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Video: Is Your Bike Commute More Dangerous Than This One?
By
Jacob Dobkin
Published Apr 19, 2016
Modified Jul 11, 2016
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By
Jacob Dobkin
Published Apr 19, 2016
Modified Jul 11, 2016
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Video by Jessica Leibowitz
Bicycling is a wonderful way to commute to and from work in New York City. You save a ton of money on MetroCards, and you get so much exercise that you don't have to join a gym. There's really only one problem: dangerous drivers. You know, the ones that kill over 200 people a year on our streets, and are a particular danger to cyclists. Their bad behavior—ignoring bike lanes, running lights, making illegal turns—scares many people off bicycling.
The city's Vision Zero initiative has made some progress by improving the design of many dangerous streets and intersections, and adding miles of new, protected bike lanes each year, but until driver behavior changes, people will still be maimed and killed. To shed some light on the dangerous conditions bicyclists still face every day, several Gothamist staffers have volunteered to film their daily commutes over the next few months.
Our first clip comes from me, Jake Dobkin—a regular bike commuter between Park Slope and DUMBO. Going home from work I bike through Brooklyn Bridge Park, and then cut up Union Street, to avoid having to ride along Jay Street in Downtown Brooklyn, which continues to be one of the worst bike lanes in the entire city. This adds about a mile to my ride each way, and as you can see from the video above, it is still not an entirely safe trip.
If your ride to or from work is worse, and want to contribute to this series, please send in your video. Some rules: you must film your entire ride with no cuts, so we can verify it's a real commute with no special effects. Please obey all pertinent laws, including red lights and stop signs, as we know you normally would!
NB.: To automobile commuters: before you write a long comment about how it's really the bicyclists killing people, not the cars, and how we wouldn't believe the bad behavior you see during your daily drive, take a deep breath, and meditate on the fact that a bicycle weighs about 25 pounds, and your car weighs something like 4000 pounds. Yes, pedestrians and cyclists sometimes break the law, and they should never do that, but simple physics dictates that we must hold automobiles to a much higher standard, and that is why we are not soliciting clips from drivers.
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Jacob Dobkin
Jake Dobkin co-founded Gothamist with Jen Chung. In 2019, Jake released Ask a Native New Yorker, a book based on his Gothamist advice column.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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