On Demand
NYC Bike Sharing
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Less than one percent of New Yorkers commute by bike. Leonard talks to David Haskell, executive director of The Forum for Urban Design, about the results of a recent bike-sharing experiment in NYC, in which anyone could borrow a bike for 30 minutes and return at destinations in Washington Square or Tompkin's Square Parks.
Thanks to listener Ken Coughlin for sending us photos of Paris's bike share system
Weigh in: Do you bike to work here in New York and the metropolitan area? If so, where are the most dangerous places or intersections for bicyclists?
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CYCLIST GAZING
Bicycles fly swiftly past,
Cleanest mode of travel,
Spewing forth no gaseous fumes,
Greenest beyond cavil.
Zipping this and that direction,
Even a one-way street;
Watch this cyclist, pedaling righteously--
Knocking you off your feet.
Bedford Ave in Brooklyn, between Eastern Parkway and Atlantic avenue has a bike lane (at least until St. Marks Ave). The bike lane itself is covered in potholes, while there are almost none in the car lane. Potholes are far more dangerous for bikes than cars. I am forced to decide between riding in the heavy Bedford Ave traffic, or riding over road that could bend my wheels and pop my tires.
Furthermore, the bike lane ends suddenly, right as Bedford Avenue merges with Rogers Avenue. As the two roads merge when the bike lane (which was on the right side of the road) ends the cyclist is left in the middle of four lanes of often heavy traffic. To make a dangerous situation more dangerous, drivers on Rogers don't have a clear view of cyclists coming up on their left (it is obscured by a monument on the island). I have also noticed that unless there is a car directly in the far right lane of Bedford (which becomes the one of the middle lanes), cars in the left lane of Rogers will invariably change lanes without signaling. This is because the road curves, and that is the straight drive.
I can't count how many close calls I have had in that intersection. There are no signs signaling the end of a bike lane, no warnings to cars about sharing the road, or letting bikes move to the right lane. In fact there are no related signs anywhere.
I bike to work every day-- from the South Bronx to Columbia University, it takes about 15-20 minutes and is a distance of 3 miles. The intersection of 125th and Amsterdam is my worst intersection, 4 lanes of traffic in every directions, cars, buses, turning lanes...
And in response to the "poem" above: yes bicyclists sometimes whiz past people on the street however cars do this ALL THE TIME (think crossing the street on a walk sign and having the turning cars edging you out) but because we have gotten so used to our car culture we accept this. And I can be self-rightous about bicycling in NYC as it is really hard work sometimes!
i watched a woman lock her bike every day from the west village to midtown - for twenty years. Then one day i saw her inching along on foot, grayed, diminished and in obvious pain, and wondered what had happened to her. later I found out it was an accident on her bike; she was hit by a vehicle. I don't see her any more. I hope she is still alive - she was that beaten up by the accident. I don't see car culture yielding to people in NYC. We aren't as nice as Amsterdam. I also really don't like competing with cyclists in central park on my rollerblades - very dangerous to me. I was knocked over by a crazy cyclist once - he came between me and a taxi and I nearly got hit by the taxi. (they should just outlaw cars in the parks, period.) I think we just have too many people in NY. And in Manhattan the personality has grown less kind an gentle in my view as the island is sterilized by development, losing personality utterly and killing, not supporting creativity. I don't feel good about NY (at least Manhattan) at all!
CASH4sharedbikes.com
Yup. Bike to work because it puts me in a good mood. The approach on and off the Brooklyn Bridge is pretty GD dangerous. But I have been hit the most (three times, hit once and doored twice) at Atlantic Avenue and Borem Place (Brooklyn Bridge Blvd.)
As a former NYC bicycle messenger for 10 years I have ridden over 100,000 miles regionally, mostly on the city streets. I once called my office at Reade St. from 68 and Lex. at 5:45 PM on Friday to see about a last run in to the office and my dispatcher said there were none and if I didn't get there in 10 minutes they were going to be gone home and I could get my check Monday. I jetted and when I got there he was watching for me and yelled to the boss who came out yelling oh my GD oh my GD 6-1/2 minutes 6-1/2 minutes. They tested how fast I could do it and never ever saw anything move across the city that fast, 90 blocks in 400 seconds 4.444 sec/block. For years nothing could beat me almost anywhere ever and I never ever even scared a pedestrian and was totally addicted to the adrenaline rush of life. Then came the multi valve engines and then the multiple variable valve engines typical commonly if not yet universally allowing cars to accelerate 2-3 times faster 0-50. The room to breathe and move does not exist on the road or rarely more circumstantially than generally with cars accelerating way to fast to play with. I now own and operate the Bronx River Bicycle Works in Mount Vernon, NY.
