The weekend respite was blown apart by a New York Post exclusive interview with President Trump in which the so-called Leader of the Free World said he hated bike lanes.
He also said he still hopes to get rid of congestion pricing — which he has said before — but his attack on bike lanes came out of nowhere (though certainly of a piece).
Never mind their documented safety improvements, the former New Yorker doesn't like them. "They should get rid of the bike lanes and the sidewalks in the middle of the street,” he told the tabloid, referring, perhaps, to pedestrian safety islands (who can tell?). “They’re so bad. They’re dangerous. These bikes go at 20 miles an hour. They’re whacking people.” (The Times also covered the president's spew.)
It's difficult to get outraged at this point by anything uninformed people say about congestion pricing or bike lanes; after all, virtually everyone who has ever been in a car believes that bike lanes "cause" traffic and that congestion pricing is "unfair" (looking at you, Wrobleski). No drivers ever want to acknowledge that they are traffic — or that there have been hundreds of thousands of additional cars registered in the city since the pandemic causing the traffic. No driver ever acknowledges the costs of their driving that are externalized to the rest of us, the non-driving majority. (One of those externalities? Drivers who park at fire hydrants ... causing people die in fires, as the Post reported.)
They're so entitled, yet only issue grievances. Perhaps that's what the president relates to. Former Times columnist Paul Krugman took him — and drivers — to task on his blog, writing, "But maybe the biggest reason for Trump’s desire to kill the congestion charge is ... the rage some Americans obviously feel at any suggestion that people should change their behavior for the common good. What we’re seeing with regard to the congestion charge is that some Americans feel that rage even when they themselves aren’t being asked to make changes. Petty rage is, alas, a powerful political force. Let’s hope that it doesn’t kill one of the best policy changes we’ve seen in recent years."
We'll have more on this story through the week.
In other news:
- Speaking of the Trump administration, you might have missed last week's announcement that the feds had halted all of the Biden-era EV charging funding. Heatmap explained it all.
- Here's something NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch needs to fix: High-ranking police brass who misuse agency cars. (NY Post)
- We're still mourning the loss of parking reformer Donald Shoup, who died on Friday, but we can be pretty sure he wouldn't like Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine's residential parking permit idea ... unless they were priced high enough to discourage more car ownership. (NY1)
- What kind of country is this when 7-year olds are dying in sanctioned drag races? (NYDN)
- At least we don't let people drive on the beach in New York. (NY Post)
- Gothamist looked at all the insane congestion pricing exceptions that Albany pols are considering.
- The Post is already going after the upstate Democrat, and all-American farmer, who is hoping to succeed Rep. Elise Stefanik, trotting out a 12-year-old interview in which he said he liked his immigrant farmhands. Shame on him!
- There has been an arrest in one of last week's hit-and-run crashes in The Bronx. (NY Post)
- Also in the Bronx, road rage over a parking spot. (amNY)
- Meet your new Metro-North President Justin Vonashek. (Trains)
