{"id":17955,"date":"2011-02-16T10:00:05","date_gmt":"2011-02-16T14:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingtoronto.ca\/?p=17955"},"modified":"2011-02-16T09:17:44","modified_gmt":"2011-02-16T13:17:44","slug":"stories-from-the-big-apple-new-york-citys-bike-lane-backlash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2011\/02\/16\/stories-from-the-big-apple-new-york-citys-bike-lane-backlash\/","title":{"rendered":"Stories from the Big Apple: New York City&#8217;s bike lane backlash"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" title=\"Broadway, NYC\" src=\"http:\/\/farm6.static.flickr.com\/5133\/5450289725_42b54eaa2f_z.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"448\" \/><\/p>\n<p>A press gallery <a href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2011\/02\/14\/lorinc-one-question-for-adrienne-batra-mayor-rob-fords-press-secretary\/\">silenced<\/a>. A mayor building a reputation for being MIA. Councillor Minnan-Wong <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thestar.com\/news\/article\/917749--city-to-build-curbs-for-separate-bike-lanes-downtown\">proposing<\/a> forward thinking bike infrastructure on main streets.<\/p>\n<p>Having moved to New York shortly before Rob Ford\u2019s election, following Toronto politics from abroad has gone from the tragic to the downright bizarre, especially when it comes to the future of\u00a0bike infrastructure. But good things never come easily, in Toronto or elsewhere.<\/p>\n<p>In New York, a city quickly making a name for itself as North America\u2019s future bike Mecca, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2010\/11\/23\/nyregion\/23bicycle.html\">opposition is mounting<\/a> towards those bright green lanes, often fully separated from traffic on some of the city\u2019s most congested, hallowed thoroughfares. Dubbed the \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/www.observer.com\/2010\/real-estate\/bike-wars-come-city-council\">bike wars<\/a>\u201d by the local media, drivers and alternative transportation advocates are squaring off in what\u2019s becoming an increasingly heated political battle.<\/p>\n<p>Ring a bell?<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s worth pointing out that the contexts are strikingly different between Toronto and New York City. After all, we&#8217;re not talking about\u00a0the odd painted line or loss of a single car lane on Jarvis Street.\u00a0Installing\u00a0250 miles of lanes in five years, as\u00a0has been\u00a0done in New York City,\u00a0should cause a stir. With million-dollar-a-block treatments radically redesigning streets\u00a0to make them more friendly for\u00a0pedestrians and cyclists often at the expense of car lanes and parking, there&#8217;s a\u00a0good argument that such drastic changes should go through greater public consultation processes.<\/p>\n<p>Local community boards meetings \u2014 New York\u2019s hyper-local arm of municipal government established as a way for\u00a0communities to proactively participate in\u00a0city issues\u00a0\u00a0\u2014 are fast becoming the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.dnainfo.com\/20101110\/upper-west-side\/cyclists-defend-bike-lanes-at-upper-west-side-community-board-meeting\">forums<\/a> for startled residents and local businesses to vent about the changes. And politicians are noticing.<\/p>\n<p>Last November, Staten Island city councillors successfully fought for the<a href=\"http:\/\/www.streetsblog.org\/2010\/11\/18\/cyclists-blindsided-by-citys-erasure-of-father-capodanno-bike-lane\/\"> removal of a 2.35 mile bike lane<\/a> on a main street in their borough. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.streetsblog.org\/2010\/10\/21\/hundreds-rally-in-support-of-prospect-park-west-bike-lane\/\">Street protests<\/a> have broken out over a single bike\u00a0lane along Prospect Park West \u2014 a street bordering Brooklyn\u2019s version of Central Park now surrounded by gentrified brownstones.\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/nymag.com\/realestate\/neighborhoods\/2010\/65356\/\">Fights<\/a> between bike-riding hipsters and Hasidic Jews\u00a0over bike\u00a0lanes in\u00a0Williamsburg, Brooklyn are\u00a0all too real.\u00a0Just last week, the idea of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nypost.com\/p\/news\/local\/queens\/sticking_it_to_bikers_QkNdSzrRAbj6rrmCtW4zoM\">licensing cyclists<\/a> was raised by a Republican councillor in Queens.<\/p>\n<p>Indeed, Republican city councillors are\u00a0showing their increasing <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nypost.com\/p\/news\/local\/pols_push_to_end_fast_track_for_oiWbLYamWk2OHE3TJoAdoL\">sophistication<\/a> by arguing that bike lanes should have to go through a lengthy environmental review process that other traffic changes must endure. Such a move would essentially kill the currently expedited process allowing for lanes to be built all over the city at such a furious pace.