The right-wing car brain was on full display this week in a tandem of podcasts that revealed again how much work we need to do to educate elected officials that the cause of traffic is car drivers, not bike riders.
First, the War on Cars devoted an entire episode to Ontario Premier Doug Ford's war on bikes. Following on his late brother Rob's legacy, Dougie is pushing a bill that would require approval from the provincial government (akin to a state legislature) of all bike lanes that involve a road diet that removes a car lane. He also wants to remove some existing bike lanes, arguing that bike lanes cause traffic.
Just as we were reeling from that idiocy — and it is idiocy — when another podcast featured another emboldened revanchist arguing that instead of congestion pricing to remove tens of thousands of car drivers daily from Midtown Manhattan (and the congestion they cause), the city should just remove the bike lanes.
That was the position of newly re-elected upstate Rep. (and your next governor, thanks to Kathy Hochul's ineptitude) Mike Lawler on the Max Politics podcast, where he not only reiterated his opposition to congestion pricing, but weighed in on urban transportation issues that are obviously way outside his ken.
"If you want to reduce congestion on the streets of Manhattan, stop narrowing the roadways to one lane," he said, citing no specific roadway in Manhattan that was narrowed to one lane. "Get the bikes onto the sidewalks and off the actual roads. Get the restaurants off the roads. If you actually were serious about reducing congestion, you would look at the impact that Bill de Blasio's Vision Zero had on slowing traffic."
Literally nothing about that makes sense: Cyclists are barred by law from riding on the sidewalk. Restaurants do not operate in the road, though between April 1 and Nov. 30, they are allowed to set up dining areas in the non-travel lanes. And there is no evidence that Vision Zero caused slower travel speeds.
In fact, the single biggest contributor to slower travel speeds for drivers is ... drivers: During the pandemic, car purchases soared, and the latest traffic statistics show that vehicle miles traveled are up 5 percent since last year alone. That's hundreds of thousands more miles being driven by car owners in the same crowded city than just 12 months ago.
In non-podcast-related congestion pricing news, Jersey gubernatorial hopeful Josh Gottheimer also piled on, reported the Post, which has become the house organ of gridlock and status quo.
But when you have car-brain, facts obviously don't matter.
In other news:
- The Times broke it, but we fixed it: the Central Park Conservancy is finally advocating for bike lanes on the transverses. Crain's also covered.
- Lawler has nothing to complain about: The era of outdoor dining is over. (amNY)
- Signal problems: So much for those fancy new trains on the Staten Island Railway. (NY Post)
- Car drivers perform feats of recklessness every day (some of it caught on camera), but sure, let's pretend that the Bedford Avenue bike lane is dangerous. (NY Post)
- As the Council prepares to vote on Mayor Adams's City of Yes zoning proposal, here's an object lesson in why eliminating parking is so crucial to the plan's success (NY Times). Also in City of Yes news, amNY previewed Thursday's committee votes and our own Sophia Lebowitz's coverage remains second to none.
- As Gov. Hochul shaves the cost of congestion pricing to drivers, the subway remains too expensive for the working poor. That must change. (amNY)
- Is the DSNY in a war on BIDs? (amNY)
- And, finally, I must be some kind of expert, what with our friends at Streetsblog Chicago quoting me in their story about the efficacy of speed limit reduction.
