Of the last three bicycle deaths in New York, two were caused by cyclists running red lights. So naturally the City Council recently granted them yet another road privilege.
Starting in November, cyclists can ignore traffic lights at some 3,500 intersections. Instead, they will get to take advantage of the few seconds head-start pedestrians enjoy thanks to Leading Pedestrian Intervals. This is meant to give bicycles greater “visibility,” but in practice it means the delayed signal meant to protect pedestrians against turning cars is now a green light for cyclists to block our path in the crosswalks.
The city also plans to splurge another $58.4 million on more bike lanes. But nobody — not Mayor Bill de Blasio, not council Speaker Corey Johnson and not Transportation Alternatives, the bicycle-advocacy group that curiously holds dominion over our streets — is calling for mandatory training or demanding adherence to traffic laws.
Both moves are all too symptomatic of city politicians’ infatuation with the bicycle ideology and the elite interests that promote it — as well as their corresponding indifference to pedestrians.
A street vendor needs a license to stand motionless on a sidewalk and a 7-11 employee gets 40 hours of training before he can sling a Slurpee, but any miscreant with feet can hop on a bike and anonymously break the sound barrier on Delancey Street without so much as a name tag.
You’d think a bicycle advocacy group would be the most vociferous proponent of cyclist safety, but you’d be wrong. Transportation Alternatives’ primary goal is to “break the car culture,” and accidents involving bicycles can only boost the outcry for more bike lanes and fewer automobiles.
The bike lobby’s utter silence on education and accountability is a cruel betrayal of all law-abiding, safety-conscious bicyclists — and undeniable evidence of its reckless ideological zeal.
The claim that the inclusion of bicycles makes everyone safer is a calculated misrepresentation of the truth. The exclusion of automobiles would certainly make everyone safer, but that’s as impractical as it is unlikely and unwanted.
Adding bikes doesn’t guarantee a reduction in vehicular traffic; it simply exacerbates the existing danger by introducing an erratic, barely perceptible second threat, which, when coupled with cyclists’ refusal to obey laws, results in the disorder we are witnessing today.
I don’t own a car. Never have. But 45% of households in the Big Apple do, and it’s not a crime. New Yorkers deserve the freedom to load up a vehicle and head for the hills with their families. Our city was still a part of America the last time I checked. And when it comes to parking spaces, any unbiased calculus must conclude that the needs of millions of car owners take precedence over the unpopular hobby of a few hundred thousand gentry elites.
Not only are bikes rendered impractical in bad weather, for many people, including the elderly, disabled and anyone who doesn’t want to show up at work smelling like an anchovy’s armpit, they aren’t a viable alternative to automobiles or public transportation.
But let’s say the bike advocates got all of their wishes, and we eliminated private cars and relegated the bulk of commercial traffic to the outskirts of the city so that mostly buses, emergency vehicles and bikes were using the streets.
We would still be left with the lawless cyclists, only now they would be completely undeterred by vehicular threats and even less motivated to follow rules in the interest of self-preservation.
This may sound far-fetched, but it’s precisely what bike advocates are trying to do on 14th Street now. Under the pretext of improving bus service, the city has proposed turning one of our major thoroughfares into a “PeopleWay,” where only buses, trucks, emergency vehicles and, of course, bikes would be permitted between Third and Ninth avenues.
Thankfully, outraged local residents filed a suit, and the state Supreme Court has wisely delayed the move until a sufficient environmental review can be completed.
This small victory could be a bellwether for pedestrian rights. The bike lobby has the funds and the ideological backing of elites, but we’ve got the numbers — so how have we become the red-headed stepchildren of our streetscape, and why are our concerns routinely ignored by those we elect?
Gary Taustine is a writer in New York City.