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City Says Cycling Up 14%, But NY Post Knows Better Than That
By
John Del Signore
Published Jul 29, 2011
Modified Jul 29, 2011
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By
John Del Signore
Published Jul 29, 2011
Modified Jul 29, 2011
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Mayor Bloomberg is patting DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan on the back for the latest bicycling numbers, which show a 14% increase in the number of commuter bike riders compared to last spring. If you regularly bike around town, the study won't surprise you, but in the words of Homer J., you can use facts to prove just about anything that's even remotely true, and the NY Post knows better than to believe the DOT's magical "counting."
Citing yesterday's Quinnipiac University poll that shows an increasing number of New Yorkers like the DOT's bike lane expansion, the NY Post latches onto one survey result: Only 29 percent of those respondents felt the lanes were "widely used." As Post transit reporter Jennifer Fermino puts it, this "confirms complaints made by anyone who lives near the green-hued lanes." CONFIRMED!
And her article's headline sums it up neatly: "It's never quite the ride time: NYers like bike lanes - but don't use 'em." Of course, those radical bike lane advocates just see what they want to see. For example, Fermino would surely scoff at this article in the crazy NY Post, about how bike lanes in SoHo are getting "plenty of use"—whatever, bike-hugging libtard media!
According to the DOT, a record-high 18,809 cyclists were counted per day this spring, up from 16,463 in spring 2010, while the number of cyclist fatalities declined from 25 in 2008 to 19 in 2010. Cycling is up a whopping 262% since 2000, and during this time the average risk of a serious injury to bike riders declined by 72 percent. The city says the decrease in injuries is partly due to the 390 miles of bike lanes installed since 2001. But we're sure the NY Post has a simpler explanation: these extra cyclists simply don't exist—except when they're "abusing their ticket to ride."
In case you're wondering, the cyclist data is collected by counts of actual cyclists at major commuter locations, and some have questioned the validity of the way the DOT looks at cycling growth, especially after Census data showed that only 0.6% of New Yorkers used bicycles as their primary mode of transportation. NYC DOT spokesman Seth Solomonow told us, "We count cyclists, not questionnaires. The Census asks people in questionnaires about their primary transportation mode to work during the previous week. If someone biked only two days that week, or if fewer people cycled owing to poor weather, they would not be counted."
Tagged
bike lanes
cyclists
dot
janette sadik-khan
ny post
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.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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