Originally Posted by
punkinevil
All that being said, I am not sure why so many city cyclists find it so diffecult to ride one Avenue or Street over so they can travel with traffic. It adds 30 to 60 seconds to their trip. Again sorry for the rant.
I sort of understand why people in NYC might ride avenues the wrong way sometimes. The separation between avenues is pretty large, so if going say 2-3 blocks from 5th and 8th street to 5th and 10th street, going around by way of 5th avenue can triple the trip distance.
IMO the right solution is simply to walk the 2 blocks on the sidewalk, but people will do what they do. One of the nicest things about a bicycle in NYC is that we can hop on the sidewalk and walk the last 1/2 block, or slightly farther rather than going around to follow the one ways.
BTW- the best argument against salmoning in NYC isn't th law, or auto traffic. It's pedestrians. New Yorkers wait to cross at the car line (door land) not the curb, and when crossing one ways (including against the light) look upstream. Salmoning cyclists are therefore very prone to having pedestrians step out in front of them.