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Some Better-Biking-in-NYC Suggestions
By
Jen Chung
Published Mar 8, 2009
Modified Mar 8, 2009
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By
Jen Chung
Published Mar 8, 2009
Modified Mar 8, 2009
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The NY Times' City section has a sprawling feature about biking in the city by writer Robert Sullivan. Sullivan (who wrote the wonderful Rats about the rodent's history in NYC) noticed how his bike rides these days are much more pleasant—compared to 1987 when it included "navigating honks and taunts, the mayhem that was then on Cathedral Parkway"—thanks to more recent bicycle-friendly measures and, overall, more bicyclists on the road.
But Sullivan does understand why many drivers and pedestrians don't like bikers, citing the example of the Brooklyn Bridge, where "Lance Armstrong types" and "Really Cool Bikers" battle with tourists and other bikers for room. So he offers "four sure-to-be-scoffed-at suggestions for better bike P.R.":
NO. 1: How about we stop at major intersections? Especially where there are school crossing guards, or disabled people crossing, or a lot of people during the morning or evening rush. (I have the law with me on this one.) At minor intersections, on far-from-traffic intersections, let’s at least stop and go.
NO. 2: How about we ride with traffic as opposed to the wrong way on a one-way street? I know the idea of being told which way to go drives many bikers bonkers. That stuff is for cars, they say. I consider one-way streets anathema — they make for faster car traffic and more difficult crossings. But whenever I see something bad happen to a biker, it’s when the biker is riding the wrong way on a one-way street...
NO. 3: How about we stay off the sidewalks? Why are bikers so incensed when the police hand out tickets for this? I’m only guessing, but each sidewalk biker must believe that he or she, out of all New York bikers, is the exception, the one careful biker, which is a very car way of thinking.
NO. 4: How about we signal? Again, I hear the laughter, but the bike gods gave us hands to ring bells and to signal turns. Think of the possible complications: Many of the bikers behind you are wearing headphones, and the family in the minivan has a Disney DVD playing so loudly that it’s rattling your 30-pound Kryptonite chain. Let them know what you are thinking so that you can go on breathing as well as thinking.
Sullivan does emphasize, "To be clear, cars are more likely to kill nonbikers; we still live in a world ruled by the ruthless car," and rattle off the times he's been nearly killed by cars as a bicyclist and a pedestrian.
The NYC Department of Transportation says bicycling has grown 35% between 2007 and 2008. For more information about growing bicycling in NYC, check out Transportation Alternatives, which also has ideas for walkable communities.
Tagged
better biking etiquette
bicyclist
biker
NYC Department of Transportation
robert sullivan
Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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