From City Journal:Bloomberg’s transportation commissioner, Janette Sadik-Khan, continues to argue that the bike lanes are popular, but the claim doesn’t seem to square with observation. To test my suspicion that these lanes are barely used, I stood at two busy locations— 30th Street and First Avenue and the intersection at Houston and Allen Streets. In the second case, I arrived at 5 PM on a weekday, the beginning of rush hour. For the next half-hour, I didn’t see a single bicycle in use, despite bumper-to-bumper traffic on Houston Street. Similarly, at First Avenue, where both sides of the street have bicycle lanes, I stood near the entrance to New York University Medical Center counting bicycles at 9:30 AM, near the end of the morning rush. In one hour, I counted just two bicycles, only one of which used the bike lane.
No doubt the mayor is reluctant to admit that his efforts to control traffic in Manhattan have failed—and have only increased congestion. Given the investment of millions in creating the pedestrian plazas and bike lanes, undoing these reforms is unlikely, at least in the near term. If the mayor could only hear the cursing every weekday morning from drivers at, say, 34th street and First Avenue, he might develop a different view.
Now there's a push to slow down the installation of bike lanes.
20 comments:
fire SADIE-KHAN.....
The city should proceed with bike racks at parks and recreation areas or even at large venues where people could bike to. As it stands, I observe that most Manhattan bikers are few and far between and do not use bike lanes (I wouldn't either)- they are simply too dangerous and occupied by cabs and such.
The stars must have been strangely aligned on the day of those observations. Even on 29th Street in LIC late at night I see more bikes rolling along than cars. I haven't checked all hours though.
But what a piece like this misses is that no one is arguing that bikes typically outnumber cars. Planners are simply trying to keep bikers and pedestrians alive.
Wow, has the City Journal descended in quality these days. And those "observations" do not square with what I see every day -- huge numbers of bicyclists in the 1st and 2nd Avenue lanes. Families, kids, business folks, delivery people, even the spandex set. And most importantly, the article doesn't square with the actual studies that have been done.
Bike lanes are simply put there to pander to hipsters and yuppies, nothing/no one else.
I also see significant usage of the bike lanes on 1st and 2nd ave in the AM hours. However, there is much more bike traffic going uptown in the morning than there is going downtown. I suspect this trend is reversed in the afternoon.
"I arrived at 5 PM on a weekday, the beginning of rush hour. For the next half-hour, I didn’t see a single bicycle in use"
If I stood there with my eyes closed, I wouldn't see a single bicycle either. Unless this person posts some video supporting this claim, I really don't believe it. This is based on what I see as a daily driver on these streets.
"Similarly, at First Avenue, where both sides of the street have bicycle lanes, "
This is untrue and shows the authors blatant lack of credibility.
The ONLY bike lane in the city I have seen that seems to be consistently busy is the one on Queens Plaza North going onto the QUEENSBORO Bridge.
but 9:30AM isn't rush hour. I'm on those bike lanes going to work at 8:00AM. They're consistently full in the morning at least.
It's ironic that a blog that partially focuses on issues that affect a minority in this city (one family home owners) gives no respect to another minority (cyclists) who want to transport themselves with bikes without being killed, in a Borough that is not practical to drive or own a car in.
The bike lanes need to be removed. They are the biggest waste of money. DOT should put the money to better use upgrading our roads, and building more parking and bigger highways. We need another Robert Moses to take care of buisness in this city.
The amount of money being spent on bike lanes wouldn't even cover the cost of building one block of new roadway from scratch.
It's fine that you want more roads, but to think the few million spent on bike lanes are preventing that is asinine.
It is impossible for the majority to get around Manhattan by car. The amount of physical land in proportion to the number of people there just doesn't allow it.
Build more parking? At who's expense? Be honest, you want more free parking. Hey, don't we all; but someone has to pay for it.
As someone who primarily drives, even I can say that building endless road and parking capacity is unsustainable in this city. We should be happy that some people are willing to travel by bicycle.
No, we should be encouraging people to take public transportation instead of riding bikes. We are stupidly building infrastructure for people who aren't paying back into the system and raising fares for the majority of commuters who are straphangers. That's brilliant.
I would like to know if the bike lanes are the best thing since sliced bread then why do the few riders I see not ride in them and still continue to ride on the sidewalks and middle of the street.
Every morning on 2 Av I see bikes flying down the bus lane and down the traffic lanes but not the bike lanes. Can anyone tell me why? Because I can't figure out the reason bikers are not using the lanes they all scream for.
"No, we should be encouraging people to take public transportation instead of riding bikes."
People ride bikes for the same reason we drive cars. Because public transportation sucks. It is slow, doesn't always go where you need to in any direct way, and you have to cattle herd in with the inconsiderate general population.
"We are stupidly building infrastructure for people who aren't paying back into the system "
Right. Because we shouldn't build infrastructure for pedestrians or the handicapped, or tourists. And because all those out of state trucks and buses that use our roads are really paying for our infrastructure with that $50 or so they pay for apportioned registration.
I've got news for you. Most of the money that builds our roads comes from our tax dollars, not the paltry $100 annual registration fee we pay. So essentially everyone is paying for the roads, whether they drive or not.
"People ride bikes for the same reason we drive cars. Because public transportation sucks. It is slow, doesn't always go where you need to in any direct way,"
That's why we're building bike lanes all over Manhattan, where the best public transit in the world exists?
"and you have to cattle herd in with the inconsiderate general population."
Ah, thanks for getting to the root cause of the bike lane push. We need bike lanes because uppity self-entitled white folk don't want to deal with the riff raff.
"I've got news for you. Most of the money that builds our roads comes from our tax dollars, not the paltry $100 annual registration fee we pay."
And tolls.
"We need bike lanes because uppity self-entitled white folk don't want to deal with the riff raff."
Exactly the same reason we need more roads and parking.
Pretty funny since you're the one who used the shitty public transportation excuse for needing bikes. Gas tax, registration, licenses, etc. all pay back into the state coffers. Bikes don't.
Neither does walking. Somehow we have no problem providing sidewalks.
Actually, individual landowners install sidewalks, taxpayers as a whole do not unless they are next to city property.
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