After reading this NY Magazine article, I was going to rip DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan a new one for being so into bike lanes and out if touch with people who must get around in the outer boroughs. But Mr. Angry did such a good job of it I figured there was no sense in reinventing the wheel...I’d love to know where all the money is coming from for all these bike lanes. FDNY wants to close firehouses left and right, NYPD can’t afford to replace retirees, and somehow we have loads of money for creating bike lanes where they’re not needed or even wanted?! Someone please explain to me the logic in that. - Mr. Angry.
The problem is that Janette takes a one-size-fits-all approach to traffic in this City and doesn't realize that what may work in Manhattan will be disastrous in Queens.
28 comments:
I’d love to know where all the money is coming from for all these bike lanes. FDNY wants to close firehouses left and right, NYPD can’t afford to replace retirees, and somehow we have loads of money for creating bike lanes where they’re not needed or even wanted?! Someone please explain to me the logic in that. - Mr. Angry.
The problem is that Janette takes a one-size-fits-all approach to traffic in this City and doesn't realize that what may work in Manhattan will be disastrous in Queens......
Wake up and smell the coffee. You ignorants are the only people in the CITY who do NOT want bike lanes. Have you ever heard of a silent majority and vocal minority?
You are the tiny,(small even) vocal minority.
Um most people I know do not want these bike lanes. They get in the way of parking and bikers a) don't wear helmets and b) don't follow the law. Its a waste of effort. The bikers are the vocal minority wake up and leave hipsterville for one second... Try getting a job that requires you not reeking like a biker in the morning (IE Not in the coffee shop).
You think it is expensive to paint a bike lane? You think you can save a firehouse from the savings you can get by . . . not painting bike lanes?? This is another case of taking a good argument and losing it by focusing on a dumb point, which is a hallmark of this blog.
the city’s burgeoning biking scene, heretofore a largely countercultural force.
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Democratic Dictionary:
Counterculture:
1)Developer decals on kayacks,
2)Developer bike racks on community crushing megaprojects
3) Waterfront advocates following the orders of what they can, and cannot do to with a waterfront from developers
4) Youth for Blumbturd so they can get more affordable housing built
5)Beatles musak in elevators.
You think it is expensive to paint a bike lane? You think you can save a firehouse from the savings you can get by . . . not painting bike lanes?? This is another case of taking a good argument and losing it by focusing on a dumb point, which is a hallmark of this blog.
IF IT CAN HIRE ONE FIREMAN, ONE COP, ONE DOCTOR, EVEN ONE GARBAGEMAN IT WILL BE USEFUL THAN A WHOLE BORO OF YOUR GODDAMN BIKE LINES.
It can't hire anyone. You think by saving a minimal, one-time cost, the city can afford to hire a city worker and pay his/her salary for 20 years and health care and pension for life? Wow . . .
It's not a "minimal one time cost" if businesses close or make less money because there is no place for their customers or delivery people to park. Taxes are what pay for everything in this city in case you need to be reminded of that.
And when they take out parking meters to put bike lanes, and collect less in ticket revenue, that's more money the city loses out on.
yuppies from manhattan moving into queens, that's the problem. hello dumb asses we don't want the bike lanes, it's a waste of time, money and no one will use them. stay in manhattan please..
It's not just painted bike lanes, it's bike lanes with concrete islands on Grand Street, and on 8th and 9th Avenues in Chelsea, as well as Mayor McChee$e's total shutdown of Broadway in midtown debuting this weekend. The notion that some fictitious New York "silent majority" is all for this is as bogus as it is risible. I suppose the same "silent majority" wants $2billion spent on one subway stop on a crosstown line at Tumbleweed Junction, aka 34th and 11th, as hospitals close and are sold off for condos, and the FDNY is dismantled.
I’d love to know where all the money is coming from for all these bike lanes.
I was prepared to respond to this, but it's already been done well enough:
"You think it is expensive to paint a bike lane?... This is another case of taking a good argument and losing it by focusing on a dumb point, which is a hallmark of this blog."
The problem is that Janette ... doesn't realize that what may work in Manhattan will be disastrous in Queens.
That's a willfully ignorant statement if ever I've heard one. First of all, Queens is not so homogeneous as to be facilely contrasted with Manhattan. (Nor is Manhattan so homogeneous, if you consider Inwood vs. Midtown vs. West Village.) Then there's the dubious assertion of "disaster." How would bike lanes be "disastrous" in Queens? You need to sharpen your argument if you want anybody aside from the usual yahoos on your side.
yuppies from manhattan moving into queens, that's the problem. hello dumb asses we don't want the bike lanes... stay in manhattan please..
Right. Yuppies moving from Manhattan to Queens so that they can ride bikes. That makes sense.
Meanwhile, on Earth, there are many non-yuppie Queens residents who appreciate the new, cheap bike lanes and use them every day.
I agree that the point about the bike lanes being a cheap one time expense is stupid.
I also agree that what's good for Manhattan is not good for Queens. People in Inwood, the Village, etc, tend to not use cars because their public transportation is great. In Queens, it sucks pretty much everywhere and a car is not impractical.
The Yuppie assholes moved into the towers along the Queens waterfront because they can no longer afford Manhattan. You notice they live only one stop from Manhattan on the subway.
