Additional to Friday’s put up, right here’s extra from Streetsblog on the current moped motorbike crash on the Manhattan Bride bike path:
It’s an honest report, and it’s price studying (in case you can abdomen it) because it reveals the place New York Metropolis’s bicycle infrastructure is at the moment headed–although it’s Streetsblog, so there’s nonetheless the compulsory excuse-making for the supply employees and gratuitous reminder that automobiles are worse:
At this level it’s in all probability each unfair and pointless to focus completely on supply riders since all types of individuals are actually utilizing high-speed motorized contraptions within the bike lane, not simply supply folks. Finally if the bike lanes are to stay secure for folks on regular bikes it’ll require enforcement, which is an issue, since any relationship which will ever have existed between advocacy and the NYPD is totally damaged. Clearly advocates’ deep frustration with the NYPD is justified in some ways, however on the identical time they’re now just like the buyer who can by no means return to the native Starbucks as a result of they threw an iced Frappucino within the barista’s face. Mockingly, their solely hope could also be that the law-and-order set additionally hates unlawful motor scooters:
Right here’s the context for the “collector automobile,” by the way in which.
After all every group hates unlawful motor scooters in its personal inimitable self-serving fashion (“It makes it scary to trip my bicycle!” “Third world-style crime!”), however it’s uncommon that one thing bothers the householders of Park Slope and Whitestone equally, so it may very well be that the town could have no selection however to do one thing–and by that I imply really do one thing, not simply declare a “local weather emergency:”
I do know at the least a few of you’ll find my pointing the next out to be irksome, however excessive warmth in July in New York Metropolis is commonly a direct results of it being July in New York Metropolis, when you’ll be able to traditionally depend on it being what meteorologists name “sizzling as balls:”
Talking of advocates and the NYPD, that is about as shut as they arrive to a dialogue:
My guess is that they tagged Streetsblog because it’s about not crashing your automobile into folks and issues and their beat is automobiles crashing into folks and issues, although it may be as a result of that is one other topic advocates not often deal with that nonetheless needs to be addressed. Just like the motor scooters, stoned driving has grow to be shockingly pervasive in New York Metropolis, and I stay irritated that few folks even wish to think about it when discussing why the streets maintain getting extra harmful. As an alternative, the present vogue is in charge big-ass automobiles:
I believe driving big-ass automobiles within the metropolis is dumb, they usually positive ain’t serving to something, however over the previous 20 years the most important change I’ve seen by far just isn’t the automobiles folks drive–it’s the way in which they drive them and the smells that come out of them. There’s kind of a “new recklessness” on the market, and whereas I don’t low cost my rising age and concomitant fuddy-duddyness I can’t assist considering loads of it’s simply telephones and weed. In case your financial institution saved making errors along with your cash and it began smelled strongly of weed in there you’d in all probability at the least query their claims that it was on account of a brand new laptop system. But relating to “sharing” the street with drivers we’re not supposed to fret about the way it actually reeks of weed when you’re driving by means of site visitors now, as an alternative it’s as a result of the RAV4 has grow to be extra standard than the Camry.
Anyway, it’s not trendy to have a look at hashish as something aside from a panacea, so I’m positive we’ll maintain blaming the automobiles. As for the motor scooters, I count on a helmet giveaway any day now. As a result of helmets repair every little thing.
