-
-
Thanks to our sponsors
-
Follow Streetsblog
Recently Posted Jobs
- Senior Technical Associate, 17 hours ago
- Design Intern (Part-Time), 2 days ago
- Campaign Manager, 2 weeks ago
- Policy and Government Affairs Manager, 2 weeks ago
- Field Director, 4 weeks ago
Word On The Street
“Here in Montreal, five years of Bixi has changed the driving habits of even cabbies and bus drivers. And this change in road behavior has demonstrated that there is far greater safety in numbers.”
– qatzelok In response to "Mesmerizing! Citi Bikes Arrive"
-
Calendar
- Sunday, May 26
- Tuesday, May 28
- Thursday, May 30
- Friday, May 31
- Saturday, June 1
-
Recent Comments
Hot Topics
Archived Articles
Categories
Copyright Notice
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Joe R.
Open discussion is fine here and is never blocked by the moderators. Trolling isn’t. When people post garbage about drinking the Kool-Aid and similar loaded comments they’re going to be blocked. If you want to “discuss” things at that level try the comments sections of Yahoo news articles, or maybe the NY Post. Those seem to be rampant with morons posting inflammatory crap and calling each other names like 3rd graders. Most people here are fine with contrary opinions so long as people express themselves like adults. Heaven knows how many times I’ve vehemently disagreed with the majority opinion here, including on the design of the Citibikes and the location of the stations. I just keep my comments civil, and listen to what the other side has to say. If in the end we agree to disagree, that’s fine. More often than not each side might learn something from the other. That’s a give and take discussion.
in response to After Bike-Share Launches and the Dust Settles, Remember the NIMBY Frenzy
Anonymous
Here in Montreal, five years of Bixi has changed the driving habits of even cabbies and bus drivers. And this change in road behavior has demonstrated that there is far greater safety in numbers.
A lot of the new cyclist converts meander carelessly in the middle of streets they don’t realize used to be really dangerous before Bixi arrived.
in response to Mesmerizing! Citi Bikes Arrive
Joe R.
I fail to see why anyone would need a car to shop in a place like Manhattan. This isn’t the suburbs where you’re going to a big box store. Plenty of stores are within easy walking distance. Get a good, strong shopping cart and you’re all set. I easily carry a week’s worth of groceries in mine. As for the kids, why not have someone mind them when you go to the store like lots of other people do?
in response to Mesmerizing! Citi Bikes Arrive
Joe R.
Dictating? No, we’re giving NYers another option to get around. Nobody is being forced to use it. I fail to see why you’re finding a problem where there is none. Your comments show a single-minded lack of imagination.
in response to After Bike-Share Launches and the Dust Settles, Remember the NIMBY Frenzy
Anonymous
In order to be a part of NYC’s new bike program, you need to both pay a fee and be willing to ride around on a bike which promotes Citibank, one of the oligarchic forces which has destroyed new york city and the american democracy, as well as illegally evicted millons of families from their homes. Let us hope that the logos on these propaganda bikes are defaced faster than authorities can replace them.
in response to Mesmerizing! Citi Bikes Arrive
Guest
Why should we want these changes? The City is great as it is. Who are you to dictate to i8 million innocemt NYers what they should want?
in response to After Bike-Share Launches and the Dust Settles, Remember the NIMBY Frenzy
Guest
Hey Mr .$500/hr- They are paying you too much! There is No parallel with the congestiong pricing model
So much for open discussion- the moderator has blocked my comments
in response to After Bike-Share Launches and the Dust Settles, Remember the NIMBY Frenzy
Carsnotcriminals
Try doing that with 3 young kids a a weeks worth of groceries. I like bikes but its as if everyone forgot about young families. Sure taxis are ok when it’s not raining or near a shift change or rush hour but taking mass transit with young kids or riding a bike ranges from the slow/precarious to the impossible. I’m a New Yorker who pays plenty into the system, pays a parking tax, keeps the car off the street, has never retaliated when a self righteous pedestrian has kicked, spit on or slammed my hood. A small percentage of New Yorkers pay the lions share of the taxes, a high percentage of us own cars, why declare war on native car owners?
in response to Mesmerizing! Citi Bikes Arrive
dm10003
Also when will a cop show have an argument between two people for the last one on the dock and one will shoot the other? I’m in a Mel Brooks mood.
in response to Mesmerizing! Citi Bikes Arrive
dm10003
Top 5000? I’m only #6129, dammit!
in response to Mesmerizing! Citi Bikes Arrive
dm10003
Wait till you can start riding to activate your membership, don’t waste member days. LFMF
in response to Mesmerizing! Citi Bikes Arrive
dm10003
New York Post: “CITIBIKE FAIL: TOO HEAVY TO SPEED WITH!” “CITIBIKES NOT BLUE ENOUGH TO MATCH GLEN BECK’S EYES!” “CITIBIKES TOO WELL MADE, AMERICANS LOSE JOBS!”
