From the Daily News:Safety officers installed on three city bridges to keep the peace between cyclists and pedestrians will cost taxpayers about $80,000 a month, officials said Tuesday.
The program, which started Monday and is slated to end Nov.26 - but could return in the spring - has drawn mixed reviews from bridge users and advocates.
The $38-an-hour "pedestrian managers" have been assigned to the Brooklyn, Manhattan and Williamsburg bridges and told to educate users about the rules of the road. The workers, employed by Sam Schwartz Engineering, can't give out tickets or physically interfere, they said.
At the Manhattan Bridge, they are stationed at on-ramps to make sure cyclists and pedestrians use their designated sides.
On the Brooklyn Bridge, they took up position on the white line separating the two narrow lanes, trying to stop tourists from blindly walking into fast-moving bikes.
From CBS New York:
Two Hunter College professors have produced a study that shows roughly 1,000 pedestrians are struck by bicycle riders each year state-wide. Half of those are in New York City.
The authors of the study only counted pedestrians who were hospitalized after being struck. The authors believe, therefore, more than 1,000 people in New York are hit by bicycles each year.
The study didn’t count the number of bicyclists who were injured.
21 comments:
Why slap the taxpayers $80,000 a month ?
Make the cyclists buy license plates and require insurance to cross bridges.
When Slam their 3 point moving violations are at risk on their drivers licenses they will behave !
Cycling on public roads and (walkways when permitted) is a privilege not a right.
A good 1/2 these cyclists are hipsters, aO's and euroshitz who think they can do whatever they want because they can run and not be traced and fingered with consequences.
I personally ended up handcuffed to a bench in a police station over a road raging cyclist hit and run. Wasted 45 minutes of my time (no charges).
In 2009, there were avg 1000 non-fatal motor-vehicle accidents in NYC weekly...
http://www.nydmv.state.ny.us/Statistics/2009NYCSummary.pdf
Also, these were either reported or hospital bound - I'm sure there were more as well...
Can we have some of these monitors help the elderly cross Queens Blvd and protect them from dangerous car and truck drivers???
Can I ask why bicyclists always feel the need to point fingers at how dangerous cars are when cars are not under discussion? It's bicyclists' bad behavior that it under scrutiny here, and to a lesser extent, pedestrians. Leave the cars out of it.
I normally hate trucks, buses and minivans but I am including the biketards now!!!
"Can we have some of these monitors help the elderly cross Queens Blvd and protect them from dangerous car and truck drivers???"
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Nice one. I like that thought. Unfortunately the elderly don't have trust funds and are not desired people to benefit from like hipsters or yuppies.
I saw a vested "safety officer" yesterday, watching bikes shoot through pedestrians at the LES end of the Williamsburg Bridge.
He was blocking part of the bike lane that pedestrians are forced to walk on because the pedestrian part is blocked by construction, so I had my back to speeding bikes right at the 8 foot wide bottleneck.
Since no biker is going to slow down to take the officers' advice, their job is to berate pedestrians for getting in the way of those wondeful people who sacrifice for the rest of us by riding a bike to work instead of the subway?
I'll tell you why. Because no one notices a lawful bicyclist and we are LEGION. Most of us not only obey the laws, but we are quite mindful of pedestrians, who quite often are a little disengaged in their own safety (parents, WHY do you push your stroller into the street when you yourself cannot see the road?!) and cars, who resent our very existence. We are beleaguered. Yes, we have a few new bike lanes, usually occupied by parked cars, but in the last 3 years, texting drivers have added to the deadly cocktail of danger on our streets. And the lanes themselves simply incur the wrath of entitled motorists. I have been an urban cyclist for 22 years and have never once hit a pedestrian, but I have been hit by cars on three occasions (one of them was my fault but the other two were not.) I'm sick of the rage at bicyclists, and forgive me if I am a little defensive.... until you have cycled in this city for an hour, get off your high horse.
Perhaps it would be more productive to issue summonses to those not following the laws. This would act as a deterrent and produce revenue. Once someone is slapped with a summons, they may change their behavior. Enforcement brings in money - monitors cost money.
EVERYONE needs to make nice already. It's not JUST the cyclists who need oversight - both sides of this equation need to follow rules. I walk, and I ride. I was a messenger in midtown in the 70's - and right now I would not ride in midtown for love or money: bikers & tourists are oblivious to everything around them. Back in the day, the threat was the cabs and delivery trucks... I have two extra-ordinary children who ride adult trikes - there is NO place in NYC for them to ride - non-commuter bike paths are used by people walking pomeranians and chihuahas and toddler-training: potential death, cause my kids don't react quickly, and neither do the toddlers - the dogs are just arrogant (or is that their owners?) Anyway, this is a City. We all have to share space, and that means following the rules.
