Comments on: Electeds, Local Media Wage War on Staten Island Cyclists

By: Rob Foran

Rob Foran — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 17:46:18 +0000

A comment on crin’s post….if the cars stayed in the car lane (as they are legally supposed to) the cyclist wouldn’t have held up a single car.

Isn’t that correct?

I don’t know if you’re from SI, but lots of people here, including some local politicians and the local papers editorial staff, think drivers cannot be expected to obey the law, and should be allowed to break without getting so much as a summons for doing so. I don’t agree with that.

By: crin

crin — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 20:24:49 +0000

Sounds like the cyclist was a douchebag too. By his own admission when the light turned green he just sat there rather than move along.

By: Josh

Josh — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 13:09:58 +0000

It’s a shame, because SI has some nice hills and roadways, particularly along the Greenbelt. And pretty soon there’ll be the Fresh Kills Recreation Area, which’ll be a multi-use park for bicycling, kayaking, and hiking — with majestic views of the harbor and Manhattan skyline. I think a few of DoT’s protected bike lanes, used with success in Manhattan and Brooklyn (though with your usually auto-biased complaints), will ease things a bit. SI is a lovely place to bike were it not for the drivers — mostly young and entitled — who seem to enjoy running everything off the road.

By: Barb

Barb — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 12:31:54 +0000

Sorry the above link doesn’t work. If ya wanna read it, I reckon ya gotta go to the NYTimes website and search for the title. I apologize for the inconvenience.

By: Barb

Barb — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 12:08:41 +0000

Similar situation across the narrows, “New Bike Lanes Touch Off Row in Brooklyn”

http://tinyurl.com/l8fzve

By: Rob Foran

Rob Foran — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 12:04:47 +0000

Similar hijinks are going on in Brooklyn…

“New Bike Lanes Touch Off Row in Brooklyn”

http://tinyurl.com/l8fzve

By: Ian Dutton

Ian Dutton — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 02:47:07 +0000

Can we give SI to NJ where it rightfully belongs? NJ sued to “own” Liberty Island; surely they have at least as much claim over SI!! Let’s save the state some legal fees and donate SI to NJ.

PS – Dear NJ, the bill for operating the ferry is in the mail.

By: mcsladek

mcsladek — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 01:27:19 +0000

It’s unfortunate that it takes an assault to get some reinforcement of cyclists’ rights in SI. Notice how no one is surprised by the fact that this occurred, or how the Advance editorials skew facts and twist the language of the law to suit the impatient driver.

Situations such as these are the reason that Staten needs even more help from transportation advocacy groups, rather than the occasional photo-op or summer event, as well as a stronger organization of constituents to stand up to politicians who represent interests that threaten our safety. This is an opportunity. Active dialogue between motorists and cyclists must occur not only before we can achieve infrastructural compromise, but also so those from the windshield perspective can understand our point of view. And they can’t if they’re too afraid to set foot outside of their cars.

P.S. Is Molinaro getting a bit soft? ‘”We have more bike lanes than we have traffic lanes,”‘ indeed! Preposterous!

By: IsaacB

IsaacB — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 23:46:51 +0000

Oddo is the guy who tried to float a curfew a few years back.

By: Paul

Paul — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 22:15:35 +0000

No room for cars. Sorry folks…cars in the city are dinosaurs. Dinosaurs will die.

By: glenn

glenn — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 21:53:41 +0000

I grew up on SI. Walked to PS 45, biked uphill to IS 61 (bike parking in friend’s garage) and took the bus to Curtis HS. You can totally get by in St. George and much of the North Shore with very limited use of a car.

Staten Island is a clear example of too much dense development (yup, it is dense and in many, many areas mixed use too) without adequate transportation planning. Staten Island went from 40k residents or so after WW2 to 200k after the Verranzano bridge and nearly 500k now. And they have mostly the same road infrastructure (there’s really no room to build anymore because of the density) as they did before the bridge and lost the North Shore Rail Road to boot. It can easily be retrofitted to much less car usage. Restore the North Shore Rail, Connect it to Bayonne’s light rail on the Bayonne Bridge, allow dollar vans, and rezone some areas from residential-only to mixed use.

But most of this will never happen until oil hits $500/barrel. I moved out as soon as I could and never regretted it.

By: Shemp

Shemp — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 21:27:40 +0000

Is there a chance that rising sea levels will submerge S.I. before the rest of NYC?

By: Streetsman

Streetsman — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 21:01:35 +0000

Doug, imagine the vehicle was blocking a bikeway and then change it to this:

“The cyclist, who was arrested and charged with assault and harassment, insists he merely tried to push the car off the bikeway after the driver had gotten out of it.”

Imagine that phrase appearing in a paper. Definitely shows you how far towards auto dominance of the roads that the Advance is leaning.

By: Matt

Matt — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 20:08:15 +0000

We should just cut this island morass of stupidity out of NYC once and for all.

By: Doug

Doug — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 20:02:57 +0000

Anytime you see someone excusing car-on-bike violence, change some verbs and nouns around and ask yourself if editorial writers and politicians would still excuse it. Change this:

“The motorist, who was arrested and charged with assault and harassment, insists he merely tried to pull the bicycle off the street after the bicyclist had gotten off it.”

Into this:

“The motorist, who was arrested and charged with assault and harassment, insists he merely tried to push the car off the street after the driver had gotten out of it.”

No editorial writer in his right mind would excuse driver-on-driver violence or allow for a world where a driver could be excused for taking matters into his own hands because another driver was blocking a lane.

But cyclists are asking for it. Right.

By: rlb

rlb — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 20:00:49 +0000

“Perhaps a cyclist-induced temporary insanity defense is in order.”

My experiences lead me to believe that driving induces insanity in many people. Probably to a point where it could be defensible in court, and city planners should ultimately be held reponsible for promoting insanity inducing behavior.

By: Jonathan

Jonathan — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 19:42:06 +0000

What a great juxtaposition! Yesterday was the day to discuss living without a car in suburbia, and today is the day to discuss cycling conditions in New York City's most suburban borough. Staten Islanders are probably the most prototypical suburbanites living in New York, and I can easily visualize the SI Advance editorial board mouthing all the counter-carfree arguments cited in yesterday's post.

By: Gob

Gob — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 19:35:59 +0000

I heard the jury’s still out on “science”.

By: BeyondDC

BeyondDC — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 19:34:12 +0000

“We shouldn’t make cycling safer because not very many people ride bikes since it’s so unsafe”

That logic is indisputable. I’m going to go buy a car.

By: JSD

JSD — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 19:31:45 +0000

In addition, might I add that after typing “I am at a loss for words”, I proceeded to write four paragraphs.