More on NYC Bike Lanes, from columnist Eustace Tilley
03-09-11, 02:19 PM
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More on NYC Bike Lanes, from columnist Eustace Tilley
Okay, not really. But there is a column by writer John Cassidy in the upcoming New Yorker magazine which is essentially a rant against the recent bike lanes in NY, and the transportation commissioner who has implemented them. I think this is Cassidy's first piece for the NYer, and it may well be his last. For one thing there's an actual error of fact, which they are famous for avoiding. It's also remarkable how eager Cassidy was to portray himself as a jerk. Maybe the editors there don't like him and allowed this to slip through in hopes of extinguishing any other contributions.
Here it is:
https://www.newyorker.com/online/blog...s-schumer.html
I am sure many here will have things to say about the column, but I doubt anyone will top the beat-downs already administered by:
Aaron Naparstek (a blogger I'd never heard of before):
https://naparstek.com/2011/03/bike-la...akes-no-sense/
and of course Bike Snob NYC (scroll down):
https://bikesnobnyc.blogspot.com/2011...wn-memory.html
Cassidy at one point lists the cars he has owned since the 80s and BSNYC notes:
"...that is one of the most embarrassing successions of automobiles I've ever seen. He should leave the New Yorker and start a magazine called Car and Doofus. An Oldsmobile? Two Cadillacs?!? Did I miss some mid-1990s "Florida retiree chic" trend while I was off at college?" Ouch!
And the commenters to the article itself. I think I saw one out of maybe fifty that agreed with Cassidy.
Enjoy!
Here it is:
https://www.newyorker.com/online/blog...s-schumer.html
I am sure many here will have things to say about the column, but I doubt anyone will top the beat-downs already administered by:
Aaron Naparstek (a blogger I'd never heard of before):
https://naparstek.com/2011/03/bike-la...akes-no-sense/
and of course Bike Snob NYC (scroll down):
https://bikesnobnyc.blogspot.com/2011...wn-memory.html
Cassidy at one point lists the cars he has owned since the 80s and BSNYC notes:
"...that is one of the most embarrassing successions of automobiles I've ever seen. He should leave the New Yorker and start a magazine called Car and Doofus. An Oldsmobile? Two Cadillacs?!? Did I miss some mid-1990s "Florida retiree chic" trend while I was off at college?" Ouch!
And the commenters to the article itself. I think I saw one out of maybe fifty that agreed with Cassidy.
Enjoy!
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I never think I have hit hard, unless it rebounds.
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I never think I have hit hard, unless it rebounds.
- Dr Samuel Johnson
Last edited by Chicago Al; 03-09-11 at 03:53 PM.
03-09-11, 02:51 PM
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And then there was that piece written a couple weeks ago that completely debunked the arguments of the anti-bike lane crowd. It had a handy dandy pie chart showing that in the last four years, less than half a percent - that's < 0.5% of New york streets have been changed as a result of not just new bike lane infrastructure, but infrastructure for pedestrians as well. Anyone have the link to that? I can't find it even though I thought I saw it originally on BSNYC.
03-09-11, 03:09 PM
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He lives in Brooklyn and is whining about not being able to find a parking space in Manhattan for his periodic night out on the town. This is too laughable.
03-09-11, 03:34 PM
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Here's a little semantic take-down of the article courtesy of Felix Salmon https://blogs.reuters.com/felix-salmo...idy-vs-bipeds/
Yes, you read that right: the New York populace, it seems, is basically comprised of cars, to the point at which bipeds are “a small faddist minority”.
Now it so happens that I’ve met Mr Cassidy a few times and he’s always looked perfectly bipedal to me. And for all that he enjoys parking his Jaguar XJ6 on Manhattan streets — he’s just written 1,250 words on the subject, after all — I’m quite sure that he always gets out and saunters happily among the other New York pedestrians as he makes his way to his dinner in the West Village.
It can hardly have escaped Cassidy’s notice, on his regular peregrinations from car to restaurant and back, that New York’s streets are positively bustling with bipedal life. There’s good reason for this: New York is a very dense city, in which 8 million or so bipeds — birds not included — cram themselves into a rather small area.
I view the Bloomberg bike-lane policy as a classic case of regulatory capture by a small faddist minority intent on foisting its bipedalist views on a disinterested or actively reluctant populace.
Now it so happens that I’ve met Mr Cassidy a few times and he’s always looked perfectly bipedal to me. And for all that he enjoys parking his Jaguar XJ6 on Manhattan streets — he’s just written 1,250 words on the subject, after all — I’m quite sure that he always gets out and saunters happily among the other New York pedestrians as he makes his way to his dinner in the West Village.
It can hardly have escaped Cassidy’s notice, on his regular peregrinations from car to restaurant and back, that New York’s streets are positively bustling with bipedal life. There’s good reason for this: New York is a very dense city, in which 8 million or so bipeds — birds not included — cram themselves into a rather small area.
03-09-11, 06:04 PM
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Cassidy is truly an idiot; he spends one brief paragraph trying to convince the readership that he's not a knee-jerk anti-cyclist by talking about "the old days", when he hipstered his way around NYC, a-tremble from the adrenaline/fear rush. Then, in more 'reasoned' tones, he spends at least twice that space in describing his 'liberation' from that folly into car-centric maturity, listing his menagerie of four-wheeled foolishness as if they were up for Oscars.
Sure -- I'm stupid, I'll believe it -- bike lanes and "the bike lobby" (WTF?) are the sole thieves of the precious and essential evening parking spaces he covets so deeply, so he can dine pretentiously among others of his ilk.
"Bipedalism" -- his invention is that is of a movement, a grass-roots, civilly disobedient cult of pedalers with the agenda of banishing the motor vehicle from NYC. (I personally thought "bipedalism" was a reference to a medical condition that relegated one to two legs instead of more.) **j/k**
So, he's solvent enough to drive a private auto between boroughs and dine pretentiously; does the combination of that and the educational content of his past (that allows him to make literary alliterations to the current stage players in city gov't) make him... intelligent?
If he was truly INTELLIGENT, he wouldn't need to follow up to 'clarify' to his PWNERS, or to be published in the New Yorker to start with.
Sure -- I'm stupid, I'll believe it -- bike lanes and "the bike lobby" (WTF?) are the sole thieves of the precious and essential evening parking spaces he covets so deeply, so he can dine pretentiously among others of his ilk.
"Bipedalism" -- his invention is that is of a movement, a grass-roots, civilly disobedient cult of pedalers with the agenda of banishing the motor vehicle from NYC. (I personally thought "bipedalism" was a reference to a medical condition that relegated one to two legs instead of more.) **j/k**
So, he's solvent enough to drive a private auto between boroughs and dine pretentiously; does the combination of that and the educational content of his past (that allows him to make literary alliterations to the current stage players in city gov't) make him... intelligent?
If he was truly INTELLIGENT, he wouldn't need to follow up to 'clarify' to his PWNERS, or to be published in the New Yorker to start with.
03-09-11, 06:54 PM
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03-09-11, 07:16 PM
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Another Response from the NY Times that deconstructs and refutes Cassidy's argument point by point
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