in response to Mesmerizing! Citi Bikes Arrive
dm10003
This is just lazy thinking.
in response to Mesmerizing! Citi Bikes Arrive
dm10003
What will be the first action movie to show a Brinks truck, Bugatti, or
bulldozer rolling a row of these flat? I’m not talking about Woody Allen
touching one and they all fall over like dominoes. I’m talking video
game extreme. Maybe it’ll be an alien robot tank. Whatever, you KNOW
somebody just put it into their storyboard this weekend. Stuff that looks good is waiting to be ruined for a shock effect.
in response to Mesmerizing! Citi Bikes Arrive
Stacy Walsh Rosenstock
Adorable!
in response to Kids Take Citi Bike for a Stationary Spin
Eric Britton
On Ms. Gelinas who interviewed me at length for this article:
This is a very very bad, disgraceful piece of gutter journalism. It is a disservice to the people of New York.
I am embarrassed concerning the way in which she has entirely warped our hour long telephone interview during which I tried hard to give her a balanced view of city cycling, pubic bikes, and the quality of the experiences of Lyon and Paris with their public bike projects. (Did she mention that in Lyon where the system is just about the size of the one to come on line in NYC, there has been one fatality and that it took five years for that to come about. The cyclist looked the wrong way on entering a poorly designed intersection.)
I should have known better. From the beginning of our interview she kept harping on the bikes will kill line, and as I read her article some weeks later what I can note is that she did not budge a single nanometer from the position that she clearly had decided on before doing any “research”. That’s what she wanted to write and that’s what she did. (There must be a name for this kind of journalism.)
I do not know the “Manhattan Institute”, but if her piece is representative of what they are up to it must be a pretty scary place.
Eric Britton
http://www.worldstreets.org
PS. I think I have now seized her personality. She is the kind of person who
loves to bicker, and will do it endlessly because it allows her to continue to
get public attention for her views. As to that, I can give no better counsel
that “Don’t feed the troll”.
in response to Predictions of Bike-Share Carnage Are a Mirage and a Distraction
Greg
Sigh. It’s now *way* late Friday and still nothing. That’s one more day of mail before I have no chance for opening day. I really am starting to worry now.
in response to Mesmerizing! Citi Bikes Arrive
Henry Torres
This is something that is a life and death situation. Please help pass this law, so we can bring these type of people to justice. This family lost a husband, father son, brother and friend. Please spread the word and unite as a community to put pressure on the law makers to make this happen.
in response to Dante Dominguez Latest Hit-and-Run Victim in Peter Koo's Council District
Joe R.
Guest-do you even have a clue as to the multiple ways bike share could change things in this city? If so, then you’re probably the only one around here who does. A lot of people have talked about how they *think* bike share will fit in, but in the end nobody really knows exactly what will happen. As with all new things, often they end up being useful in ways nobody ever anticipated. Case in point-the Internet. It originally started as a means for academics to share research data. It evolved into a means of empowerment for common people, and also a medium to exchange goods and ideas. It’ll undoubtably evolve even further. Who knows where bike share will take us? I don’t. You don’t. It’ll probably change things in ways we couldn’t even imagine. You’re increasing people’s radius of travel by a factor of three to five compared to what they can cover on foot. And with the continuing evolution of human-powered transport we may eventually increase that by a factor of ten. We’ve talked for decades about PRT (personal rapid transit) systems. None have been built on anything but a small scale due to the logistics and cost and complexity. Maybe we went about it all wrong, and bike share is the PRT system which works on a large scale. Just build some exclusive guideways just for bikes, plus the network of existing roads, and there you have it. Larger systems tend to have complex nuances smaller ones don’t. We can see how other bike share systems work, but ours may eventually be five or ten times bigger. That might approach some critical mass which makes it useful in novel ways.
in response to After Bike-Share Launches and the Dust Settles, Remember the NIMBY Frenzy
Joe R.
I’m not suggesting we use the subways to deliver everything, but certainly the idea might merit examining for some types of cargo. We have tons of underutilized capacity during off peak hours and the subway goes within a few blocks of virtually every location in Manhattan. As for the leg cramps, it’s because of my generally worsening physical condition (it started with carpal tunnel syndrome in my late 20s and now it’s affecting other areas). I doubt anyone delivering goods using the subways would be in my condition.