I frequently ride my bike to work. The two most dangerous places are where I get on and off the Manhattan Bridge bike path.
On the Brooklyn side, I'm supposed to merge and then cross traffic speeding down the bridge offramp.
On the Manhattan side, I have to cross a ramp going onto the bridge to get to Bowery. There's a stop sign and a crosswalk, but cars never stop.
Generally, as a biker or a pedestrian, more cars run red lights than ever before, including police cars with out sirens. It's scary out there, and dangerous.
Are the cops pre-occupied with "terrorism" patrol, and not ticketing dangerous drivers?
1) Flatbush Avenue, on the way to the Manhattan Bridge. Cars kick up dust, flat bed trucks scream beside, forcing you to ride closer to parked cars on the right, uncomfortably close to the inevitable opening car door. The only thing keeping car doors from flying open is the impatient traffic. So, in that sense, the cars temper eachother.
2) East Village/Union Square on Friday night. The danger is from bridge-and-tunnelers who just don't get it. Jersey in particular.
Used to messenger, used to commute from Huntington to LIC, and Queens Blvd was nuts! The taxis around Queens Ctr couldn't care less, and the regular traffic was clueless. Haven't been there for a decade, but I doubt it's changed.
Looking to get a sharebike program going here in Roanoke, VA. (check http://www.sharebike.org/). Current idea is to treat bikes like books; use a library card to borrow a bike, free but with late fees, traceable to a borrower's address. Considering RFID chips, needs more research.
The best way to avoid being hit by traffic is to BE traffic! No gutter bunnies!
I love commuting by bike and have done so since moving here in 1996. I commute from Smith and Bergen to 112th and B'way. Most dangerous places:
Approaches to both the Manahattan and Brooklyn Bridges, Tillary St. in particular.
Pier 76 and West Side Highway, where the tow pound is, people turning in and not yielding to cyclists' right of way.
Pier 79 and West Side Highway, where the NY Waterway is. Same reason as above.
I ride everyday on the Hudson River Greenway. It's the nicest part of my day.
As far as bicycle sharing goes, it's not for me.
Dangerous areas are often bicycle lanes with cars and trucks in them.
The area just past a blocked box is often dangerous due to drivers heavy acceleration.
Any intersection can be dangerous when cars run lights or make turns on red.
The crossing at 55th street on the west side from the bike path to 12th ave is very dangerous for cyclists and pedestrians alike. People are looking to get out of the city and aren't looking for those crossing. Also cabs, cars, and even DEP trucks blow that western most lane stop light all the time to get south the extra block putting us all in danger
I ride to work every day all year, rain, snow, or sun. The most dangerous part of my commute is the base of the Williamsburg Bridge on the Manhattan side. The traffic lights are badly placed and several cars run the red light EVERY TIME it changes - by the time cars stop running the light, there is barely enough time to cross the street. It is dangerous for pedestrians and cyclists.
Also dangerous is the Brooklyn side of the Manhattan bridge the section of Sands Street where you are deposited is terrible. The bike lane on that street ends at the on ramps to the bridge and BQE - so cars come flying at you from behind and you have nowhere to go!
I bike everyday from Amsterdam Ave. and 112St. across the GWB to Rockland county. I love this commute, because I can bike in Palisades park with no traffic most of the way, and I'm reverse commuting. The most dangerous part of this commute is around Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in Washington Heights (livery cabs and cars doing illegal u-turns, lots of double parking, hidden driveways, jay walkers, etc.). The left turn in New Jersey to get into the Palisades park from 9W, just south of the bridge is also quite dangerous because of the steep hill. I also ride to Brooklyn frequently, and getting from the west side bike path to the Brooklyn Bridge across Chambers St. can be dangerous.. uneven pavement, lots of traffic.
I bike about 5.5 miles to work everyday in SoHo. I don't have the benefit of a bike lane at any point in my commute and the cars speeding around me on Wilson/Morgan Aves is very dangerous. The MOST perilous part of the journey, however, is when the Williamsburg bike ramp ends and I have to merge with traffic on Delancey. My strategy is to keep pace with the cars and travel in one of their lanes, at their speed. It's a perfect example of the attitude taken towards bikes by the city - a great bike lane that empties out onto a major throughway without any bike lanes or other measure of safety.
