Bicycle Safety

Inventor Curt DeForest Jr. claims that his HyperBike will be the fastest and safest human-powered vehicle ever built.  It's roll cage supposedly can withstand a 200 mph impact. DeForest writes:

Photo: Metrolens

Eric Ng, a 22-year-old teacher and activist, was killed on December 1 by a drunk driver as he rode his bicycle on the Hudson River Greenway. Yesterday, Time's Up! and Visual Resistance organized a series of events to pay tribute to Eric's memory. Clarence Eckerson was there with his video camera. (You can find higher resolution Quicktime video here).

Gothamist has the sad, outrageous story.

Charles Komanoff, flanked by Marquez Claxton and Norman Siegel, at City Hall this morning.

As on Brookyn's Fifth Avenue this weekend, it looks like DOT has finished installing the new Class III bike route stencils on Clinton and Delancey Streets. If you ride this route, let Streetsblog know what you think of these.

Last weekend, former DOT Deputy Commissioner "Gridlock" Sam Schwartz wrote an op-ed in the New York Times urging the city to start creating bike lanes that physically separate cyclists from motor vehicle traffic at some locations. This weekend, as DOT laid down a brand new "shared lane" design on Fifth Avenue in Brooklyn, a letter to the editor from a regional director of the New York and New England League of American Bicyclists criticized Schwartz arguing that physically-separated bike lanes are more dangerous than riding in the street (it's worth noting that the writer lives in Waltham, Massachusetts, not New York City).

A local Korean newspaper reports: Nothing is more exhilarating, efficient and enjoyable than getting on a bicycle zipping through the crowded streets of New York City, provided the rider does not mind assuming the role of transit pioneer and cycling soldier… there is a daily battle taking place on the streets of New York City … Continued