Signed, Mary Poppins
ANON Wrote:
"more productive to issue summonses to those not following the laws. This would act as a deterrent and produce revenue""
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Exactly !
Issue license plates and make the idiots pay for being idiots.
Plus points on their drivers licenses.
The cyclists obeying the law have nothing to worry about, aside paying some small registration fees.
Its fair and the cheapskate cyclists don't like it to bad or take the subway.
Do the same with the dam mopeds and Hells Angels on battery scooters.
Thats what I would do.
NYC bike laws are the same as they were in 1921 when there weren't many cars. Bicycles for those who could afford them had one gear (if any)and could not go fast. I'm totally against new laws involving government control but in this case the law's and regulations need to be updated to the technology.
Now bikes can weight 17 pounds and people drive them like Pacman 35-50 MPH.
License cyclists to cross or drive in Manhattan. Doing this is accomplishes several things.
Its the best deterrent for law breakers, Enforcement has more power nab, summons, fine and revoke PRIVILEGE on the idiots.
It generates its own revenue to accomplish the above without taxpayer burden, and its fair !
The good law obeying cyclists will have nothing --and actually LESS to worry about.
-Joe
everyone needs to go back to carrying canes or sticks, they work real well in the spokes.
Bridges have long downhills: Asking cyclists to go slowly and watch out for pedestrians just goes against human nature.
When I am on the sidewalk, I have close to zero concern that a person driving a car is going to decide he or she can travel safer and faster on the sidewalk in their car. Cyclists on the other hand are on the sidewalk - many are delighted to intimidate pedestrians.
Why not just issue tickets to the bike riders that break traffic laws ?
Have the infraction put on their drivers license (if they have one).
The same is done if you are sailing a boat and are caught DWI - they pull your drivers license.
How many full time NYPD traffic agents does the city put on the streets to "babysit" drivers through busy intersections? Unless you have a problem with that, I don't see how you can think this is a big deal.
BTW, even the anti-bike daily news writes "trying to stop tourists from blindly walking into fast-moving bikes."
If you think bicyclists are the only ones who are the problem you are not honestly evaluating the situation.
"When Slam their 3 point moving violations are at risk on their drivers licenses they will behave !"
Right Joe, because we all know drivers always follow the rules of the road. I don't think I have ever even seen a speeding car or a car blowing a red light in this city because drivers are so effectively kept in line with enforcement.
"The $38-an-hour "pedestrian managers" "
10-1 says those workers cost the city $38 an hour, but earn closer to $10 an hour.
Why not just issue tickets to the bike riders that break traffic laws ?
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Tickets wont and DONT work because to cyclists traffic tickets are just a nuisance **TAX** you pay to break the law or endanger people.
You have to hit them where it hurts --IE: points on the driver’s license, suspension revocation of privileges, steep insurance premiums for repeat offenders just like car drivers.
$35, $50 $100 Tickets are not consequences that hurt rogue cyclists enough.
Its mostly these new tower asshole "professionals" with money all moving in along the water front, LIC, Brooklyn that are causing the problems.
These nouveau Bloomblights don't flinch at simple tickets, laugh at cops, think they are above everybody.
A "ticket tax" to break the law mingled with jackass Midwest hipster transplants & turd world morons running amuck on fast wheels anonymously is plane old no good.
These tower asshole "professionals" are paying and working to maintain your economy. Just a thought.
While people living in the projects are scamming the "asshole" and "hipster" tax-money to buy lavish cars & drive like assholes, killing people without repenting. We like to pick on the bicycling professionals...
You need undercover cops on bicycles just like a century ago to catch aggressive motorists. Like Gooliani said, it is a quality of life issue, if they abuse cyclists, they will abuse others.
The most frustrating part about hearing bull cookies like this is we have to pay some schmuck a $60k a year salary to remind people how to use common sense. Speaks volumes about the inhabitants of this city. Cyclists, motorcyclists, drivers and pedestrians. All have the common issue of disrespect for one another.
And my apologies, Joe. A man I have respect for and see eye to eye on most all issue, but this.
This whole driving or riding is a privilege bullshit is right out of a socialists handbook of slogans. A citizen has every right to do what he feels is necessary and how she pleases as long as it doesn't infringe on some other's rights to life, liberty, and property. Constitution ideals 101. See John Locke, Adam Smith, Jefferson, Henry Ford, et al. for references. There needs to be a re-education of our younger generations to respect and cherish these rights and understand that others have these same rights as well. Not some feel good post-hippie neoliberall rights. Natural rights. Natural as in Aristotelian natural philosophy and empiricism. AKA, science. The scientific method of René Descartes and Roger Bacon, etc.
Setting up yet another system of citizen robbery through infraction penalties, similar to our traffic laws today, only depends our societies reliance on the nanny state. Treat adults like children and they will behave as children. It's time to treat adults as adults.
Just a pet peeve of mine. I hope you understand, my brother.
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