The Brooklyn Heights Bike War – Promenade Edition

There should be a nice bike path through the promenade. Why not? It would a great addition to this public recreational space.

Bikes are here to stay. Perhaps it WOULD be a good idea to require that cyclists be licensed before being permitted to ride.

But that issue has nothing to do with the legitimacy of selective law enforcement.

if you don’t like a law, get it changed, but disregarding it because it isn’t enforced doesn’t wash.

zburch, that “entitlement” you speak of is a constitutional right. If the arguments regarding this issue were a bike lane, it would extend to the moon and back but we’d still be no closer to resolving it. What I find ironic is that both camps seem to be coming from a similar POV, namely one that’s left of center. I don’t think that the bikers are truly against people excercising their First Amendment rights or that the church-goers are truly against green initiatives. As far as I’m concerned (as I’ve tried to make people realize in my posts) the real villians in all of this are the city planners who overreached their mandate to go green and installed bike lanes with no forethought as to the ramifications on the area they were installed in. As much as we’d like to think that this argument lives and dies on Henry Street, it’s one that’s being discussed city-wide. There has to be better sensitivity on both sides, but most importantly, on the part of the city when making their initial decisions (which, btw, I don’t think the neighborhood was privy to in advance)

When biker riders, whether they are the baseball-cap, Chinese-food-on-the-handlebars crew, or the baby-on-board contingent, or the Ciao-bella-Breaking-Away-Spandex crowd, stop at red lights and stop signs, and travel only with the traffic, then I will care about bike-lane “abuse.” But a significant part of me doesn’t understand why there should be bike lanes at all, especially in a neighborhood of narrow streets and slower speeds, or in a city in which roadway real estate is as crowded as it is.
As for the Promenade, there are too many wee ones and old ones and mesmerized ones to think throwing a bike in motion into the mix is a good idea. As for the church-bike issue, I can’t call up a whole of of enthusiasm for the debate; I actually am curiously uplifted by seeing the Sunday gaggle, with cars all over the place, attending OL of Lebanon. But that’s just me. A side note: those of you who know Pepe must find it noteworthy that a man, who owns one of the most gorgeous buildings in the Heights (and keeps getting rid of the City’s garbage can on his corner so as not to detract from his house) doesn’t seem particularly bothered by the cars on his sidewalk on Sunday.

Homer, depends on the entertainment and the catering. (And of course whether the meeting will be in 3D.)

As for a caterer, well, there’s only one possibility and that’s…..

Great Wa…OK, I’ll stop now.

Look at the bright side, at least we are not talking about “gravel”!

Kyle — That is an awful story, and from your description, it sounds as though it could have been so much worse. And I hope you mend; but your anecdote doesn’t argue for cyclists to make it up as they go along. Unspeakable accidents befall car drivers and others who were following the rules of the road — so should everyone sort of wing it as they see fit? Perhaps if cyclists routinely followed the rules, cars and pedestrians would view them as less of a loose-cannon threat: as it stands, I am more likely to cross the street (with the light) or drive through an intersection when I see a car approaching its red light than when I see a bike — I am a bit more confident that the car will stop.
That this is an ongoing debate seems so senseless.

It’s one thing when I get annoyed by the comments on this blog. It’s another when the site owner gets into the fray in this fashion.

That’s it for me and BHB.

As you’re so fond of saying… Buh-bye!

The main reason that so many bikers disregard traffic rules comes from the fact that bicycles are treated as third-class users of the public space.

Cars have the traffic lanes. Pedestrians have the sidewalks. Bicycles don’t belong with pedestrians on the sidewalk, because cyclists are much faster than pedestrians and mixing the two is very dangerous. Bicycles don’t belong in the street, because cars are much heavier and faster the cyclists and potentially very dangerous for cyclists.

Now if there was a place for this intermediate speed transportation to go — faster than a sidewalk, slower than a street — that was as fully fleshed out and well connected as the street network, and not consistently encroached upon so that cyclists need to go out into faster moving traffic to get around obstructions, then there would be no need for cyclists to selectively choose which traffic laws to obey.

When the infrastructure allows cyclists to safely ride while obeying traffic laws (and the city as a whole is getting much closer to that), then the traffic cops should start cracking down on blatant violations, like if there’s a southbound street with a bike lane one block over, you shouldn’t be riding like a salmon against traffic on the northbound street.

Our neighborhood’s bike lanes are an asset– something that increases the attractiveness of our community, reduces congestion, reduces noise, and improves the health of our residents.

And in an area with NINE subway lines, there is no rational reason for most people to drive anywhere. I am very happy that people visit our area on a weekly basis to worship in our many religious institutions, but they must follow the same laws as the rest of us– as should bicyclists on the Promenade.

Homer-
CHURCHES ARE TOO DAMN DANGEROUS, doncha know — certainly more dangerous than bikers on the Promenade or parkers in the bike lanes…

What about all those rabid anti-abortionists, creationists, homophobes and, worst of all, child-abusing clergy.

Give me a biker any day!

And why can’t all those fine church-goers park in the Cadman Towers garage or at 1 Brooklyn Bridge Park? If I’ve gotta ride my bike around those cheap churchgoers one more time (and if they keep blocking my building), think there may be a few more keyed cars on Henry Street.

(Unless Minka stops me, of course…)

@ nabeguy, FYI: Surprisingly, the NYC bike helmet law is only for kids under the age of 12 and working cyclists. Personally, I think it should cover everyone.

Your statement:
“As far as I’m concerned (as I’ve tried to make people realize in my posts) the real villians in all of this are the city planners who overreached their mandate to go green and installed bike lanes with no forethought as to the ramifications on the area they were installed in”.
The city actually did do a lot of planning before installing the bike lanes. they certainly did not “overreach their mandate” If you get a copy of the free NYC Cycle Map, you can see just how well thought out and extensive the system of bike lanes is. It would be ridiculously impractical for the city planners to listen to every petty gripe from every property owner abutting a bike lane. The city and the environment benefit from the increase of cycling and the decrease of cars… so like it or not, the lanes are going in.
As far as the Henry St bike lane. What other route would you propose? Henry is the only southbound street running through this section of Brooklyn that isn’t a commercial traffic nightmare.

@ Everyone: If you drive, stay on your side of the street. If you walk, stay on the sidewalk. If you bike, stay in the bike lane. If you want to park your car, stay out of the bike lane and off the sidewalk. If you don’t like it, stay home.

Homer is relatively new to the neighborhood, but nabeguy, and many others (myself included) have lived here for decades. I’m sure that people have been bicycling in Brooklyn Heights and people parking outside the Presbyterian Church long before the bicycle lanes were installed. I do not recall anybody ever complaining about this as a major community issue. Admittedly, Sunday morning I am watching the political programs, but if it was such a life-threatening condition, I think I would’ve heard about it. Perhaps there is someone they can offer some historical perspective on bicycling in the neighborhood before the beloved lanes.

@TK, is it cool with you if the parishoners park in handicapped spots for just a few hours a week?

Bike ridership is up all over the city. The fact that the church was there for a long time – so what? What if I had an outdoor shooting range in Brooklyn before the church? Do I get grandfathered in?

@nabeguy
The lanes are put in with the input of the Community Planning Boards.