ahsposo 

Saw this on Bike Snob NYC and thought I might share it.

HigherGround

I saw that through facebook. My comment was that although Rodney King wasn't one of the greatest minds of the 20th century, I'm consistently reminded of his question, "Can't we all just get along?"

Bobsled

That intersection is a gold mine as far as issuing traffic citations goes. Which raises a good question, where are all the cops??

kimconyc

This is what happens when you stick 1.5Million+ people on a small island--greatest reality show ever, but its not a show, it's real. It's even better when half the people are just visitors.

That video is nothing; they should post a video of Central Park or the Brooklyn Bridge on a nice summer day.

kimconyc

That's not going to cause congestion. It seems like chaos but there is order in all the madness.

The point is, how many accidents occurred in the video?

azshtr

I would rather have that than need to stop at every silly side street stop sign on my rides in Scottsdale... It's all good, no harm no foul

tagaproject6

Awesome dodge game!

Essex

I ride the streets of midtown frequently and try to obey the prevailing law. That said - being smart about what you are doing is important in getting around the streets of Manhattan because if you acted as if you are driving a car you would get absolutely nowhere. I dare say you would get the same phenomenon in cities like Mumbai, Hyderabad etc.

patentcad

What's the problem?

Velo Vol 

As if we needed video evidence that New York is dumb.

Inertianinja

that looks like park ave in midtown. yea, it's like that everywhere in NYC. everyone's on their own path, everyone's cutting corners. there's no sense of need to collectively act in a safe manner on the streets.

there's a lot of NYC culture that i like being a part of. we live in tiny apartments, we race in the park, we walk faster than some people run, we all dress up and pretend that we're not going for a "look," etc.

but this is one thing that i won't wear as a badge of honor. it's crap and it makes things unnecessarily dangerous for everyone.

for example - people completely ignore "don't walk" signals. if there's a break in traffic, however brief, people cross...slowly...as if daring a car or bike to hit them. one particularly bad intersection is at 77th and Lex - i've literally had to stop because i became surrounded by about 200 jaywalking pedestrians crossing a 4-lane road, even though i had the green.

the cops don't do anything about this. if you told a cop that a cab just passed someone without signaling or did an "aggressive yield" i think they'd die laughing.

ahsposo 

There's no problem. I just thought the Peter Gunn sound track was awesome!

Inertianinja

oh, and i should mention:

to the east of NYC is Long Island, which is all suburban. out there it's even worse, in some ways.

growing up on LI, very few people are cyclists, and i never knew anyone who actually commuted by bike. everyone drives everywhere, even if it's under a mile. bikes are generally regarded as toys for kids - everyone rides mountain bikes or hybrids.
drivers are very aggressive towards cyclists. i've been buzzed out there a million times (sometimes at 70mph plus), and even yelled at...

if you ride in the road, people will honk, slam on the gas to pass you, and yell "get off the road"
if you ride on the sidewalk (obviously ridiculous), people will yell at you to get off the sidewalk.

not awesome.

surgeonstone

Amazing. I can not, for the love of me, imagine cycling in that every day.

Pug

+1: joggers, dog walkers, baby strollers and roadies going 25MPH+, oh boy ! !

aMuerte

meh...most of those "incidents" weren't that egregious. A normal afternoon in midtown manhattan, really. No harm, no foul.

Inertianinja

lol
it really is like that or worse, at every single intersection.
i'd say "you get used to it" but there are times where a half-second distraction has nearly resulted in my death.

imagine needing that kind of concentration, in NYC, in the summer - where you would not believe what women wear.

and re: central park - thats why you have to get there before 7AM.

patentcad

Yeah, and?

It's so bizarre. I've been in and around NY my entire life. Then 20 years ago I go to Seattle and I jaywalk, just like I would in NY City. Think nothing of it. And I immediately notice that crowds of Seattle pedestrians are staring at me like I had just slaughtered a cute bunny on Easter morning. I remember the moment thinking 'you're not on W. 47th Street anymore'. Man, that was one of the odder experiences of my life. Total culture shock. I guess for me and the Seattle natives observing my scofflaw behavior that I thought was normal.

Inertianinja

yea dude, i get that everyone does it, and i do it as well. but you gotta admit that it's not a "good" thing.

when one person jaywalks and there's no car coming, yea that's no problem.

but in NYC when dozens of people stand in the street on both sides, it narrows the lane for cars, endangering everyone. same thing for bikes. In some places, people jaywalk en masse even though there are cars coming, forcing cars to stop in the middle of the intersection.

traffic rules are there to make the road - which is an extremely dangerous place - predictable. breaking traffic rules makes the road less predictable. picture a cab going 40-50mph in the city, as most do. they cannot stop on a dime. when a guy hops into the street, you are asking for split-second reactions from a cab driver. i wouldn't take that bet.

as a driver/cyclist, i'm the one trying to avoid hitting pedestrians. when they jump out in front of me, it makes that substantially harder. not good.

sherpakid

That's my life. You should see it at 4:30am on my way from Brooklyn to a park race or early morning training in Central Park. Add a little less traffic and more drunk people staggering in the street and some folks driving back to Jersey, Queens, Long Island after a night partying at the clubs. Fun times!

It's dangerous enough riding while obeying traffic laws.

monsterkidz

Being born and raised in NYC I have grown pretty immune to the bad driving and bad cycling habits of most NYers. But lately, the amount of wrong way cyclists and delivery guys on E-Bikes (bikes fitted with silent electronic motors) is out of control. Coming up 8th Ave to Central Park is a free for all.

patentcad

I admit nothing.

Seattle is overly damp.

Velo Vol 

I figure some of the crazy stuff is a way to save time, I guess. But what's up with so many cyclists facing traffic? How difficult can it be to cross the road and ride in the right direction?

I don't get it.

Nachoman

Wow. I'm just a country boy from San Diego.

Inertianinja

dude when i grow up i wanna be one of those guys.

i wanna have a cigarette dangling from the corner of my mouth, a blank expression on my face, riding in whatever direction i chose, on whatever terrain i choose, at any time of day or night, never pedaling, never stopping. how very zen.

did you know those bikes are flat-out illegal? i was at a community board meeting on the upper west side, and the cops were like "we know they're illegal, so we watch them to see if they pedal or not." jesus