I bike to work most days. I find the bike lanes dangerous. I've had near calls with cars or trucks pulling out or making my way around cars standing on the bike path. I rode down 9th avenue yesterday on the new full lane bike path. It was wonderful. But I noticed pedestrians edging into these new lanes while waiting for the light. I would like full bike lanes like these with a bright color to designate that it is in fact a bike lane.
You have to be very diligent while cycling in the streets in all five boroughs. I've seen driver's disregard cyclers and pedestrians to avoid a road cone, beat a red light, or make a turn. Seconds are more important to NYC motorists than someone's life, crosswalks and bike lanes offer no refuge.
urban cycling is a great way to throw off some of the constraints of the urban grid, and to re-map our social worlds--tracing connections where none are usually made, getting a finely-textured sense for smell, sound, and feel, and ultimately can bolster one's confidence. far-flung and regular travel by bike invites intimate knowledge to replace stereo-scripted urban habitation.
that said, Manhattan's Chinatown is by far the scariest place, in my daily bi-borough rounds, to ride a bike in NYC.
for more, check out: http://www.monu.org/monu6/Petersen_final.pdf
I have biked to work almost every day since 1999 from Clinton Hill in Brooklyn to 42nd & Lexington in Manhattan. I think that we as a city could improve safety conditions for the benefit of us all. To my mind, during rush hours, even the bike lanes are dangerous. I bike home down 2nd Ave, which has a bike lane between 14th and Houston. Delivery trucks and cabs constantly force bikers out of the lane. People park there and run into stores. Cars use the bike lane as a turning lane, making cyclists swerve into traffic. Bike lanes could easily be segregated from traffic, which would make the experience safer and encourage more people to either get out of cars or out of crowded subways and busses.
I bike to work every day on the west side bike path. More than a year after Dr. Nacht was killed by a tow truck who turned into the bike path, the trucks still turn onto that path with no regard for the cyclists who have the light in their favor. A few months ago one of those trucks almost hit me. I can't believe that after this senseless killing, the city has done nothing to protect cyclists from the tow truck traffic.
If there will be callers, and an advocate for bikes in NYC, ask each of them the following; Have you ever run a red light? Have you ever woven through pedestrians in a crosswalk to run a light? Have you ever ridden the wrong way on a one way street? Have you ever ridden on the sidewalk? I have listen to all the segments on WNYC about more bikes in NYC and no one adequately addressed any of these situations by bike advocates and bikers.
One study I read about says there are more fatal car/bike collisions caused by the car violating the right of way not much has been said about bikes hitting people because they do not follow traffic laws. While it is less likely a bike hitting a pedestrian is going to be fatal, it is not innocuous. These collisions can lead to broken hips by older pedestrians leading to permanent confinement to a wheelchair , or a long period of pain and disability to younger healthier folks.
Part 2
Once before Mayor Koch said he wanted NYC to look like Beijing. In Beijing the bikes overwhelming follow traffic laws, and are fined if they do not. While it is possibly true (according to that study promulgated by Transportation Alternatives) that car-bike fatalities are caused by the car violating the right of way of the bike rather than the bike behaving in a way that put them at risk, go out into the street and watch an intersection for a while. How many cars do you see running a red light, weaving through pedestrians to run a red light, drive the wrong way on a one way street, or drive on the sidewalk, or drive with headphones on. If all these advocates want more bikes in the city then you have to go all the way. Give them physically segregated lanes, away from motor vehicles and pedestrians, AND MAKE THEM SUBJECT TO TRAFFIC LAWS LIKE ALL OTHER VEHICLES. Until then, I say NO!! to more bikes in the city.
And Yes, I used to be a big bikie in the city, and now I deal with them everyday to endless aggravation. I have yelled at bikies zooming right in front of me in the crosswalk on my light and they give me the finger in that way as if it's their right to do run the light through pedestrians.
I would also love the city to put speed bumps on heavily used streets - the wider shallow bumps that will slow down cars but not be jarring to cyclists. One of the scarier parts of my morning commute is the stretch of Classon Avenue between Lafayette and Kent. The cars are heading to the BQE and speed down that road at 40-50 miles an hour, there are usually construction vehicles, police cars, and/or double-parked cars along the route. In addition to moving very fast, the cars are swerving around obstacles.
Sands Street at entrance to Manhattan and Brooklyn Bridges.
This has bike lines and horrible DOT signage.
Any intersection can be dangerous. Once while I was waiting for the light to change, a window opened in the car next to me, and a cup of hot coffee came flying out that window and landed on my leg (I was wearing shorts).
I'm freelance, and generally bike when I'm not working, primarily on the westside "bikeway" and Central Park.
