Friday’s Headlines: Jerk + Phone + BMW = Cartitlement

Just when we (and Streetfilms) were thinking that the city’s Crescent Street temporary protected bike lane was starting to look awesome (and maybe permanent?), a cellphone-using jerk in a BMW had to go ruin it.

There he was during the evening rush yesterday, using the bike lane to cut around Queensboro Bridge-bound traffic — and when he was caught on camera  by cyclist Kara McCurdy, he screamed and spat at the two-wheeled commuter. (The Post gave it the full tabloid treatment.)

See the disgusting video here:

Queens cyclist Macartney Morris emailed us to say that this kinda thing will happening until DOT truly protects the lane from car drivers. Or, Morris said, the DOT could “close off this on ramp to the bridge and make Crescent a neighborhood street.” We’d love to ask the mayor about it, but he doesn’t do the call-in show with reporters on Friday. Maybe someone can call Brian Lehrer at 11 a.m. and ask the mayor if he’s ever been spat on when he commutes (oh, we guess not — he’s always in a car).

In other, only slightly less repulsive, news:

• Here’s a long-overdue, though somehow not nearly big enough, honor: slain Civil Rights leader Medgar Evers got two subway stations named after him yesterday in Brooklyn. Though way more should be done to honor Evers, it must be said that the MTA did a nice job on all the signage. (NYDN, NY Post)
• Bus drivers are threatening to stop their vehicles mid-route if passengers don’t mask up to stop the spread of COVID-19. (NYDN)
• The Post wrote up a story about the city’s filthy streets, but didn’t mention one main culprit: the mayor’s needless decision to reduce alternate-side-of-the-street parking.
• StreetsPAC endorsed State Sen. Andrew Gounardes to retain his Bay Ridge seat.
• Here’s another reason why cops shouldn’t have cars. (NY Post)
• New Jersey took another step towards reining in its rampant car culture, raising the gas tax. (NY Times)
• Like typewriters in the 1980s and film cameras in the ’90s, the privately owned car is on its way out— a trend accelerated by the pandemic, as well as aging populations and concerns about climate change (Brookings). Streetsblog’s Talking Headways podcast also touched on that this week.
• The Department of Investigation dropped a bombshell report yesterday detailing more than $1 billion in uncollected fines that the city has squandered due to, how you say, incompetence. (NY Post)