But the way to get NYC streets safer for cyclists is TO RIDE, and the way to tame automobile madness is for cyclists to overcome their fear of mere honking and assertively take up space, where motorists can very clearly see them. They'll honk, but they'll slow down, and that's safer for us, them, and everyone else.

Plenty of people here will disagree with me on this, but I'm afraid one of the reasons the cycling community lost Mr. Smith is the fact that the space set aside for cyclists where Mr. Smith was killed is pushed off to the side, and usually visually obstructed.

We have at least *three* bike stair rails in New York City (two on the Triborough Bridge one on the E 82nd St. Greenway Pedestrian overpass). So there!

Jealousy aside, though, this is a wonderful slide show that demonstrates the infrastructure and design elements that make, and reflect, a cycling-friendly city. It is so frustrating to sit through a local community board meeting where supposed "representatives" of the community will spend endless hours arguing over the disposition of three parking sports for cars, while complaining bitterly that the city is investing too much in infrastructure benefitting the minority who bicycle. But as long as cyclists are in the minority here, that will be the most potent argument against the modest investments that apparently have made Odense, Freiburg, Stockhom and Vienna, such cycling-friendly cities.

Hopefully cyclists in New York City can break out of our chicken-and-egg status as minority road users undeserving of targetted investment in infrastructure (a DoT which is for the moment sympathetic doesn't hurt, either). Let's do it this year!

Here are some ideas for you: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4GwyXGtdNw#GU5U2spHI_4

We also need programs/incentives that promote cycling over using an automobile.

BTW, the idea of a die in was floated way up among the first comments. however, how many of you attended the one that took place yesterday? maybe 1 or 2 of you, but the rest? yeah, that is what i thought....tooooo busy.... had to work.... blah blah blah - i guess as long as the excuse isn't "i was doored and killed."

making these deaths visible through public installations and rides, and creating solidarity among cyclists (and pedestrians) around these issues, has been helpful both for creating public dialogue about street safety and in the healing process for individual mourners. charlie komanoff described it more elegantly than i can in his "in defense of ghost bikes" article on this site.

you can talk all you want about memorial rides not being radical enough, but these are powerful events for everyone that attends or witnesses them and they are drawing attention to the problems on the street in a way that is respectful to those most intimately affected by the violence of these crashes. what kind of direct action are you calling for, and what greater effect do you expect it to have?

i agree that we do need all kinds of ways to recognize these crashes. but i'd like to hear new, insightful ideas rather than vague criticism of a project that has been bringing people together around these issues for years.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/43954081@N00/sets/72157603452446051/

Time's Up! will do an action to commemorate the death of 63-year-old cyclist, David Smith, one week ago and call attention to the unsafe conditions in the 6th Avenue bike lane.

For more details on the action, go to times-up.org

The quote is taken from an article at thegothamist.com about another rider, Ng, who was killed by a drunk driver who mistook a separated bike lane for a road.

"Ng's death prompted discussion of installing concrete and steel bollards on the bike path, instead of plastic pylons, to prevent further tragedy. And his friends and others saddened by his death (Ng was an NYU graduate and public school teacher) held a memorial ride and created a ghost bike for him: Eliot at Visual Resistance wrote, "When we create ghost bikes, or go on memorial rides, we tap into the hurt of this world and choose to honor that stranger we know could be our friend, our sister, ourself. We choose to remember, even if we never knew. That empathy is a holy rebellion. That choice makes us whole."

Again, my point is not to denigrate the importance of memorializing, but rather to ask, if we are to *demand* rather than ask for change, what else must be done?

Everytime a cyclist dies somewhere in this city there is some sort of media event and response--a press conference, a ride to city hall, a memorial ride, a ghost bike....but at what point do these institutionally-sanctioned gestures simply play into a repeating cycle of death-victimization-uproar rather than acting as a catalyst for real change? In other contexts, Arundhati Roy writes about "officially sanctioned protests" and "media events" and I wonder if it isn't time for us to brainstorm and begin to think more creatively....

I don't mean to downplay the significance of memorial rides, etc., but I do want to see more discussion of what these and other ways of "petitioning" accomplish....

Please bring flowers and candles. More info at http://www.ghostbikes.org and info@ghostbikes.org.

There have been 23 cyclist deaths thus far this year. The annual Memorial Ride for cyclists killed in 2007 will be held January 6, 2008.

Bike lanes are almost more dangerous than regular streets. They create a false sense of security and all the double-parking causes a much higher amount of "merging" with speeding traffic. Make no mistake, it's no-man's-land out there on the streets.

Of course more civilized countries have discovered the magic of separated bike lanes. Just swap the placement of parked cars and bike lanes and poof, it's suddenly safe for everybody. Rocket science, I swear.

All this rage and discussion about bike lanes is useless until there is less cars on the street.

The bike lanes are only as good as they can be with the rampant proliferation of cars and trucks on the street.

Nothing will change until congestion charging takes effect.

As long as drivers are so a huge majority, they will hold onto the mentality that they are superior.