Gothamist
A non-profit newsroom, powered by WNYC.
Gothamist
Listen Live
News
Group Demands Citywide Bike Lane Moratorium
By
John Del Signore
Published Feb 23, 2011
Modified Feb 23, 2011
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
Never miss a story
Email address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .
By
John Del Signore
Published Feb 23, 2011
Modified Feb 23, 2011
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
We rely on your support to make local news available to all
Make your contribution now and help Gothamist thrive in 2026. Donate today
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
The well-connected Park Slope group Neighbors for Better Bike Lanes—whose members include former NYC DOT commissioner (and wife of Chuck Schumer) Iris Weinshall and former Sanitation Commissioner Norman Steisel—are calling for a moratorium on new bike lane construction throughout NYC. In a recent press release, the group, which formed to abolish the controversial bike lane on Prospect Park West, applauded City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and Councilman James Vacca for backing a moratorium. There's just one problem: neither politician has taken that position at all.
City Council spokesman Jamie McShane tells Transportation Nation, "Neither Speaker Quinn nor Councilman Vacca support a moratorium on bike lane construction." In fact, McShane said that after the traffic safety bill was passed, the council explicitly rejected the idea of a moratorium on bike lane construction. It would appear that Neighbors for Better Bike Lanes, which has blasted the DOT for fudging numbers on the PPW lane's success, is simply making shit up, and not for the first time. A spokesman for the group says it had based their press release on their understanding of a news report.
Despite NBBL's obvious propagandizing, the group has waged a successful media campaign against the two-way separated bike lane. Most recently, NBBL got attention with this surveillance video showing an ambulance detouring around traffic on Prospect Park West by driving in the bike lane. Louise Hainline, the group's president, tells the Brooklyn Paper the incident is just one of three in which a motor vehicles used the lane in the past three months. She didn't provide any documentation on the other incidents, but BP followed up and spoke to ambulance drivers who admitted to using the bike lane. “Using the lane is better than losing a life,” one driver explained.
Tagged
bicyclists
bike lanes
cycling
cyclists
nbbl
park slope
ppw
PPW bike lane
prospect park west
John Del Signore
Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.
Read more
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
MORE news
Dump truck driver hits and kills cyclist on 34th Street in Midtown, NYPD says
It's the latest in a string of hit-and-run deaths in the city in recent months.
By
Liam Quigley
Published Sep 28, 2026 at 4:15 p.m. ET
New ingredient mandated for Latin American kitchen, restaurant plates in NJ
The Garden State now requires that corn masa dough and flour made and sold in the state be fortified with folic acid.
By
Arya Sundaram
News
New ingredient mandated for Latin American kitchen, restaurant plates in NJ
The Garden State now requires that corn masa dough and flour made and sold in the state be fortified with folic acid.
By
Arya Sundaram
A Brooklyn jail cell filled with smoke. The emergency button failed, a lawyer said.
By
Samantha Max
Crews launch tunnel machines to dig first new Hudson River rail tunnels since 1910
By
Michael Sol Warren
NYC nor’easter dries up after weather service reports minor flooding
By
Ramsey Khalifeh
Never miss a story
Catch up on the most important headlines with a roundup of essential NYC stories, delivered to your inbox daily.
Sign upEmail address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .