It was just before 7 am on a sunny Tuesday sunup in June 2016 when the ambulance arrived for the body . Leah Sylvain , a 27 twelvemonth - old Brooklyn resident , was riding her motorcycle northbound in the cycle lane of Bushwick ’s Evergreen Ave when the driver of a fuel truck travel the same counselling swung into her right - of - way . His truck strike her , and her head struck the pavement . By the metre the ambulance reached the infirmary , Leah Sylvain was all in .
It was the city ’s 5th cyclist fatality of the year ( the amount has since rise to 15 ; last yr at this time , theNew York Timesand others hadtallied11 ) , and there ’s no reason to expect these fucking deaths to stop . wheel deaths tend to be gruesome incident , given the free weight and speed differences between a cyclist and a moving vehicle . But fatalities like Sylvain ’s are also mostly preventable incident . And bar starts with the pattern of the streets themselves .
It ’s not that the city ’s cycling insightfulness has n’t made any progress . In the last 10 years , NYC has build over 500 mi of new bike lane . The city ’s head tally of daily cyclists is up around 70 % , and the Citi Bike computer program is append out - borough localisation this year . But New York City desperately needs more bike - lane infrastructure , particularly protected bicycle lane , which separate cyclists & footer from dealings by a forcible barricade , and can be up to 90 % safe than the unprotected lane Sylvain was killed in .
A ghost bike memorial for a killed NYC cyclist|Juan Aunion/Shutterstock
Better , smart wheel - lane infrastructure can at once pull through the life of New York’s780,000 regular bicycle riders . ( Full revealing : I ’m one of ‘ em . I frequently tantalize my bike in Brooklyn and Manhattan for commuting and leisure . ) Indirectly , it couldreduce car congestion , thin ridership on overcrowded underground , promote street - stratum Department of Commerce , and improve access to low-cost inter- and intra - borough transit .
So , why do n’t we have more of it ?
The bitter spat over parking spots
The long result is that New York City ’s street redesign efforts are mired in a morass of competing schedule : pedestrian guard , private property ownership , public redevelopment , political horse - trading , and pinch about gentrification ’s pitiless march .
But there ’s a short answer , too : parking . protect bike lanes , with their divider and buffer , necessitate some route place . Because “ we ’re not in the byplay of knocking down edifice to widen roads , ” says Caroline Samponaro , Deputy Director of Transportation Alternatives , in a headphone interview with Thrillist , pavement is a zero - sum game in NYC . To install a protect lane , a small amount of parking must be reallotted . The Lafayette St and 4th Ave protected lane , for example , traverse 15 northbound pulley-block , and want the NYC DOT toreappropriate25 parking topographic point ( of around 230 ) when install it in 2014 . Almost 90 % of that corridor hold curbside access .
If you ’re in the 60 % of city residents who do n’t own cars , those numbers probably voice reasonably serious . A duet of parking slur per block in exchange for fewer dead wheeler and pedestrians ? No - brainer ! But for the 3.3 million New Yorkers who drive , and the nigh 1 million non - resident who commute into the city by car each day , it ’s not that simple .
“ In portion of the urban center where most family have railroad car , there is tremendous oppositeness to motorcycle lanes , ” explained Tom Angotti , a Professor of Urban Affairs & Planning and Director of the Hunter College Center for Community Planning & Development , in an e-mail to Thrillist during the course of reporting for a September 2015 story . “ Homeowners with car tend to predominate on residential area boards where opposition to bike lane is common . ”
well , smarter wheel - lane infrastructure can like a shot save the lives of New York ’s 780,000 unconstipated bike riders .
And so , parking is a consistent rallying yell in the battle against bike lane . “ mass are battle it out [ against new cycle lanes ] to deliver a parking spot here and there , ” observed Samponaro . “ That talk to antecedence . Thathasto change , if safety is a precedence . ” It also has to change if New Yorkers ever go for to have a properly funded transportation system substructure ; around98 % of the city ’s about 4 million spot are detached , meaning land mile and mile of public belongings are being give away to auto - possessor while the respite of us sweat it out on the underground or risk riding on under - protected lanes .
The turning point: the NYC Biking Master Plan
A watershed moment came in 2007 , when Mayor Bloomberg appoint Janette Sadik - Khan as NYC DOT Commissioner . Under Sadik - Khan , the section begin sharply rearranging the metropolis ’s street , with an vehemence on implementing the 1997 NYC Biking Master Plan .
nimble account lesson : New York ’s theodolite infrastructure was overwhelmingly railcar - centric through most of the 20th century , thanks in no modest part to the three - decade sovereignty of infamous machine - phile and controversial urban planner Robert Moses . But since 1990 , NYC ’s general universe has swelled 16 % , consort to late US Censusestimates , while annual MTA ridership is up over 40 % in the same period . More and more New Yorkers search theodolite choice to dealings jam and crowded trains .
bicycle were an obvious pick . Since the rootage of the ' 90s , bike ridership has been up around 320 % . The explosive growth created an increase demand for redesigned street spaces , while mountingevidencesuggested free parking was little more than a public subsidy to secret car owners . All the while , cyclists kept getting kill . The city ’s human death counthoveredbetween 18 - 24 cyclists each year for the first one-half of the ' 00s . Something had to give .
