From the Daily News:Pamela Smith of Greenpoint looks over her shoulder when she walks over the Pulaski Bridge - but the hit man she fears is no thug or hired gun.
“I’m fearful of getting hit by a cyclist,” said Smith, 53, who has walked over the bridge to get to the No. 7 line in Long Island City — and her print job in Manhattan — since 1989.
With conflicts between pedestrians and cyclists now common on the bridge, riders and community leaders from Queens and Brooklyn are joining forces to urge city officials to address the “dangerous” situation.
Cyclists are supposed to dismount and walk their bikes along the narrow pedestrian walkway — or ride with traffic.
But since the traffic lanes don’t have a shoulder, all but the most courageous cyclists opt for the pedestrian pathway, an important link to the No. 7 line for Williamsburg and Greenpoint residents.
22 comments:
No problem, just spend a few million to paint a bike lane in the roadway. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA........
Bike riders are a menace to both pedestrians and drivers.
Take the damn subway and stop being a stooge for the developers.
We spent money painting bike lanes and we close hospitals.
Let me get this straight.
Clueless yuppies from upstate get bike lane - lots of money for that.
A hard working taxpayer native's health is endangered as there is no money for a hospital.
See what happens when you passively let someone call you an 'Archie Bunker' .... Sambo?
Take the damn subway and stop being a stooge for the developers.
That's a major part of the problem. The damn cyclists DO take the subway, and bring their bloody bikes on the train during rush hour. Witness yesterday, after 5PM, this crazy looking guy with huge dreadlocks sticking up straight like they were frozen, gets on the V train @ Rockefeller, and parks his bike by the door, while taking a seat.
I'm not going to say anything to a guy like that - it would be "intolerant" of a white guy like me to pass judgement on his culture. I also value my life!
It probably would be wrong for me to suggest that wary pedestrians walk with a sturdy, strong cane or walking stick.
It would probably be just as wrong to remind pedestrians that a sturdy, strong walking stick jammed into the spokes of the front wheel would likely throw the rider off and onto his head.
Two points: (1) all riders should be wearing a sturdy, strong helmet, and, (2) the bike will be stopped.
But, I would NEVER suggest using this information to protect yourself.
Take the damn subway and stop being a stooge for the developers.
Not sure I get the connection.
Look, I'm a sometimes subway rider and sometimes cyclist. When I bike, which I do for fitness and for the negligible impact on the environment, I am courteous of pedestrians and obey traffic laws. Keep this in mind when you're bike-bashing. Not all cyclists are dangerous, and not all are scofflaws.
So if someone like Taxpayer ever tries to take me down with that wrench-in-the-gears trick after I've politely announced that I'm "on your left," the stick will be promptly plucked from your hands and turned back upon you.
Oy vay! Gevalt on the bridge! Oo la-la-la-la-la-la!
There's no fence on that bridge over the water. Great place to send a wilding cyclist into the water to cool off for a bit.
Wait till the MTA raises the price to $2.50. You'll have even more people walking and cycling over the bridges. People can't afford the increase, so they'll look for alternative ways to travel. You will be seeing more bikes on the road.
Yes. And now is the time for cyclists to learn basic bicycling etiquette and safety. The newbies are always the worst offenders. Vets know how to share the road.
Take the damn subway and stop being a stooge for the developers.
Not sure I get the connection.
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The mayor does not give two shits about you and me. With him its all money, or he would no have overturned the desire for term limits.
Now hospitals are closing. Police, fire, city services are being cut back (except in landmarked areas or places that rich people live in like his area on the East Side.
Yet while the quality of life is slipping, he is out painting bike lanes, encouraging everyone to ride bikes.
Odd behaviour, no?
Now the 800 pound gorilla in the room is infrastructure. For decades NYC has made it a policy to develop develop develop and only when things like lack of school desks get totally out of hand do they do anything - not to catch up - but to tamp down the smoldering heat of anger angainst developers.
The problem is that it leaves everyone with a tax bill while the developers get to skim off big profits. The solution is almost as bad as the problem.
Now this process, under Bloomberg, has jumped up a few notches to an intolerable level, made worse by the immigrant flood who, having low expecations, are perfectly happy in many instances to have overcrowded schools and inadequate hospitals. When you look at the services in countries where they are from, this makes sense.
Now you kids come along, all excited by being in the big city. The mayor is there, encouraging you to burn off all that energy doing your sexy biking and the like.
Every time someone gets on a bike, there is less need for a subway, less need for mechanized transit, less of a carbon footprint.