For me pedestrians are much more dangerous than cars. Drivers are usually aware of their surroundings- I wish I could say the same for pedestrians.
I've only recently started biking to work this past spring, and then only a few times a week. I find that the West Side greenway bikepath, despite not having vehicles, is the most nerve-wracking, at least on my commute home on pleasant spring and summer evenings on the way back to the SI Ferry.It is too crowded with joggers and strollers who amble around aimlessly into the cyclists/skaters lane, oblivious with their I-Pods.Then other cyclists, steroidal spandexed speedracers who think they are training for the next Tour de France,will do stuff like veer into my southbound lane as they travel North , often nearly colliding with me as they whiz past at more than 30 mph to pass the clueless pedestrians.You would think the westside path would be the safest, with clearly marked north and southbound lanes, signals, and lanes marked for pedestrians and cyclists/skaters, but morons ignore these rules.It is sorely in need of traffic enforcement. The East side path(greenway), in my opinion is much safer, because as it is rutted, pitted and potholed, it is less popular and consequently attracts fewer idiots.
I work at home but I frequently ride around the city on errands, etc. Any of the main, multi-lane avenues, where aggressive drivers regularly exceed the speed limit in short bursts and recklessly weave around slower traffic in order to make up a few extra seconds, are terrifying for me. Sixth Avenue north of 42nd, Amsterdam Avenue, Ninth Avenue north of Chelsea, and Third Avenue come immediately to mind. These roadways cry out for protected bike lanes of the kind that the New York City Department of Transportation is installing on Ninth Avenue in Chelsea, as well as for traffic calming measures to slow traffic and for enforcement by the NYPD. There is no reason why cars should be allowed or encouraged to drive at anything approaching highway speeds in our crowded city.
The lesson of Paris's bike share program, which I recently used, is that bikes and cars CAN coexist on the same city streets. But New York must be willing to set as a goal making bicyclists equal partners on the roads and not treat them as an afterthought or ultimately expendable.
As someone who bikes frequently, I wish I could say I think a bikeshare program like the one in Paris would succeed in NYC. I visited Paris over the summer and was delighted, and a bit jealous, when I saw the number of, and please pardon the gross generalization, “business types” using the public bicycles to commute to and from work. Perhaps bicycles, as images, have a different connotative power in Europe than they do here in the states. Here, I fear bicycles are somewhat stigmatized, associated with children or with adults committed to “alternative” or somehow “counter cultural” leanings (In other words, bicycles become charged with all kinds of political implications and aren’t seen as just a means of transportation.) People who rely on automobiles as an image, as a visual representation of their power, be it the Wall Street set or the guys “pimping out their rides” in the boroughs, most likely won’t trade in their status symbols for a bike, let alone a public one. The fact that less than 1% of NYC’s workforce commutes by bike isn’t because bikes are not available, but because people thinking biking is inconvenient, embarrassing, and dangerous.
continued...
And dangerous is it: the anger between cyclists and drivers frightens me. And drivers are not only to blame. Wayne, who wrote posts 22 and 23, has a point: bikers MUST be responsible and conscientious additions to the road, which means adhering to traffic signals, respecting pedestrians, staying off sidewalks, and going in the direction of traffic. (Really, it doesn’t take that long to stop at a red light.) I often see bikers riding in ways that make me cringe, in part because it’s dangerous and in part because they’re validating all the drivers’ arguments against us!
Another thought on biking in general, and understandably we don’t discuss this much because it speaks of a much larger problem: the role of class and race in the cycling/driving conversation. I think a white person on a bicycle has become just as emblematic of invasion/gentrification as those hideous new condos springing up all over Brooklyn—and the (racial) names I’ve been called, and the threats to my saftey that have accompanied them, while biking, are evidence, in my mind, that the driver/biker tension has to it a race/class element that we don’t explore much.(I also think theft and vandalism would ruin a NYC bikeshare program.)
I have been biking to work year round for the last seven years, and I love it. My commute is from Ditmars in Astoria, Queens to Varick and Spring in lower Manhattan. I tend to use the west side bike trail very often, my workplace is right by it.
I don't find intersections to be the most dangerous places. I find bike lanes that are clogged *every* block by double parked cars to be very dangerous. Fifth Ave between 23rd street and Washington Sqr Park is a great example. The lane is about 3 feet wide, sandwiched between parked cars (that must be watched for fear of getting doored) and fast moving traffic. Double parked cars in the bike lane force cyclists to merge with moving traffic. Very often I find myself riding in a vehicular lane than being forced to move from the bike lane into traffic repeatedly.