Parking is a consistent rallying cry in the conflict against bicycle lanes .
Enter Sadik - Khan . Under her watch , NYC put in 35 naut mi of protect lane , which at the timerepresenteda third of all protect bicycle lane gas mileage nationwide . Several crucial intra - borough protected lane , like those on Kent Ave in Williamsburg and 9th Ave in Manhattan , were installed under her tenure . Daily bike trip , in turn , rocket from 210,000 in 2007 to 380,000 in 2013 , Sadik - Khan ’s last year in office . New Yorkers could see that if they ride in those lanes , they ’d be shielded from moving vehicles . When cycle no longer felt or count like a suicide mission , more people get doing it .
The political “bikelash”
Not everyone was pleased . critic bemoaned the changes as elitist , undemocratic , and European . They claimed lanes would cause more dealings , more crashes , andmoredeaths . ( All statistically false . ) Andwhatabout the parking spots ?
The datum from test cases irresistibly favors protect wheel lanes as a positive road feature of speech for all road drug user : full-bodied or poor , walk , equitation , or even drive . But numbers game are no mates against headlines like “ The motorcycle - lane cancer ” and “ Are urban bicyclist just elite snot ? ” Public opinion is a volatile beast led by loud voices , and Sadik - Khan ’s changes to the metropolis street were forte decried by its car drivers … and the political leader who wanted their vote .
“ Politicians hear the lesson,”wroteSadik - Khan in a March 2016 opinion piece inNew York Magazine . “ Bikes were defective politics . ” ( Through a congresswoman , the former commissioner wane to comment to Thrillist about her time in office . ) “ I ’d think that if you were a politico , and you walk into a room where a couple hundred multitude are screaming about a bike lane , you ’re not going to jump up to take a obstinate opinion , ” joke Doug Gordon , founder of bike protagonism blog Brooklyn Spoke .
The political house that bike lanesinspiredin NYC , on the other hand , was first - charge per unit . Take , for example , the battle for Prospect Park West . In 2009 , the NYC DOTpresenteda design to reduce speeding on the road by installing a 1.8 - mile , two - elbow room lane protected by a “ float ” lane of park cars . The undertaking was approved by a residential district board vote of 18 - 9 , and completed in June 2010 . ( Twenty - two parking smirch got reappropriated over 19 blocks , though the NYC DOTtoldtheNew York Timesin 2011 that 16 had been reinstated . ) Then the opponents – a small cell of occupier calling themselves senior for Safety and Neighbors for Better Bike Lanes – process the city , and the fun really began .
The causa wasbackedby a roll of political heavyweights who lived in the neighbourhood and claim the lane was destroying its character as a city turning point . Iris Weinshall , Sadik - Khan ’s predecessor at the NYC DOT and the married woman of Senator Chuck Schumer , was involve . So was Marty Markowitz , Brooklyn ’s colorful one - time Borough President ; Louise Hainline , the former dean of Brooklyn College ; and Randy Mastro and Norman Steisel , both former NYC deputy mayor .
These high - visibility Prospect Park West residents used their political and community influence with such frequency in the atomic number 82 - up to the courting that StreetsBlog , a interior safe - streets protagonism issue , actually build an entiresix - part investigative serieson the matter off of some well - calculate FOIA request . The intact thing is worth a read – from the emails Weinshall & Steiselexchangedabout using their clout to get a resident ’s anti - bike lane op - ed publish in theNew York Times , to Hainline’soutlininga plan to “ flip ” a city councilman ’s position on the lane by propose him access to Senator Schumer .
For a year , the merits of the Prospect Park West protected lane were a matter of opinion . Some powerful people clearly held substantial minus opinions . But in January 2011 , the datarolledin : crashes down 16 % , crash withinjuriesdown 63 % , speeding down 55 % … the lane was a categorical success .
And the suit ? After being throw out in 2011 on the statute of limitations , it wasreinstatedby an collection court in early 2016 . mean that after a solid half - decade of safe street and less speeding , there are still some folks in Park Slope who want to tear out that wheel lane . Why ?
Community boards don’t like to be bossed around
This brings us back to community boards . Bike - lane battles in NYC are sure enough about parking spots , but they ’re also about control – control over the charge per unit of variety that a neighborhood undergoes , and the gadget characteristic of that change .
Look at the recent flare - up at Clinton Hill ’s Community Board 2 over the NYC DOT ’s Clinton Ave street redesign proposal . The planwas ambitious : change the two - way street to northbound traffic only to throttle the frequent hurrying ( NYC DOTfoundup to 24 % of northbound vehicle over the speed limit ) , then instal a two - way of life protected bicycle lane stretching from the rapidly develop Navy Yard down to Atlantic Ave , to facilitate access and slim the number of cyclists using the avenue ’s broad pavement . And it had community support : an on-line survey of 1000 mass ( 75 % of which were residents of CB2 ) had shown 64 % documentation for the DOT ’s proposition .
