The only way the cyclist would have been inconveniencing drivers by waiting at the light would be if the drivers were already in the bike lane behind the cyclist and waiting to make their right turns. If they were still in their own lane then they could have just passed him and then turned right. Unless the cyclist was stopped in a way as to suggest that he might pull away at any second, and then I would agree that he was being a dick.

Now, you don’t have a right to assault someone for being a dick, of course, but let’s tell it like it is.

That’s what I do. Not sure how the drivers would respond on Staten Island.

Maybe. But would drivers at the roundabouts stop for pedestrians trying to get to the beach?

My sense of this incident is that we are dealing with two people who both were wrong in different degrees. It seems the cyclist was being deliberately rude and uncivil. Yes he was honked at, smile and move on. Don’t stand in the bike lane for additional lights to cycle through. That is just being deliberately obnoxious. It was not the time or place for a confrontation. A driver waiting to make a right hand turn is not inherently evil. I would have had more empathy for him if there had been a confrontation because the cars making the right hand turns were blocking his progress in the bike lane. We all have been honked at. Better to be honked at than run over. However, when the light turned, he should have moved on. If he wanted to make a point, hesitate a second or two, but don’t stay in the lane for multiple light cycles. That just gives all bicyclists a bad name as discourteous.

All that said, none of it excuses the motorist, who regardless of whether there was an actual physical attack is 100% wrong in terms of getting out of a car and escalating a needless confrontation.

On the other hand, most drivers have no idea how terrifyingly close they come to other users of the street and should step out of their car every once and a while.

The problem with this street is that it was designed by Robert Moses. It is too empty, too wide, and too straight, so people speed- but the lights are green for only a short time, and it is very frustrating for a driver to break hard. And there’s no green wave except in the peak direction at rush hour, so there’s no chance to coast at speed limit the way one can do on Manhattan’s one-way avenues. It doesn’t pay to go slow. So of course drivers are raging mad by the time they get to their turn-off.

I think the fix for driver aggression on Father Capodanno is replacing the lights with roundabouts. There’s lots of space for them. Or at the very least, retime the lights for longer greens and turn on night mode (blinking yellow/red) at night when the area is absolutely dead.

The confrontation started after DeRespino, who was riding in the bicycle-only lane, stopped at a red light, preventing several cars lined up behind him from making a right turn.

How could DeRespino, who was in the bike lane, have been “preventing several cars lined up behind him from making a right turn?” More like a car that was at the light, intending to continue straight ahead rather than turn right, was preventing the cars behind it from making a right turn.

And the law is pretty clear. A driver can turn through a bike lane, not line up in one to eventually make a turn. Shouldn’t knowledge of the rules of the road be a prerequisite for obtaining a driver’s license?

And instead of going when the light turned green, “I stayed there an extra turn of the light because I was frustrated and fuming… I was trying to calm myself and have a drink on a hot day.”

Look, I understand this impulse. I sometimes want to send a message to obnoxious motorists. But I would really like it if the cycling community could get off it’s high horse and quit doing sanctimonious crap like this. Riding a bike is not always a political statement and being right on the merits doesn’t give you a license to be a jerk. Obviously the other party in this confrontation is an unhinged loon and is 100% at fault, however the fact that he’s insane should also serve as a reminder that people who are willing to get furiously upset about traffic are not people with whom common ground is going to be found during a red light discussion of transportation policy. I would say that unless someone puts your life at risk with their behavior it’s probably best to let it slide. Advocating for broad based changes to street design and land use policy is going to result in much better streets for everyone. Getting into arguments at the light with d-bag motorists is just going to get everyone riled up.

Mr. McGinn, who favors replacing the viaduct with a less expensive surface-level boulevard and expanded transit services, has won support from both fiscal conservatives and environmentalists.

So any reason to continue pretending that a tunnel is the best replacement for the Gowanus?

“When traffic is backed up at the light, motorists commonly move into the bike lane to make the right turn on red. A sign at the intersection permits a right turn after stopping at the red light, but traffic law prohibits cars from using or obstructing the bike lane. As DeRespino tells it, he was stopped at the light, and that enraged a number of rush-hour drivers. “

But it may not be because he is a bicyclist. While driving I’ve gotten the horn many times for not hitting the gas right when the light changes, and running over a pedestrian still trying to get across in the crosswalk.

For those of you who don’t know it, Fr. Cappodino is a fine boulevard that runs along the water. When I’m driving back to Brooklyn from points south and am worried the Staten Island Expressway is backed up, I come home via Hylan and then Fr. Cappodino. It’s a pleasant ride, and there seems to be plenty of room. But then again, I don’t drive at rush hour, and I’m not in a big hurry.