Though I appreciate their existence, the bike lanes in Manhattan are largely symbolic. Manhattan needs more bike paths or wider bike lanes. If people felt safer, more would ride. Then a bike sharing system might work.
The private company that own most of these is CLEAR CHANNEL - If you don't belive in what thsi company has done to the live music industry and billboards, say NO to the city hosting these programs for them...
How are shared bikes made to adjust for many different sized people? I'm 6'2" and my girlfriend is 5'2". I've tried to ride her bike before and it was painful. She tried to ride mine, and she fell off.
I am all for this project--but please do not give us disinformation. Saying that Paris gets as cold as NYC is completely ridiculous.
why is the city wasting an opportunity to create a bike lane across Houston St?
As a cyclist in Manhattan, I would assert that it's actually a BAD idea to try to enforce stop light laws on cyclists. Reality is that most of the cars on the streets are commercial -- cabs, town cars, and trucks -- all of which are driven by men who are NEVER going to accept bicycles. My life is threatened nearly every day on my commute from East Village to my office at Columbus Circle, most often by someone driving a vehicle that fits into one of these categories.
I try to avoid as much danger as possible, by stopping at each red light, looking both ways, waiting for a safe opportunity, then running the light. If I'm lucky, I can stay ahead of all the traffic enough to stay safe. If bikes were to start piling up at traffic lights, I would wager that the death rate would rise, mostly at the hands of road-raging professional drivers (and pimped out sports cars with Jersey plates of course).
Toronto had a really interesting and effective bikeshare program until 2006. I don't know why it closed but they left their website up in order to promote replication and adaption of their model - http://www.communitybicyclenetwork.org/bikeshare
My daily ride from 181st to 28st down the westside path is often the highlight of my day and keeps me in love with New York.
As a disabled person who can use a bicycle, this program would be a boon for me.
Why is it that every single driver breaks the law (speeding, honking, etc), and while cars kill people and pollute our air, as soon as you mention bicycles, you have to mention running red lights? Please, Lenny, next time you mention a car, mention those not yielding to pedestrians in crosswalks, honking, talking on a phone while driving, car alarms that keep going off, idling, etc...
The piece is called a cross arm.
Here is the problem from my perspective, the roads are narrow and the bike paths are few and far in between (even when they are assigned as such, they are not actually "safe", I wouldnt ask my friend to bike over if they normally didn't bike around on the mean streets).
Well, here is a scenario, I am biking over to my office in the east village. I am thinking that it is ...no problem! It's a few miles but most of the route is clearly marked with assigned bike lanes. Here I go now.... Cycle cycle cycle, aaaahhhhh, braaaaaaaaaakkkkkkkkkeeeeeeeeeeee! I almost got doored! whoa alright. No actually, there is a cabbie or some insolent driver trying to go around a stopped car and wait where was that bike lane????? Do you get my gist?
Biking is great if you like living on the edge but if you just want to get to work and back without being some ironic piece of flattened human...well... The point is right now, biking is just not a safe option for the average hard-assed ny-er. The roads aren't big enough for street parking, buses, bicycles, personal cars, cabs etc.
NO MENACE OF VENICE
Venice allows no cars on its streets,
Something everyone likes;
Further Venetian bonus for all:
Positively no bikes.
THE AUSPICIOUS WISEGUY
Typical Venetian morality
is informed by religion.
Were Leon Freilich to rhyme in St. Mark's Square
He'd be pooped on by a pigeon.
Paris is neither as cold as New York in winter nor as hot as New York in summer. But it rains more here. So climate is not a big difference.
I was surprised by the lack of bikes and motorcycles in NYC. Bikes may be dangerous, but why no motorbikes?
Vélib in Paris is financed by JC Decaux (not Clear Channel, but similar). The money comes from the outdoor advertising displays (mainly on sidewalks). Does NYC have a similar set-up?
Plenty of problems here because of the hills.... I live in Ménilmontant, and you can never find a bike at the top of the hill...
My friends from other states have asked me why New York does not adopt a program like the Paris bike sharing. I thought it would never work in NY because of the tremendous quantity and speed of the traffic here would scare most potential bike commuters. Furthermore, theft and vandalism would be an issue, and the bikes would be trashed in no time!
For bike sharing to work, we would need much more space in the city for bikes and pedestrians, but the current public space is dedicated to automobiles, both parking and moving. Since many drivers think parking and road use is a constitutional right, politicians will not take back for cyclists and pedestrians the space we need but which is already dedicated to cars.
This thread is closed.
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