You have no evidence or data whatsoever of any Queens business that went out of business because bike lanes were painted on the street. You claim that if the city didn't paint bike lanes, businesses would make more money, thus pay more taxes, and the city could hire more city workers. Boy that is dense.
I love what they are doing with Broadway, Ninth Avenue, etc. I didn't know so many Queens residents were driving there cars through Times Square so much that this would bother them.
I still don't get why people here think that being young, educated and working in a professional job is a negative, other than jealousy.
LMAO TO THE LAST REMARK, SITTING HERE WITH MY COFFEE LAUGHING AT YOU. ARE YOU KIDDING ME WHO THE FUCK CARES OR IS JEALOUS OF YOUR JOB AND PAY, GET OVER YOURSELF.
I love how all you cycle nazis think it doesn't cost anything to make and then maintain a bike lane.
I'm sorry but in the order of priorities I'd much rather have even just one fireman's job saved over a bike lane.
If you all want them so bad, maybe you should have to register for license plates and let the fees go towards bike lanes - and all the tickets you all rack up blowing every red light you see go towards funding the things that really matter around here.
The cycle nazis will be featured tomorrow in a post about how the majority of them fail to obey traffic laws.
Cute! Just through around the word for everything.
I love how all you cycle nazis think it doesn't cost anything to make and then maintain a bike lane.
Take away the bike lanes. Thats fine with me. I doesnt change the fact that NYC drivers were voted the worst drivers in the country next to N. Jersey. What a surprise. I wear a helmet,obey traffc lays 99% of the time, except when avoiding horrendous Queens drivers that run lights EVERY day, and use bike lights.
You have to do your best to avoid cars because they don't have a brain for courteous behaviour like honking or slowing to move an inch to the right. Its easier I guess to hit pedestrians and bikers which happens every week when drivers are speeding and ignoring every basic traffic law.
Where was the post on Q.Crap about the worst drivers in the country are in NYC that was in many different papers?
Right. Yuppies moving from Manhattan to Queens so that they can ride bikes. That makes sense.
Meanwhile, on Earth, there are many non-yuppie Queens residents who appreciate the new, cheap bike lanes and use them every day.
Yes exactly. Those putred towers are as expensive as many of the buildings in Manhattan, and those folks dont bike more than once a week, if at all.
Once again this site makes strange assumptions and doesn't realise many various people hate bloomberg, but all the while not making any conversation, just preaching to the converted broad sweeping thinkers..
Actually, NY drivers weren't voted the worst drivers in the country. An insurance company did quizzes to determine whether licensed drivers knew the answers to driving questions. New York drivers came in last, likely because many of them don't understand English yet have licenses (and I doubt the insurance company hired translators).
I'd like to see the results for the bicyclists.
I'd like to see the results for the bicyclists.
Bike commuter against car driver in NYC?
The driver speaking English wouldnt know or actually follow the traffic laws in action. It's plain to see how sickingly horrible NYC drivers are and have been for as long as Ive seen for 16 years.
Dont look for pedestrians or anything in front of them. How about all car drivers and bikers who dont follow the law and get pulled over lose their ability to be on the road before one more person is mowed down.
Thousands of NY drivers would be gone and many bike commuters.
These silly bike lanes that cars drive on have nothing to do with bloomberg closing FDNY and hospitals. Bloomberg is a laughing stock all over the country except Manhattan.
Chicago,Denver,Seattle,Portland, and many other cities don't close needed facilities and they keep bike lanes or just a few simple feet on the side for them to ride.
Hate to break it to you, but many working class people as well as doctors and teachers bike to work in NYC and Chicago almost everyday. There not the trendy idiot 20 something kids with fixed gear bikes who don't use brakes.
So these educated people are the ones breaking all the traffic rules for bicyclists?
I tried to get D.O.T to paint a whiteSTOP line next to a"do not block intersection sign" at an irregular intersection. Cars are always blocking the intersection. D.O.T said they sent someone to check it- on a Sunday........dolts!
Um most people I know do not want these bike lanes. They get in the way of parking and bikers a) don't wear helmets and b) don't follow the law. Its a waste of effort. The bikers are the vocal minority wake up and leave hipsterville for one second... Try getting a job that requires you not reeking like a biker in the morning (IE Not in the coffee shop).
I guarantee you that IO make more money then you, that I am better educated then you and probably better looking then you. I dont ride my bike to and from work I drive and park in my company paid space. I just like bike riding on the weekends and I like bike lanes. Why dont you go fuck yourself and your GED.
I like the misuse of the word "then" multiple times combined with the assertion that you are better educated THAN another commenter. I'll be laughing about that one all day.
If you want a safe place to ride your bike on the weekend, go to a public park.
When you call people Nazis, you lose the argument. There are few quicker ways to debase yourself than that. That is, unless they are violent National Socialist Party bigots seeking to exterminate other human beings based on race, religion, sexual identity, and such, while crafting a fascist regime. Then, yes, feel free call them Nazis.
"People in Inwood, the Village, etc, tend to not use cars because their public transportation is great."
Shows what you know. People in Inwood LOVE their cars.
And if good public transportation is an argument against cars, then big swaths of Queens - including Astoria, with its new bike lanes - should be rid of cars.
You can live in Astoria and not have the things you need to get to within walking distance - including the subway.
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