So a confluence was scheduled for May 2016 to discuss the task . That meeting get ugly speedy , and stayed that way . Gothamistreportedthat almost 300 resident get out , “ the majority of whom appeared to be against ” the bicycle lane . This rig was so much higher than normal that after a three - hour coming together , there remained almost 70 the great unwashed expect to speak before the board . Two nights afterward , CB2 anticipate a spillover academic term , which I attended .
Amidst the common hand - wringing –But where will I unload my groceries?!– was an almost electrical anxiety towards neighborhood alteration . Here are a few telling quotes I scribbled down from the evening , spoken from the podium or shouted from the crowd by the mostly middle - aged & elderly house physician in attendance :
Nominally , these were protest to the bike lane proposal . But more broadly , they seem to be a reactionary grasp to control who changes the streets . As Vanderbilt Ave resident Esther BlounttoldDNAInfo at the first meeting , “ I sense like settler have tried to come into the community and separate the neighborhood what to do . ”
“ A liberal glass condo goes up , and you do n’t remark it until construction has begun , ” posited Gordon . “ Or an organic bakeshop or coffee shop go in . You ca n’t crusade those thing . But then DOT issue forth along and wants to move the parking over to create a protect bike lane , you might find like that ’s something you may fight back against . ”
To view cycling in NYC as a conspicuous affectedness of young , educated , upper - halfway - class New Yorkers is to sell it short .
Bike lanes and the threat of gentrification
Beneath the parking gripe and political favoritism that countenance bicycle - lane opposition in NYC lurks a fundamental anxiety about gentrification . From afar , it ’s easy to see why . Bike lanes are physical changes to the streets , and they forebode to convey new faces to the neighbourhood : tattooed 20 - somethings cruising Williamsburg on exclusive speeds , finance bros cutting up the East Village on Citi Bikes , aggro dads riding their pricey racers to Prospect Park … Et cetera .
( A short letter about those “ votes ” : According to the city ’s charter , community board vote arepurely advisory , which have in mind these group do n’t have any direct insurance policy - get power . If the city need to , it could listen to residents ’ objection , then go forward with the street redesign project anyway . Unilateral action like that is n’t unheard of ; de Blasio took it to drive through a street redesign on Queens ’ “ Boulevard of Death . ” It ’s rare , though , given the indirect pressure that community boards exert over local officials during elections . )
To view cycling in NYC as a blatant affectation of young , enlightened , upper - center - course New Yorkers is to trade it short , though . Nationally , census datasuggests that commuter cycling lessening as household income increases , and Ben Fried of StreetsBlog steer out that “ support for bike lanes in worldwide cuts across racial and income demographics in the city . ”
But to longtime residents with a lot to lose – parking , low-priced economic rent or property taxes , approach to places of Commerce Department and worship – street redesign often looks like the fragile ending of gentrification ’s pitiless cuneus . What if the rents go up , driving out miserable - income resident ? What if the rents go down , hurting property values ? What if no one can park near their shop , and all the shops close ?
In realism , the opposite isoften true . But in 2016 , the reverence of the unknown is occasionally still enough to motivate a broad coalition against a new bicycle lane . It has a real and chilling effect on bike lanes and the safety of the metropolis ’s riders . With blessings from neither the biotic community board , nor politician , the DOT was hale totableits Clinton Ave design just a month after the meeting I give ear .
Where we are now
In the meantime , New York ’s street remain bloody . Five days after Leah Sylvain ’s death , anothercyclistwas drink down by a gain - and - run number one wood in the Bronx . Less than four calendar week after that , a biker wasdraggedto his death by an aggressive smasher - and - run driver in Williamsburg .
Despite the black eye , safe - streets exponent are conservatively affirmative about the NYC DOT ’s other plan for 2016 . “ If [ the department ] can keep up the step of what they ’re doing this twelvemonth , we ’re choke to be in somewhat good conformation , ” mull over Fried . The protect bike lane on Chrystie St , which will provide a good approach to the 4,500 cyclists that utilise the Manhattan Bridge every 24-hour interval , passedwith flying colors at a merging of Community Board 3 . Amsterdam Ave ’s protected lane is finallytaking shape , despite the opposition the DOT faced in Community Board 7 in other 2016 .
“ It used to be that we ’d make one step ahead and two steps back , ” Doug Gordon state hopefully . “ I think it ’s the other way around now – two steps forward , and every once in awhile , one step back . ” Each setback to the urban center ’s redesign effort , though , deport potentially fatal consequences for New Yorkers . Leah Sylvain is just one of 15 cyclists remove on the pavement this class so far . The decease toll will climb , and nothing – not helmet laws , repaint sharrows , or NYPD cyclist crackdown – will cut it to zero as quickly as protect bike lanes . So let ’s build them .
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