Friday’s Headlines: Bike to City Hall Day

A gaggle of electeds joined bike activists in a “Bike to City Hall” yesterday as New York celebrated national “Bike to Work” day, posing for jubilant pictures in the adjacent park despite the wet weather.

We seldom lead the headlines with such feel-good, made-for-Twitter events, but once in a while it’s fun to rock out (we dig the cute pix).

More seriously, though, every day should be national “bike to work day” — with the appropriate safe bike infrastructure in place — and then maybe, once a year, we could have a national “drive to work” day (you know, just for giggles). A Council member told us that, like many New Yorkers, she would bike to work more often if the streets were safer.

Many agree:

In other news:

• Finally! Albany reached a deal to keep the speed cameras running, but our story laments the midnight “sausage” that gutted Sen. Gounardes’s tough bill. (Streetsblog, NYPost)
• Finally! The Times waddled in with a thumb-sucker on speed cameras.
• You, too, can paint a mural along 14th Street next week. (Union Square Partnership)
• “Back door! Back door!” (NYPost)
• Flat $5 fares on the suburban trains are gaining a city following. (amNY)
• The state’s “diaphragm law,” banning police from using holds that restrict breathing, survived a police-union challenge. (NYT)
• There’s a fight on to reclaim space in front of Chelsea Piers from cars for pedestrians and bikers. (Village Sun)
• Aaron Gordon destroyed automakers’ claims that they’ve made cars safer through technology in a powerful Vice piece.
• New Jersey Gov. Murphy is pushing a three-year licensing regime for law-enforcement officers, which could be revoked for misconduct, in order to increase accountability. Can good ideas spread east? (Gothamist)
• Motorist-on-motorist mayhem on the Bruckner. (ABC7)
• Finally, a requiem in Queens. (Via Twitter)