Saturday, March 7, 2020

City induced bike (spite) lanes continue to frustrate Sunnyside and Woodside residents, business owners and emergency services

Queens Streets For All from Eric Strang on Vimeo.



Sunnyside Post

A long-time Sunnyside Gardens resident has produced a video calling on the Department of Transportation to remove the protected bicycle lanes from Skillman and 43rd Avenues and return the corridors back to the way they were prior to their overhaul in 2018.
 
Dorothy Morehead, a local realtor and member of Community Board 2, said that she made the video to highlight the effect the 2018 street redesign has had on Sunnyside residents and business owners.
She argues that the redesign has hurt local businesses, made the area less safe, increased traffic congestion, and made it difficult for fire trucks and emergency vehicles to traverse the two avenues–putting people at risk.
 
She is calling on the DOT to come back to the community and reevaluate the plan. She wants the avenues to go back to the way they were before the protected bike lanes were installed. She said that the previous bike lane was safe and effective.

“The impact on this community and the impact on the businesses just can’t go unchallenged,” Morehead, who has lived in the neighborhood for 50 years, said in an interview. “These redesigns are mainly for the bikers and it is not fair to the rest of the community.”
Morehead hired a filmmaker and spent $4,000 on the video. Work began on the project last fall and was completed this week.
 
The film includes interviews with members of Queens Streets for All, a group comprised of nearly a dozen Skillman Avenue business owners and residents who remain opposed to the 2018 redesign. It also includes footage taken from a drone, which Morehead uses to support her arguments.
 
The video takes issue with many components of the redesign—such as Skillman Avenue being reduced from two lanes to one between 49th Street and 54th Street. It also discusses the narrowing of the two travel lanes elsewhere, with the people interviewed saying it has led to congestion—particularly when vehicles double park.
 
The video even questions whether the redesign has led to increased safety at all.

The redesign has been controversial from the get go—pitting bicycle safety advocates against many business owners and long-time residents. The final plan was rejected by Community Board 2 on June 7, 2018, and Assemblywoman Cathy Nolan, former Congressman Joseph Crowley and 
Councilmember Jimmy Van Bramer opposed it.
 
Van Bramer, however, later changed his mind and advocated for it.
 
Mayor de Blasio, however, ultimately made the decision and the redesign went into effect in August 2018.

This video she produced also makes the other video made by some bike zealot look bad. Because in the latter video, they do a bunch of before and afters that show absolutely no traffic and how the lousy redesign shows cars parked further into the street that look more obstructive than vehicles double parked in the original bike lane.

And she and the others are right, a lot of bike commuters are selfish jerks. I coined a portmanteau for the mentality of these bike zealots and lobbies like Transportation Alternatives calling for more of these lanes and their vehement intolerance for car owners, "biketitlement"




18 comments:

Anonymous said...

No one likes change especially these long time old Queens residents !
The Bikes lanes look OK to me plus there is so much less air pollution until all cars go electric. Also lower the dam rents so prices can drop and people can buy the lower priced goods and services.
I love Amazon because it saves me money and time and my items are delivered right to my front door. Hell I don't need my car anymore !
It's 2020 people get with it !

Anonymous said...

Elections are coming. Please vote according to your needs and dissatisfaction. If you don't, you asked for this.

Dmitri said...

So basically the video shows double parked cars causing congestion, but bicyclists are selfish jerks. Oh the hypocrisy.

Anonymous said...

They got 'em all over the country. A national phenom. Federal money, our money, pissed down the drain for Chinese bike industry. Thanks Democrats.

Anonymous said...

While I agree with everything Ms. Moorhead says, I have no sympathy for anyone who voted for DeBlasio in the last election. Prove to me you not only voted for Maliotakis but that you're willing to change your party registration in protest and you'll get my sympathy.

JQ LLC said...

@Dmitri

I guess you didn't notice the scofflaw antics of those bike riders, which I witness on the daily being a cycling commuter myself for over 4 decades. I guess the observations of that handicapped woman went over your head.


Anonymous said...

"The Horror of it All" Bike Rider Antics !

Anonymous said...

"So basically the video shows double parked cars causing congestion, but bicyclists are selfish jerks. Oh the hypocrisy." Thank You !

Anonymous said...

Can't wait for JVB's Hissy fit over this...

JQ LLC said...

@Anon re: Horror.

Hey, don't believe me.

@Anon re: thank you

The cars parked in the street are causing congestion too. Which was the point behind that video.

Anonymous said...

They were spite lanes years ago, now they are fuck you lanes.

The lanes artificially create oppression. Less driving due to the fuck you lanes means more delivery people on the road (oppressed undocumenteds), meaning more political fodder for the "progressive" politicians. The anti-car culture contributed to the rise of DoorDash and the like, yet those services are public enemy #1 almost as much as car owners.

Anonymous said...

So how much money is disappearing in this manufactured nonsense chaos?

Anonymous said...

As a 70 year old who has biked all my life all over the city I am glad to see some improvements for bikers but I just don't like the protected bike lanes that are right next to the curb.I like the bike lanes in the traffic lanes I really do feel safer.Vehicles are far more predictable than bikers and pedestrians.Some of these protected bike lanes go two way on a one way street and that is confusing to people walking out of their cars or off the curb and this is dangerous or all, the guy talking about curbing his dog makes a good point.Also when we think of bike lanes we think of a peddle bike,there are all kinds of fast moving e-bikes,scooters,skateboards,hoverboards and they might be going in the wrong direction.
When a bicyclist gets killed it's big news but I can say with the crazy things I see bikers do on a daily basis I'm surprised more are not killed.

Anonymous said...

Old time Queens people like me saw first hand how you could walk up two blocks and have everything at your finger tips. It saved me a big trip to the main Avenue. Now because of high rents we suffer with empty stores and memories of what was once. We we can’t go back to those days so we are forced to sit in traffic just to get to the main Avenue. Deal with parking spaces gone, bike lanes added and now a possible redesign of the entire system leaving me to walk 18 blocks to a possible new bus stop. So like Archie and Edith sang “ we had it made...those were the days”......

Anonymous said...

Gee, my good friend almost got killed because these bike lanes!
Maybe that's the idea. Commie DeBozo hates cares - for you. But wait he is OK with cars as long as his as in one of them. Accident? No problem NYPD will cover up for him.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/bill-de-blasio-nypd-covered-up-mayors-car-crash-says-report

You know what, NYPD are not the bad guys here, they did sacrifice their lives on 9/11 how soon we forget, these scumbag politicians are at fault and you people who vote, voted for them.

Anonymous said...

I bet every single individual in this doc. has voted for the Democratic Party. So, sorry, swallow..

georgetheatheist said...

Bring back the good old days when America was America and kids were kids.

(I liked Ike.)

Anonymous said...

George The Athiest,
When America was America they would label you a degenerate for not believing in God. Religion was a big part of old American life, in both the 19th and 20th century. Its been rotting in the 21st with fake born again evangelicals who want to start armageddon by constantly starting war in the Middle East. Didn't know that Jesus told his disciples to start constant wars in far off places that harm and displace millions of poor people. But hey the LSD boomers believe this nonsense. The upside here is the young people realize the hypocrisy, particulary when they witness their boomer parents behave in Un-Christian ways, divorcing, fornicating, being greedy, double speaking and maybe even voting for a guy who claims he is going to make America great Again. The orange man like most boomers spent his youth as a rich guy who dated models and also was a Manhattan liberal. But a three times married man is going to save us from degeneracy.