stop de Kindermoord.”

All we’re saying is that the time is right for a massive feature story about how we should institute change now before we all go back to our bad habits once this crisis fades.

OK, off the soapbox. Here’s yesterday’s other news:

  • The Daily News had a touching story about Frank Decolvenaere, the pedestrian killed last week in Bay Ridge as he walked his dog. The badly injured dog, Stormy, has been treated and released — and is now bringing a tiny measure of solace to Decolvenaere’s widow. Meanwhile, cops have not charged the speeding driver who killed him.
  • The fuse on the MTA’s debt bomb just got a lot shorter because of coronavirus. (NYDN, NY Post, Streetsblog, amNY)
  • Remember that unlicensed driver who killed Victoria Nicodemus in 2015, filling our pages for weeks? Oh, yeah, well about that: he pleaded it down and won’t serve a day in jail. This is justice, DA Eric Gonzalez? (NY Post)
  • After printing a reprehensible anti-bike op-ed, amNY at least gave equal time to Transportation Alternatives Executive Director Danny Harris.
  • Oh and the St. Patrick’s Day Parade has been canceled. (NY Post)

ALSO ON STREETSBLOG

STREETSBLOG USA

Bike-Share and Open Streets: A Perfect Match

|
Open streets events, or ciclovias, give people a new way to explore their city's streets. Without cars on the streets, they're a natural opportunity for people who don't usually ride a bike to hop on two wheels -- and that's precisely why it's important to include bike-share systems in the mix, says Stefani Cox at the Better Bike Share Partnership.

Read Brad Lander’s Pitch-Perfect Statement on Bike-Share and Parking

|
City Council Member Brad Lander released a pitch-perfect response to complaints about bike-share and curbside parking today. Other NYC pols should take note. Every time bike-share expands to new neighborhoods, some people get upset — mainly because the local supply of free curbside car parking shrinks by a fraction of a percent. Last week Assembly Member Dan O’Donnell, who represents the […]

Bike-Share NIMBY Flyer: Make Cobble Hill Great Again

|
A tipster spotted this flyer on Douglass Street in Cobble Hill, where Citi Bike will be expanding this year: Makes perfect sense. Keep bike-share at bay, and the neighborhood can be suspended in time. David Greenfield and the MTA won’t mess with F train service. Supermarkets will stay in business. The meddlesome construction of housing for other people […]

Bill Bratton Has the Perfect Response to a “Bike-Yield” Law for NYC

|
Yesterday Council Member Antonio Reynoso introduced a resolution calling for state traffic laws that recognize the differences between bikes and cars. The idea is that people on bikes should be able to treat stop signs as yield signs and red lights as stop signs, proceeding after they check for crossing pedestrians and motor vehicles and the coast is clear. Well, the […]
STREETSBLOG USA

Going the Last Mile by Bike

|
This newer style bike rack on AC Transit in Oakland, California, can carry three bikes rather than two. (Photo: AC Transit.org via Flickr) There’s a great discussion going on over at Jarrett Walker’s Human Transit blog about how to integrate cycling with transit to solve the persistent "last mile" problem. It’s one of the biggest […]