NYC DOT letter

[dmac49]

In a recent letter to the editor on 01/23/2008 the NYC DOT stated some recent innovative upgrades for bicyclists in NYC. My question is: Is to the validity of the letters facts. Does anyone have more on this. I hope I've put this in the correct forum. I would rather not suffer that wrath .
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/23/opinion/lweb23bikes.html

[jonTu]

Yeah, it's valid-- the bike boxes and new bike lanes are really there, if that is what you're asking.

If you want to read more, the NYC DOT Bike Safety site is here:
http://nyc.gov/html/dot/html/bicyclists/bikemain.shtml

[Bicure]

That Ninth Avenue Bike Lane is like 3 (or is it 4?) blocks of heaven!

These articles make things sound WAAAY better than they really are, but it's a start.

The journey of a thousand miles & all that...

The Eighth Avenue BL is a dangerous joke & just a parking lane, but those few blocks on Ninth are constructed so that even with cars/trucks parked in them (you wouldn't expect motorists to obey the law just to prevent us death/injury, wouldja???), cyclists can STILL safely pass within them!

It's an arsewhole-proof bike lane, aka a little bit of heaven on earth!

[dmac49]

Bicure that's what I was looking for. As usual the city likes to do a lot of puffing. How great and wonderful they are. It still has a long way to go. It is a start and as any thing there must always be a start point.

[jonTu]

The real problem in NYC as I see it isn't infrastructure nearly as much as enforcement. The DOT master plan for making the city more bike-friendly is an awesome start and might accomplish a lot in a city with a good base-level of traffic law enforcement, but the level of traffic enforcement the NYPD keeps up is absolutely pathetic. All it takes is one illegal move on the part of a driver to scuttle even the best cyclist-protection scheme, like the cars parked on 8th Avenue that Bicure mentions (or a more extreme example: Eric Ng getting killed by a drunk driver on a car-free bike path). The bike lanes and boxes are great to see but I'd happily trade them for DUI checkpoints on Friday and Saturday nights.

I guess I should be excited to see the city government at least considering protecting cyclists, but I just don't see how you can accomplish much by painting lines on the road in a city where it's considered completely acceptable to drive like an absolute maniac. I mean, damn, the things I've seen drivers do in this town, and get away with...

[buzzman]

Having lived on and off in NYC over the past 20 years it was a delight to come back to the city this summer and take advantage of the infrastructure improvements that have made the city so much more manageable on a bike.

It was terrific to come out of a show one night and watch half the cast roll their bikes out onto the streets and ride off into the night. Years ago friends would look at me like a madman that I would ride everywhere in the city- now those same people are avid transportational cyclists.

I agree with those who think traffic enforcement in the city still stands room for lots of improvement but even that is better than the pure chaos of a decade or two ago and the total and complete dominance of the landscape by private autos and cabs.

It's also impressive to see the NYC DOT boastful and defensive about it's advances in accommodating cyclists. Years ago they could have cared less.

[jonTu]

HaYears ago friends would look at me like a madman that I would ride everywhere in the city- now those same people are avid transportational cyclists.

That's a really good point, and you're definitely right. Even when I moved here 10 years ago people thought I was nuts to ride everywhere, and my only friends who did the same were messengers. That's definitely not the case any more.

Not to demean the great changes NYC DOT has made under Bloomberg, it just really kills me that the NYPD doesn't seem to be on board with this at all. There has been (or at least is starting to be) a real change in how people use the road-- a change now backed up by official city policy, no less-- but NYPD traffic enforcement has yet to change in any visible way. I'm a strong believer that you can't underestimate the role traffic enforcement plays in any attempt to mediate road use between cars and bikes, and NYC's efforts could jump ahead immeasurably if they brought the power of their gigantic and super-professional police force to bear.