Friday’s Headlines: Redesign Not Crackdowns Edition

The top story in the city yesterday was Department of Transportation Commissioner Mike Flynn’s appearance on WNYC radio — and he remained Flynntastic.

He repeated the whole “streets that are the envy of the world” bit, but we were laser focused on what he would say about e-bikes, given that state lawmakers are so keen on a New Jersey-style crackdown, as Streetsblog Empire State reported.

But Flynn didn’t take the bait and did not blame e-bike users, as many pols, and radio show hosts, want him to, but championed the idea of doing more for e-bike riders and the app companies that exploit some of them.

“A lot of what we can do at DOT is … is focusing on designing our streets, designing our infrastructure, to make it easier for delivery workers to make safe choices, to operate safely, to reduce conflicts between them and other users, whether that’s basically wider bike lanes that can accommodate a wider range of users,” he said. “And then of course there’s the regulatory side that’s more about how can we not incentivize these workers to feel that they have to go really fast or make as many deliveries as they can in a shift, and that’s more around how we regulate the app companies.”

We couldn’t have said it better. So that means we can move the Mamdani-O-Meter up one more day:

In other news:

• The big stories on our beats yesterday were state lawmakers completely misunderstanding e-bikes (Streetsblog Empire State) and Gov. Hochul completely misunderstanding what it means to be hit by a car driver (Streetsblog NYC).
• We also offer Mayor Mamdani some insight into free buses … from a county that has them!
• Let’s talk greenways. (NYCuriosity)
• Let’s look at turnstiles. (NY1)
• Let’s remember that Hochul is bought and paid for by powerful interests, not diner-goers. (NY Focus)
• The Daily News had more details on the death of cyclist Xi Zheng in Queens, but why is the paper always blaming cyclists for colliding with vehicles when, in fact, vehicles are the ones colliding with cyclists?
• Case in point: Gowanus carnage. (News12)
• Why aren’t bus lanes 24/7? Transportation Alternative wants to change that.
• And, finally, people are always asking me, “Gersh, how can I serve on a community board? And, more important, why should I serve on a community board?” And I always answer, “Go to this website, which Open Plans has set up as one-stop shopping for all your community board questions.” And, yes, you should serve on a community board. Manhattan applications are open now.