The Embarrassing Laziness of Ginia Bellafante’s Bike-Share Kvetchfest
I wish I could say I was surprised that the Times published Ginia Bellafante's collection of stereotypes and gripes about bike-share in the Sunday edition. But it's exactly the kind of shallow kvetchfest I've come to expect when the Times tries to encapsulate the state of bike-related public policy. Mostly I'm just embarrassed, as a New Yorker and a journalist, that the most prestigious newspaper in our city keeps publishing stuff like this.
April 29, 2013
Dear Streetsbloggers: How Do You Handle Alt-Side Parkers in the Bike Lane?
Christine Bush, editor of the neighborhood blog South Slope News, writes in with this question about when painted bike lanes and alternate side parking collide:
April 26, 2013
Eyes on the Street: Driver Shatters Storefront on Lafayette
We're still filling in the details on this one, but here's a look at the Gold + Williams furniture storefront on Lafayette and Kenmare in SoHo this afternoon. It looks like the driver kept going straight on westbound Kenmare, even though the street ends.
April 25, 2013
DOT Deploys “Street Safety Managers” to High-Volume Bike Routes
Wondering what's up with the people holding stop signs in the bike lane today? NYC DOT's press office just sent out this explanation:
April 25, 2013
Last-Minute Venue Change for Fort Greene/Clinton Hill Bike-Share Meeting
This just in: Council Member Tish James has moved the location of tonight's neighborhood forum about bike-share. The meeting starts at 6:30 and the new location is: Sacred Heart Church, 30 Clermont Avenue between Flushing and Park.
April 24, 2013
Eyes on the Street: Fresh Stripes in the South Slope
Over the weekend, crews finished striping new bike routes on 14th Street and 15th Street in Brooklyn, creating a safer east-west connection between Prospect Park West and Third Avenue on the southern end of Park Slope. These are painted, unprotected lanes, except for the westbound stretch between PPW and Eighth Avenue, which is sharrows. Reader Brian Wilson sent in this photo of the new stripes on 14th Street by the Park Slope Armory.
April 23, 2013
Speak Up If You Think Bike-Share Belongs in Fort Greene and Clinton Hill
Remember the Fort Greene residents who complained last year that bike-share stations don't belong in their historic, landmarked neighborhood -- even though you can find cobalt-blue Volvos and banana-yellow, late-model Beemers taking up the curb on those same blocks?
April 22, 2013
Chicago to Pursue Center-Running Bus Rapid Transit on Ashland Avenue
After a year of study and outreach, today Mayor Rahm Emanuel, the Chicago Transit Authority, and the Chicago Department of Transportation announced plans for center-running Bus Rapid Transit on Ashland Avenue. Once implemented, the project could set a national precedent for high-quality BRT, improving transit speeds as much as 80 percent during rush hour, according to today's announcement.
April 19, 2013
Poll: When Will Jacques Capsouto Come Around on Bike-Share?
Jacques Capsouto is the Tribeca restaurateur who got some nice free publicity by throwing a one-man tantrum yesterday about the bike-share station going up next to his restaurant, Capsouto Freres. Of course, it's probably just a matter of time before Capsouto realizes that having 23 public bike docks by his front door is a customer magnet. The question is, when?
April 19, 2013
What It Looks Like When a Newspaper Actually Cares About Safe Streets
So yesterday the Daily News published an opinion piece on bike-share that framed it not as a new option for New Yorkers to get around, but as another tense, dangerous showdown in the eternal confrontation between bikes and cars. Yawn.
April 18, 2013