<\/p>\n<p>Luckily for New York City, anti-bike activists are still playing catch-up. For years now,\u00a0the\u00a0City&#8217;s\u00a0Transportation Commissioner Janet Sadik-Kahn has <a href=\"http:\/\/nymag.com\/news\/features\/56794\/\">openly questioned<\/a> the place of the car on the city\u2019s streets with the full backing of Mayor Bloomberg. Combine this with a strong mayoral system and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.transalt.org\/\">Transportation Alternatives<\/a>, the city&#8217;s\u00a0sustainable transportation advocacy group that\u00a0organizes large pro-bike\u00a0rallies, fills community board meetings with vocal supporters and\u00a0overwhelms unfriendly politicians&#8217; office\u00a0inboxes with floods of\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.transalt.org\/takeaction\/actioncenter\/5059\">e-faxes <\/a>seemingly at will, and those Staten Island politicians still have a long way to go.<\/p>\n<p>These huge successes aside, I\u2019d still prefer riding my bike in Toronto any day. Green painted lanes buffered from traffic with their own signal lights are nice and all, but they&#8217;re still relatively lonely places\u00a0\u2014 ignoring the jaywalkers \u2014\u00a0that lack crucial connections\u00a0through particularly hairy parts of the city like\u00a0midtown Manhattan. Riding in mixed traffic is great if you&#8217;re looking for\u00a0the occasional\u00a0thrill of\u00a0cars and cabs giving you absolutely no room\u00a0or respect, but not if you&#8217;re looking for a safe and stress-free commute home. Sidewalk parking is virtually non-existent, bikes are prohibited on buses and a huge challenge to take on the subway, and a kryptonite lock means nothing if you decide to leave your bike outside at night.<\/p>\n<p>That is to say, Toronto isn\u2019t alone in its struggle to become more multi-modal. Too often, bike success stories from abroad only make it to our fair city once the battle has already been won. Left out of the picture are the all too similar struggles it took each city to get there.<\/p>\n<p>Sure New York City has come a long way, but that\u2019s partly because of how far it has to go. But if they continue to expand its bike infrastructure at this pace, I have every confidence\u00a0New York City will\u00a0surpass Toronto in terms of bikeability.<\/p>\n<p>But until then, I\u2019d rather ride on College Street.<\/p>\n<p><em>photo by Jake Schabas<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A press gallery silenced. A mayor building a reputation for being MIA. Councillor Minnan-Wong proposing forward thinking bike infrastructure on main streets. Having moved to New York shortly before Rob Ford\u2019s election, following Toronto politics from abroad has gone from the tragic to the downright bizarre, especially when it comes to the future of\u00a0bike infrastructure.<a href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2011\/02\/16\/stories-from-the-big-apple-new-york-citys-bike-lane-backlash\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"sr-only\">&#8220;Stories from the Big Apple: New York City&#8217;s bike lane backlash&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4071,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[14817,235,3185,12485,778,408,17096,17097,12212,17095,3034,426,13771,469,564,1154,17098,227,19,849,10371,17099,391],"class_list":["post-17955","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bikes","tag-advocacy","tag-bike-infrastructure","tag-car-lane","tag-car-lanes","tag-college-street","tag-councillor","tag-e-faxes","tag-forward-thinking-bike-infrastructure","tag-jake-schabas","tag-janet-sadik-kahn","tag-local-media","tag-mayor","tag-mecca","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-north-america","tag-republican-councillor","tag-rob-ford","tag-toronto","tag-transportation","tag-transportation-alternatives","tag-transportation-commissioner","tag-usd"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Stories from the Big Apple: New York City&#039;s bike lane backlash - Spacing Toronto<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2011\/02\/16\/stories-from-the-big-apple-new-york-citys-bike-lane-backlash\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Stories from the Big Apple: New York City&#039;s bike lane backlash - Spacing Toronto\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A press gallery silenced. A mayor building a reputation for being MIA. Councillor Minnan-Wong proposing forward thinking bike infrastructure on main streets. Having moved to New York shortly before Rob Ford\u2019s election, following Toronto politics from abroad has gone from the tragic to the downright bizarre, especially when it comes to the future of\u00a0bike infrastructure.Continue reading &quot;Stories from the Big Apple: New York City&#8217;s bike lane backlash&quot;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2011\/02\/16\/stories-from-the-big-apple-new-york-citys-bike-lane-backlash\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Spacing Toronto\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-02-16T14:00:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/farm6.static.flickr.com\/5133\/5450289725_42b54eaa2f_z.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jake Schabas\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Spacing\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Spacing\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jake Schabas\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2011\/02\/16\/stories-from-the-big-apple-new-york-citys-bike-lane-backlash\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2011\/02\/16\/stories-from-the-big-apple-new-york-citys-bike-lane-backlash\/\",\"name\":\"Stories from the Big Apple: New York City's bike lane backlash - 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