If the city got involved in things like vertical farming we could be virtually self-sufficient as far as food production goes. And there are tons of other ways of distributing goods besides trucks. The city is still operating like it’s 1950. I’ve heard of novel idea like using pneumatic tubes, for example. That system was actually used to distribute documents in office buildings (and of course rendered obsolete for that purpose with electronic distribution). An updated version of it could deliver small or medium sized goods citiwide for far lower cost than trucking. The larger point is let’s start thinking outside the box a bit more. Even if most of the ideas are found unfeasible, you might hit upon one which changes everything. You see logistical problems whereas I see opportunities to make things better.
in response to City Close to Recommending Surface Road Replacement for Sheridan
Muñeca Lujan
They need to put cameras and for driving should be stricter. We have to spread the word and have Koo realize what he really needs to do before a fifth hit and run comes. They need to put a stop on this. I miss my cuzin Dante so much. He was like brother to me. it breaks my heart because he only gotten to see my daughter only a couple of times. He really means the world to us. Please lets make this hit and run to a stop. We have to do it for him. Also this can happen to anyone so lets put this to a stop. I miss you Dante. You will always be in outçr hearts.
in response to Dante Dominguez Latest Hit-and-Run Victim in Peter Koo's Council District
KillMoto
Yes. As someone who makes $500 an hour, but only when I’m actually **at** the client consult, I’d certainly rather spend a few dozen minutes waiting in cross-town traffic behind people driving to the hair dresser or the laundromat or their job as a cook – than pay $50 in a congestion charge.
not.
Please educate us Guest. Where are the parallels, and where do they diverge? People balked similarly when the government wanted to put fluoride in the water. Where are the protests now?
in response to After Bike-Share Launches and the Dust Settles, Remember the NIMBY Frenzy
Driver
Joe, there are so many logistical problems with that idea I don’t even want to list them. I do get a chuckle that someone who gets leg cramps from stopping too many times while cycling would think that that delivering any significant amount of cargo manually from down in the subways and blocks away is a feasible idea.
in response to City Close to Recommending Surface Road Replacement for Sheridan
T. Caine
Good article. It wouldn’t be NYC without push back.
in response to After Bike-Share Launches and the Dust Settles, Remember the NIMBY Frenzy
Bluewndrpwrmlk96
You could’ve taken it for a free spin around the block. I’m curious to see how these bikes handle.
in response to Mesmerizing! Citi Bikes Arrive
Tabloid reader
With the bikes not even rolling around yet, I think you make Ben’s point.
in response to After Bike-Share Launches and the Dust Settles, Remember the NIMBY Frenzy
Ben Kintisch
So beautiful.
in response to Mesmerizing! Citi Bikes Arrive
Ben Kintisch
I’m going to have a big glass of “Cool-Aid” (SIC) to drink before I get on my Citibike. So will 14,500 other bike cult members, fooled by the evil DOT/Emperor Bloomberg. Did I get it right?
in response to After Bike-Share Launches and the Dust Settles, Remember the NIMBY Frenzy
Anonymous
I like that not only is he favorable to the right policies, he’s really been leading to help make them happen. That’s huge.
Thanks for this kind of indepth local reporting on issues we care about. Donation coming!
in response to City Council Candidates on the Issues: Clifford Stanton, District 11
Guest
Wiow- so desperate to prove that BikeShare is God’s gift that you resort to a totally flawed parallel in congestion pricing. Anyone with a basic understanding of economics knows this doesn’t match. But your devotees who have drunk the Cool-Aid don’t know better. LOL
in response to After Bike-Share Launches and the Dust Settles, Remember the NIMBY Frenzy
Joe R.
I rode 4300 miles last year but that didn’t seem to give me any special immunity. I was sick on and off the first 4 months of this year.
in response to Gelinas Responds to Komanoff on Bike-Share Safety
Nicolas Igersheim
How many deaths subsequent to a flu contracted in the subway? Bike riders are notably immune to colds and flues!
in response to Gelinas Responds to Komanoff on Bike-Share Safety
Daphna
Awwww. I hope these kids can get bikes of their own if they are too young to join bikeshare. They clearly want to bike.
in response to Kids Take Citi Bike for a Stationary Spin
Eric McClure
Eloquently put, Ben. And just one more reminder why it’s important for all of us devotees to support Streetsblog’s ongoing work.
in response to After Bike-Share Launches and the Dust Settles, Remember the NIMBY Frenzy
Larry Littlefield
On my way home, I saw one bike lying on the ground next to Ft. Green park, but I was able to put it back in the lock, and it caught.
in response to Mesmerizing! Citi Bikes Arrive
Larry Littlefield
The problem is, before something exists people can make up anything and say it. And no one holds them accountable for what they said after the fact.