Thats nice, but the increased population spans a host of ills, from fire, sanitation, etc etc.
So we are not really ahead of the game, and with jokers wizzing by as we cross the street, sitting there in their sweaty and/or wet clothes in the office, and those damn bikes underfoot, we are actually worse off.
You know, 100 years ago there was a bike craze. It died.
There was a reason it did so.
There's no reason why this City shouldn't have BOTH. Great hospitals, infrastructure; etc AND bike lanes. Bikes are a healthy, non-polluting source of transportation. Why wouldn't we want that? Bikeways can only compliment the waterfront parks system that will eventually span from the wastewater treatment plant on Newtown Creek all the way along the East River.
Articles shouldn't depict bike, car and pedestrian issues as a battle. It should be looked at as a problem for all, that simply needs to be fixed. In the meantime, bikers really need to educate other bikers and walk their bikes over that bridge until bike lanes there do happen.
MYTH
There's no reason why this City shouldn't have BOTH. Great hospitals, infrastructure; etc AND bike lanes.
REALITY
Yes, nice to have both. But we have bike lanes and closed hospitals so you have developing class warfare. Sorry guys, but you let yourself be duped into representing the developers vs. the long suffering native.
MYTH
Bikes are a healthy, non-polluting source of transportation. Why wouldn't we want that?
REALITY
Because you are not getting bike lanes for your health - the city exists for one purpose - to permit the connected to make money. The fact of the matter is biking impractical and dangerous - a hidden cost we must pay so others can make more money.
MYTH
Bikeways can only compliment the waterfront parks system that will eventually span from the wastewater treatment plant on Newtown Creek all the way along the East River.
REALITY
If you assholes really cared about health, you would stop the development of the waterfront and make a park from Newtown Creek up to Astoria Park.
You could even have your off-street bike lane.
Biking up Vernon which is slated to become a four lane highway to accommodate the several hundred thousand people (just think of the pollution that will make Mr. Bike-Nut) that will be warehoused there will be intolerable.
But, as stooges of the developers afraid to raise your voice you think taking away a parking lane and dodging all that traffic will be just peachy.
You are a nitwit.
MYTH
Articles shouldn't depict bike, car and pedestrian issues as a battle. It should be looked at as a problem for all, that simply needs to be fixed.
REALITY
I saw problems with my cat and took action by having him fixed too. Biking used to be the rage at one time, and people abandoned them because they were impractical. News accounts of the time had common stories of people injured and worse by being blind sided by bikes.
The plague of macho men delivery people will only get worse. They come from cultures where 'stuff hoopens' is a way of life.
MYTH
In the meantime, bikers really need to educate other bikers and walk their bikes over that bridge until bike lanes there do happen.
REALITY
Yea, that will happen along with not smoking, good eating habits, brushing your teeth every night, and safe sex.
Never before has an idiot made so little sense with so many words. Congratulations, Man with No Name and No Brain.
Boy, you Queens Crappers really are fans of things like logic, facts and keeping an open-mind, aren't ya? "Man With No Name's" screed just illustrates this perfectly. You guys have no clue, and frankly, are not worth discussing anything with.
Never before has an idiot made so little sense with so many words. Congratulations, Man with No Name and No Brain.
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Yes, you are right .... because you say you are right.
Welcome to NYC sonnyboy.
Can't retort? Then insult. Don't let the door hit you on the way out.
Boy, you Queens Crappers really are fans of things like logic, facts and keeping an open-mind, aren't ya? "Man With No Name's" screed just illustrates this perfectly. You guys have no clue, and frankly, are not worth discussing anything with.
YOU HAVE A GREAT FUTURE IN POLITICS. NO NEED FOR SERIOUS DISCUSSION.
THINGS ARE REAL JUST BECAUSE BOSS MAN BLUMBERG SAYS THEY ARE.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Sounds like a member of the new city order:
New Yorkers have lost their anger, soul and cockiness
If you assholes really cared about health, you would stop the development of the waterfront and make a park from Newtown Creek up to Astoria Park.
You could even have your off-street bike lane.
Biking up Vernon which is slated to become a four lane highway to accommodate the several hundred thousand people (just think of the pollution that will make Mr. Bike-Nut) that will be warehoused there will be intolerable.
But, as stooges of the developers afraid to raise your voice you think taking away a parking lane and dodging all that traffic will be just peachy.
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Well, go ahead, you painted yourselvs in a corner bikers.
If want to be taken seriously, he has a point. Your silence?
Answer him.
Sounds of Silence.
Sounds of Hatred and Ignorance
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