Bicycle Safety

Details on the crash that killed Jonathan Millstein Wednesday morning remain scarce, but traffic conditions on Eighth Avenue in Park Slope are notoriously bad for bicyclists and pedestrians. Officials at DOT and NYPD have appeared reluctant to address the problem, says Joanna Smith, who lives by the intersection of Eighth and Union Street.

The death of 8-year-old Alexander Toulouse on Saturday has re-focused public attention on the dangerous streets of downtown Brooklyn. Toulouse was killed by a turning postal van at the intersection of Boerum Place and Livingston Street while riding his bike with his father.

Projects like Broadway Boulevard are intended, in part, to reduce auto-pedestrian conflicts.

This weekend, on the second Saturday of Summer Streets, the first thing my wife Jennifer and I noticed as we ascended the ramp from 42nd Street to Park Avenue was the quiet. I mentioned to Jennifer that I had come across a blog comment likening the scene to the New York portrayed in the post-apocalyptic Will Smith movie "I Am Legend," minus the super-human zombies. Plot holes notwithstanding, that didn't do it justice. The absence of engine noise and incessant honking didn't seem eerie, or even surreal. Just blissful.

On Tuesday, August 5, at approximately 1:28 a.m., cyclist Rasha Shamoon was struck by a Range Rover SUV at the intersection of Delancey St. and the Bowery in Manhattan. According to friends, she was not breathing when paramedics arrived at the scene. Shamoon was revived and taken to New York Downtown hospital in critical condition. She was transferred to New York Presbyterian, where she was declared brain dead. She was removed from life support on Monday, August 11.

From the Streetsblog tipwire:

Already a prolific contributor to the Streetsblog Flickr pool, BicyclesOnly has recently put together a StreetsWiki guide to "Urban Bicycling With Children." The entry kicks off with a look at some of the less obvious benefits to biking with kids:

This StreetsWiki entry is rounding into encyclopedic form quite nicely. Andy Hamilton, DianaD (who also brought us the VMT entry last week) and Streetsblog's own Aaron Naparstek have been piecing together a detailed look at the history and effectiveness of bike boxes:

Last February, 22-year-old Asif Rahman was hit and killed by a truck while riding his bicycle on Queens Boulevard. Though the infamous "Boulevard of Death" is a lot safer than it used to be, it still produces far too many injuries and fatalities. Asif's family, Council member Jim Gennaro, and Transportation Alternatives held a press conference yesterday, covered by Streetfilms' Elizabeth Press, calling on New York City government to transform Queens Boulevard into a "complete street," with a physically-protected bike lane and safer pedestrian crossings. Queens Council Members John Liu and Eric Gioia also signed on to a letter urging Mayor Bloomberg to complete Queens Boulevard.