Northeast - How cool would this be into NYC?

The first two "Cycle Superhighways" open in London this year:

http://www.tfl.gov.uk/roadusers/cycling/11901.aspx

Hmm. At FIRST glance, it looks like just a fancy schmancy British way of describing bike lanes in the outer boros. I might eat my words after looking at the video, though....

Except that it's radial to a central city hub, bike-only, and separate from the cars.

I hope they don't screw it up and US cities start to follow suit.

Leaps and bounds forward of any U.S city plans.

It would be very cool for NYC, but as far as I can tell they'd sooner pave over the East River than do something like this.

Also not a bad idea. I mean, it's just sitting there.

It is the future but it will be a long struggle.

Gas is more than a pound/litre in the UK, a road tax based on engine displacement, and there's congestion charge for driving in downtown London. If NYC had the tax revenues like that, they could build bike highways, bike parking lots, etc. Or they could blow it on schools and crap.

Went to pick up my car this morning for a shopping trip and noticed the garage had a new sign (though not installed yet) for Bicycle Parking. $9.?? per 24 hours, or $175 per month. I asked the manager and he said that the city wanted them to start doing it, though he wasn't sure how they were going to handle it. I wonder if the city will attach its hefty 18% tax to bicycle parking as well as cars.

The Greenway in Brooklyn is sort of like that. Some people do use it.

Went to pick up my car this morning for a shopping trip and noticed the garage had a new sign (though not installed yet) for Bicycle Parking. $9.?? per 24 hours, or $175 per month. I asked the manager and he said that the city wanted them to start doing it, though he wasn't sure how they were going to handle it. I wonder if the city will attach its hefty 18% tax to bicycle parking as well as cars.

Technically, it's a motor vehicle tax so bicycles are exempt. Of course its not known how many garages are aware of that.

Technically, it's a motor vehicle tax so bicycles are exempt. Of course its not known how many garages are aware of that.

It's also not known how many garages are betting their customers aren't aware of that.

Recent disucssion on Streetsblog - How Much Would You Pay to Park Your Bike in an NYC Garage? (http://www.streetsblog.org/2009/12/18/how-much-would-you-pay-to-park-your-bike-in-an-nyc-garage/) where the garage under discussion is charging $5/day or $84.48/month (plus tax)

$9/day, with or without tax, really sounds excessive. Hard to imagine anyone willing to pay more than the cost of a round trip subway ride. For that kind of money it should come with a shower, a locker, and maybe a bike wash.

As I was dozing off the other night I was thinking about what it must be like to bike for exercise while living in London, then I noticed this post. Kind of funny.

I also found London's version of the Central Park loop (except better, it seems): http://www.richmondparklondon.co.uk/cycling/roadcycling/

I often think we have it really good in NYC when it comes to cycling, but that is only in comparison with other major cities in the US :(

I'm curious to see how this will pan out in London. When I was there in 2004 I rode around the city and found it a bit more precarious than NYC partly because I wasn't as familiar with the area and also because motorists there seemed a bit more impatient sharing the road than here. Richmond Park was fun to ride through and most of the main avenues are ok during the non rush hour times, but I'm sure that's true in every major city.

I wonder if Amsterdam charges $175+ for all these bikes, that lot must be rich as hell.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c3/Bicycle_parking_lot.jpg