Saturday, October 24, 2009

Bike Lanes an Issue in NYC Mayor's Race

Not that I care about the NYC mayoral race, but a one of my NYC Facebook friends posted this and it caught my eye.

Mayoral Hopeful Thompson Talks Tough on Bike Lane Menace

That controversial Grand Street bike lane, beloved by cyclists and loathed by some business owners because it makes receiving deliveries onerous, now has a new enemy: Democratic mayoral candidate Bill Thompson. The comptroller was in Chinatown doing some pandering campaigning yesterday when he announced that, if elected, he would tear up that dedicated bike lane, which is buffered from traffic by a row of motor vehicle parking. Thompson told voters, "I'm in favor of bike lanes but you can't put bike lanes in without speaking to the community. You can't put bike lanes that are doing damage to local businesses."
Of course, Streetsblog was like, Did he really just say that? The local community board approved the Grand Street bike lane project 33 to 1! We all know truth is the first casualty of campaigning, but it's interesting to see the city comptroller paint bike lanes as bogeymans stymieing economic prosperity.(John del Signore, The Gothamist, 9-18-09)
Just to make Houston cyclists jealous, here is a photo of the Grand Street bike lane.

Grand Street NYC
(photo by  ratherbebiking)

Just to compare, here's a Houston bike lane on Cavalcade.

bike lane on Cavalcade

Sigh.

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