I mean this honestly, as a 20-year resident of NYC; fuck bikers. And e-bikers. Not a single one respects any traffic regulation. Laws mean nothing to them. One way street? Nah. Red light? Nope, I’ll ride past you and your toddler at 20mph so close you feel my breeze.
I’ve been biking here for the last 20 years. (Before the bike lanes!) For me, basically 95% of bikers are fine. 5% suck. Just like cars.
I also hate the 5% of bikers that suck.
–
For me the 5% that suck aren’t because they go through red lights, or down the wrong way. I do this all of the time, and I’m never close to pedestrians. Pedestrians don’t even know I exist.
I don’t go on sidewalks, but I’m guessing that 95% of bikers on sidewalks are about to stop for a delivery and are going pretty slow.
The 5% that suck, for me, are the ones which do the “fly by” the commenter is talking about. Some biker going 25mph on their electric bike that gets within 6 inches of you.
This also happens with cars, and let me tell you, with a car, it makes my hair stand on end. It seems like the driver is saying, “let me show you how much I hate you.”
Years ago when a car would do this to me (when the bike lanes just started coming out, there were a lot of people who were super mad), it would trigger a fight response, and I would catch up and prevent them from moving - just make them sit there - they would go batshit crazy. In retrospect, that was probably pretty dumb to do.
I think the answer to the biker problem, is not threats against bikers, but basically, make some thoroughfares biker only. Like all of Broadway, and maybe 1st or 8th ave. Mamdani should follow through on his campaign to hold Uber eats and etc, accountable. And then some sort of marketing, “Don’t be an asshole - don’t buzz people - this means you, delivery drivers and Bros on city bikes!”
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There are also some other undercurrents in play here. I wouldn’t assume leftreddit is in this camp, but a certain percentage of NYC is.
There is a segment of NYC’s population that “secretly” hates the immigrants and/or black people. Most of the delivery bikers are immigrants. And they are mostly black. It used to be most of the delivery bikers were Hispanic, but I think that has shifted. I don’t know real numbers though…
So, not only is this guy zooming past fast for a delivery, but he’s also an immigrant and he’s also black. Really triggers some people.
–
Anyhow…
I hope that NYC doesn’t go back to the anti biker stance. But I do hope they put weight and speed restrictions on bikes.
The article doesn’t describe a “biker problem” though. It specifically is talking about e-bikes and electric scooters.
It follows actions by city officials from Paris to Honolulu to Hoboken, N.J., who are responding to residents angry about zippy vehicles with silent electric motors zooming down sidewalks and streets, often startling people, and occasionally hitting pedestrians.
A manually powered bicycle or scooter is a lot different from an electric powered version capable of 20-30mph.
Unfair treatment of one group versus another isn’t right and more cycle friendly infrastructure is needed but do you put both regular and e-bikes on that infrastructure to share it? Wouldn’t that lead to a lot of the same complaints that sharing with cars currently generates?
I do think you’re right that it’s not all of any one of these groups (cyclists or motorists) that are problematic; we just notice the ones that are problematic the most. That said, cyclists are the minority which means they need “imperfect allies” of motorists to drive the change that leads to more, better cycling infrastructure.
I don’t know the best way to go about that but ignoring the laws you’re required to follow isn’t a great way to go about it. I’d propose instead that working to change the rules for cyclists so that they aren’t bound by the “one way” and are allowed to legally proceed through a red as long as they can safely do so (no opposing traffic at the light/stop, they’ve stopped and confirmed it’s safe to proceed) and so on would be good. Then it might incentivize some motorists to ditch their car so they can get around easier as well as improve the experience for current cyclists.
All of this is assuming the traffic laws in NYC work similar to where I am.
I will assume you live in the midwest. Maybe some suburbia.
NYC is entirely different than suburbia and actually is also entirely different from SF, DC and Tokyo. I don’t know about other cities.
Within 30 seconds of biking from my apartment, I will already have seen.
A car go through a red light.
A car parked on the sidewalk.
A delivery truck parked in the bike lane, and part of the street.
Multiple people crossing the street randomly, not at crosswalks.
I will have passed maybe 3 other bikers.
Within a minute:
Massive construction on the street.
Cars parked in the road.
Dodged deep pot holes.
Within 5 minutes
Multiple cars going through red lights, I would maybe guess 5.
Multiple cars doing u-turns that are not allowed.
Maybe 30 people walking across the street in random places.
Some drugged up guy standing somewhere in the street.
Hit an area where the streets are purposely laid out so, if you want to go the “right way” you have to ground around multiple blocks. It’s a peculiar place.
This is the base line.
All of this works together because there are basically no laws.
A car goes through a red light, as long as it doesn’t hit someone it’s ignored.
Same for u-turns, same for illegal temporary parking.
You want to gun your car, make the wheels squeal and accelerate as fast as you can until the next red light? Nobody will care if you don’t hit someone.
It’s a zoo. The normal thinking of laws doesn’t really apply. If you get upset about every car that runs a red light, you’ll be upset all the time. If you get upset at people doing stupid shit, you’ll be upset all the time.
Bikes going wrong way on a one way seems just straight up reasonable. In Chicago where I’m at they even have lanes on some one ways specifically for bikes to do that.
