Eyes on the Street

A correspondent sends in this photo of the morning commute on Bergen Street in Boerum Hill, Brooklyn. Moments before snapping it the photographer says he was "stopped at a light with six cyclists, all of whom looked at each other and smiled as if to say, 'any more of us and we'll need a permit!'" Including the cyclist who appears to be riding illegally on the sidewalk and the photographer standing in the middle of the street blocking traffic, I count six bikers. The neighborhoods around Downtown Brooklyn have the highest rates of bike commuting in all of New York City. This spring and summer is likely to set new records.

Bollards are hardened steel, concrete or stone posts buried into the pavement of city streets and sidewalks. In Northern European cities you see bollards all over the place. They are used to make sure that if a motor vehicle accidentally jumps up on to a sidewalk, pedestrians are protected. Bollards are a kind of urban preventative medicine. They stop crashes before they happen.