I second Mr. Nieuwenhoven, and appreciate the second Weinermobile post. People have a right to change their mind. Except when their past pandering had consequences.
in response to After Bike-Share Launches and the Dust Settles, Remember the NIMBY Frenzy
Lisa
This breaks my heart. I pray for Dante’s family to have the strength needed to pursue this issue to the end and acquire all of the footage from the cameras in that vicinity. It’s a shame that the local retailers haven’t even been contacted to view any footage they may have. Shame on you 109th precinct! Knock on council member Koo’s office every day until the case is solved and the low life’
s are caught and brought to justice! RIP Dante
2
•
Reply
•
Share ›
in response to Dante Dominguez Latest Hit-and-Run Victim in Peter Koo's Council District
Ari
Member ~2900. Fob arrived yesterday.
Patience. It’s probably waiting in your mailbox.
in response to Mesmerizing! Citi Bikes Arrive
Ben Kintisch
Super cute. Bikes are awesome!
in response to Kids Take Citi Bike for a Stationary Spin
Brian Van Nieuwenhoven
I will not forget the NIMBY controversies as long as Streetsblog stays on the web; it’s all documented here!
in response to After Bike-Share Launches and the Dust Settles, Remember the NIMBY Frenzy
Anonymous
Diabetes, heart disease, chronic health ailments, sloth etc . . . .
Have you ever driven a car in NYC during the daytime?
How’s your blood pressure then?
Then ride a bike during the day in NYC. I assure you you’ll feel much better.
in response to Mesmerizing! Citi Bikes Arrive
Noseriouslyareyoukddingme
Such a terrible blight on NYC! The streets of Manhattan will look like a car factory floor with loads of cars lined up in precision.
Meanwhile, those New Yorkers who love to walk around town will have the
stress of watching out for clueless and law-breaking drivers coming
from all directions and plowing into the sidewalks. Thanks for ruining NYC – every past mayor, community board leaders, city council members, the media, the AAA, and car militant groups.
in response to Mesmerizing! Citi Bikes Arrive
Anonymous
Yah except when it’s unsafe to do so.
Except when (ii) When reasonably necessary to avoid conditions (including but not limited to, fixed or moving objects, motor vehicles, bicycles, pedestrians, pushcarts, animals, surface hazards) that make it unsafe to continue within such bicycle path or lane.
That, for me, includes all bike lanes in the door zone. I’ll use the door zone bikelane, but if I feel unsafe, I take the lane.
in response to How the Post Engineers Bike-Share Bashing, Facts Be Damned
Joe R.
Based on this person’s posts elsewhere, I don’t think it is.
in response to Mesmerizing! Citi Bikes Arrive
Andy
And part (ii) is basically 99% of the time. It is unsafe to be relegated to the side of the road for visibility reasons, car doors opening, potholes and debris. Good luck finding a street that doesn’t have one (if not all) of those issues!
in response to How the Post Engineers Bike-Share Bashing, Facts Be Damned
Joe R.
Part (ii) allows you to leave the bike lane for any of the conditions mentioned, as well as any other conditions (i.e. the including but not limited to clause).
The intention of the law was to keep motor vehicles out of the bike lane, not to force cyclists to always use it. If a cyclist deems the lane hazardous for any reason, they do not have to use it.
in response to How the Post Engineers Bike-Share Bashing, Facts Be Damned
I'm walking here
If you actually read the laws about riding bikes in NYC you do have to use the bike lane if it is available.
The law reads:
§ 4-12 – Miscellaneous
(p) Bicycles.
(1) Bicycle riders to use bicycle lanes. Whenever a usable path or lane for bicycles has been provided, bicycle riders shall use such path or lane only except under any of the following situations:
(i) When preparing for a turn at an intersection or into a private road or driveway.
(ii) When reasonably necessary to avoid conditions (including but not limited to,
fixed or moving objects, motor vehicles, bicycles, pedestrians, pushcarts,
animals, surface hazards) that make it unsafe to continue within such bicycle
path or lane.
in response to How the Post Engineers Bike-Share Bashing, Facts Be Damned
Anonymous
I honestly can’t tell if this is parody or not.
in response to Mesmerizing! Citi Bikes Arrive
ADN
Julia Marsh at the New York Post is killing it. I expect her bike-share stories will be submitted for a Pulitzer Prize.
in response to Today's Headlines
Anxiously Awaiting Bikeshare
If you have seen the positive change in DC, where I grew up and used to live, because of Bikeshare you would have a different opinion. I have not been to Paris or London but they report similar results.
I believe you that you think the kiosks are ugly. There are plenty of things that are ugly in NYC in various people’s judgement. I am sure that you, as have I many times, have seen a new building(or a construction dumpster, or scaffolding, or 1,000s of other sidewalk/street furniture) in a neighborhood and thought it to be a blight and a terrible thing. Then, over time, as it starts to become part of your everyday landscape, and it isn’t as shiny, it becomes far less offensive. You get used to it and it isn’t as big of a deal.
in response to Mesmerizing! Citi Bikes Arrive