Have been in Manhattan the last couple of days, the bikes (and especially the fast ebikes) are a damn menace. The cars at least stop for crosswalks and signals. The bikes absolutely do not. Got stuck at that big bike crosswalk near Central Park West as hordes of bikes just blew the red light, meant specifically for them in their dedicated bike lane.
I mean this honestly, as a 20-year resident of NYC; fuck bikers. And e-bikers. Not a single one respects any traffic regulation. Laws mean nothing to them. One way street? Nah. Red light? Nope, I’ll ride past you and your toddler at 20mph so close you feel my breeze.
I’ve been biking here for the last 20 years. (Before the bike lanes!) For me, basically 95% of bikers are fine. 5% suck. Just like cars.
I also hate the 5% of bikers that suck.
–
For me the 5% that suck aren’t because they go through red lights, or down the wrong way. I do this all of the time, and I’m never close to pedestrians. Pedestrians don’t even know I exist.
I don’t go on sidewalks, but I’m guessing that 95% of bikers on sidewalks are about to stop for a delivery and are going pretty slow.
The 5% that suck, for me, are the ones which do the “fly by” the commenter is talking about. Some biker going 25mph on their electric bike that gets within 6 inches of you.
This also happens with cars, and let me tell you, with a car, it makes my hair stand on end. It seems like the driver is saying, “let me show you how much I hate you.”
Years ago when a car would do this to me (when the bike lanes just started coming out, there were a lot of people who were super mad), it would trigger a fight response, and I would catch up and prevent them from moving - just make them sit there - they would go batshit crazy. In retrospect, that was probably pretty dumb to do.
I think the answer to the biker problem, is not threats against bikers, but basically, make some thoroughfares biker only. Like all of Broadway, and maybe 1st or 8th ave. Mamdani should follow through on his campaign to hold Uber eats and etc, accountable. And then some sort of marketing, “Don’t be an asshole - don’t buzz people - this means you, delivery drivers and Bros on city bikes!”
–
There are also some other undercurrents in play here. I wouldn’t assume leftreddit is in this camp, but a certain percentage of NYC is.
There is a segment of NYC’s population that “secretly” hates the immigrants and/or black people. Most of the delivery bikers are immigrants. And they are mostly black. It used to be most of the delivery bikers were Hispanic, but I think that has shifted. I don’t know real numbers though…
So, not only is this guy zooming past fast for a delivery, but he’s also an immigrant and he’s also black. Really triggers some people.
–
Anyhow…
I hope that NYC doesn’t go back to the anti biker stance. But I do hope they put weight and speed restrictions on bikes.
The article doesn’t describe a “biker problem” though. It specifically is talking about e-bikes and electric scooters.
A manually powered bicycle or scooter is a lot different from an electric powered version capable of 20-30mph.
Unfair treatment of one group versus another isn’t right and more cycle friendly infrastructure is needed but do you put both regular and e-bikes on that infrastructure to share it? Wouldn’t that lead to a lot of the same complaints that sharing with cars currently generates?
I do think you’re right that it’s not all of any one of these groups (cyclists or motorists) that are problematic; we just notice the ones that are problematic the most. That said, cyclists are the minority which means they need “imperfect allies” of motorists to drive the change that leads to more, better cycling infrastructure.
I don’t know the best way to go about that but ignoring the laws you’re required to follow isn’t a great way to go about it. I’d propose instead that working to change the rules for cyclists so that they aren’t bound by the “one way” and are allowed to legally proceed through a red as long as they can safely do so (no opposing traffic at the light/stop, they’ve stopped and confirmed it’s safe to proceed) and so on would be good. Then it might incentivize some motorists to ditch their car so they can get around easier as well as improve the experience for current cyclists.
All of this is assuming the traffic laws in NYC work similar to where I am.
I will assume you live in the midwest. Maybe some suburbia.
NYC is entirely different than suburbia and actually is also entirely different from SF, DC and Tokyo. I don’t know about other cities.
Within 30 seconds of biking from my apartment, I will already have seen.
Within a minute:
Within 5 minutes
This is the base line.
All of this works together because there are basically no laws. A car goes through a red light, as long as it doesn’t hit someone it’s ignored. Same for u-turns, same for illegal temporary parking. You want to gun your car, make the wheels squeal and accelerate as fast as you can until the next red light? Nobody will care if you don’t hit someone.
It’s a zoo. The normal thinking of laws doesn’t really apply. If you get upset about every car that runs a red light, you’ll be upset all the time. If you get upset at people doing stupid shit, you’ll be upset all the time.
Ah, it’s okay if you ignore the laws because everyone else is doing it too.
In that case it sounds like Darwinism on NYC streets and cyclists and motorists alike earn whatever comes their way.
LOL. Yeah, that pretty much sums it up.
Bikes going wrong way on a one way seems just straight up reasonable. In Chicago where I’m at they even have lanes on some one ways specifically for bikes to do that.
Have been in Manhattan the last couple of days, the bikes (and especially the fast ebikes) are a damn menace. The cars at least stop for crosswalks and signals. The bikes absolutely do not. Got stuck at that big bike crosswalk near Central Park West as hordes of bikes just blew the red light, meant specifically for them in their dedicated bike lane.