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Is NYC About To Get Its First Bike Mayor?
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Elizabeth Kim
Published Oct 19, 2021
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Courtesy of the Eric Adams campaign
By
Elizabeth Kim
Published Oct 19, 2021
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With 2021 set to be the deadliest year for traffic fatalities under the de Blasio administration, New York City's likely next mayor, Eric Adams, is pledging to ride his bike regularly to and from City Hall as a way to promote cycling and the city's effort to move away from an entrenched car culture.
"If elected, you're going to see me on my bike all the time riding to and from City Hall in a real way," Adams told reporters on Tuesday after receiving an endorsement from StreetsPAC, a political action group that advocates for a safer redesign of city streets.
"I think if people start seeing their mayor on a bike, they'd be more encouraged to know that the streets are safe to ride their bikes," he later added.
Adams rode to the endorsement event on 14th Street on a CitiBike, coming from an earlier event on 26th Street.
Tuesday's ride was hardly the first time Adams, the current Brooklyn borough president, has pedaled in front of cameras. Back in June, he rode a bike to and from a street naming ceremony in Park Slope, and in the process, navigated some hairy turns. That time, he appeared to be on a personal bike, not a CitBike:
If he wins and follows through on his promise, Adams would be the city’s first true bike-riding mayor at what transit advocates say is a critical juncture for the city to reimagine its traffic-clogged streets. While John Lindsay rode for exercise, and other mayors, such as Ed Koch, have occasionally mounted a bike for photo-ops, "no one was a regular bike commuter," according to Evan Friss, the author of On Bicycles: A 200-Year History of Cycling in New York City.
Koch learned how to ride a bike at Gracie Mansion ahead of a press conference announcing a new protected bike lane on 6th Avenue -- which he promptly ripped out within a month.
Read More: Where Do NYC Mayoral Candidates Stand On The Future Of Biking In NYC?
There have been at least 206 traffic deaths this year, including at least 16 cyclists killed, according to Transportation Alternatives, the bicycle and pedestrian advocacy group.
Critics have blamed Mayor Bill de Blasio for failing to order the police to provide better traffic enforcement and for not hastening the build-out of more bike lanes. De Blasio has blamed the rise in traffic fatalities on the pandemic and its resulting rise in car usage, which he characterized as a temporary setback. Still, the surge in traffic deaths and crashes will likely mar his transportation legacy as his so-called Vision Zero plan called for the elimination of all traffic deaths by 2024.
Adams has said he would install 300 miles of protected bike lanes. However, the Regional Plan Association has laid out an even more ambitious blueprint for a 425-mile bike network.
Notably, during the primary, StreetsPAC backed Kathryn Garcia, the former New York City sanitation commissioner who finished second to Adams. But on Tuesday, the organization's president, Eric McClure, heaped praise on Adams's work as an advocate for street safety. "No elected official has shown up more often in more places since he became the borough president in Brooklyn for victims of traffic violence," he said. "I know that because I've been in many of those same vigils. But he's been to a lot more than I have."
New York City mayors have rarely been seen on bikes. According to Streetsblog, de Blasio is the first mayor since Ed Koch to be recorded riding a bike. His most recent jaunt was in May, when after a quick primer, the mayor rode a CitiBike to work from Gracie Mansion.
Adams previously said he may split his time between Gracie Mansion and Brooklyn if he were to win the mayoral election, for which early votes will be cast starting on Saturday. Asked by a reporter where he would be biking from every day as mayor, Adams said, "I may just want to hang out in Bed Stuy, Brooklyn."
But he added: "Wherever I am, I'm going to bike to that location."
Adams's Republican opponent Curtis Sliwa has criticized him for having picked up 15 reckless driving camera citations. Sliwa also told the Daily News on Tuesday that he would close some bike lanes, saying his position is: “If you don’t use it, you lose it."
Additional reporting by Jake Offenhartz
Tagged
we the commuters
biking
election 2021
bike nyc
transportation
eric adams
Elizabeth Kim
Elizabeth Kim is a reporter on the People and Power desk who covers mayoral power. She previously covered the pandemic, housing, redevelopment and public spaces. A native of Queens, she speaks fluent Mandarin. Got a tip? Email [email protected]
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