Aaron Naparstek

Ben McGrath's big New Yorker story on bicycling is now online, Holy Rollers: The City's Bicycle Zealots:

Cyclists and pedestrians somehow managing to get along with each other in Copenhagen.

Gridlock Sam in NYT: Time for Physically-Separated Bike Lanes (NYT) DOT Vehicle Parked in MyBikeLane.com (MBL) 42nd St. just for feet? (News) Weekend Carnage: Con Ed Worker Killed by Car Crash (Gothamist) Driver’s Epilepsy Cited in Triple-Fatal Queens Crash (Post) NJ Town Gets Traffic-Calming Roundabouts (Post) Inhofe’s Inquisition: Climate-Change Denying Senator vs. Science (Compass)

After receiving a heavy dose of car commercials during the New York Mets playoff run last month, I decided that it was time to start a new feature on Streetsblog called Ad Nauseum. Below is the first installment.

As someone who lives in Brooklyn and pedals a two-year-old to daycare three days a week, I find the scenes depicted in this video to be completely incredible. There is no question in my mind that the future of New York City has to look something like this. --Editor

Upon re-reading this morning's Times article on the new pedestrian countdown timers, I think it's worth taking a closer look at this statement DOT Commissioner Iris Weinshall made at yesterday's pedestrian countdown press conference. As reported:

Something to look forward to: Next week's New Yorker is running a lengthy feature story on New York City bicycling and Critical Mass by Ben McGrath. 

Yesterday, the Department of Transportation installed New York City's very first pedestrian countdown timer at the intersection of Coney Island Avenue and Kings Highway in Brooklyn. Gothamist, as usual, does a nice treatment of the story and roundup of the coverage.

Apropos of I'm-not-sure-what, today's New York Sun dedicates the majority of its op/ed page to an excerpt of my 2003 book, Honku: The Zen Antidote to Road Rage (an excellent holiday gift, I might add). Below are some excerpts from the Sun, including some excellent poems written by visitors to my web site, honku.org. The Comments section is open for new submissions...

Word has come down that DOT is now aiming to install its new Class III Shared Lane bicycle stencils on Brooklyn's Fifth Avenue before the end of November. The markings are an interesting innovation for New York City in that they direct motorists and cyclists to share the middle of the road as equals. Drivers aren't supposed to blast their horns at cyclists riding in the travel lane and cyclists aren't supposed to try to slip in and out of the door-zone between moving traffic and parked cars. The City, in other words, is telling cyclists: Go ahead and take the travel lane on this street. It is yours. What do you think?