There are some things "real" New Yorkers never do. They include walking three (or more) abreast on sidewalks, eating cupcakes*, going to Times Sqaure (at least since it's been Disney-fied), Hudson Yards, Radio City Music Hall or Statue of Liberty.
I confess that I once went to RCMH for a holiday performance and, honestly, enjoyed it. But I've never been to the Statue of Liberty or Hudson Yards, and have only passed through TS en route to or from the Port Authority Bus Terminal since "the Deuce" was turned into a shopping mall/amusement park.
Then there are things no "real"--or at least in-the-know--New York cyclist does. Among them are riding across the Brooklyn Bridge for any reason or the Queensboro/Ed Koch (a.k.a. 59th Street) Bridge except to reach places in Midtown or Long Island City. The last time I went across the BB, a couple of years ago, I had to dodge and weave around selfie-takers and people who stroll across it without understanding that, even though the path is closed to motor traffic, it isn't a bucolic lane in their hometown. And, while I occasionally use the 59th Street, if I am going anywhere that isn't in Midtown Manhattan, I take another crossing, whether the Manhattan or Williamsburg Bridges for downtown Manhattan and the Staten Island Ferry) or the Triborough for uptown spots and the George Washington Bridge.
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| Cyclists and pedestrians on the Queensboro/Ed Koch/59th Street Bridge. Photo by Clarence Eckerson Jr, October 2019. |
While the Brooklyn is full of people, sometimes nearly shoulder-to-shoulder, who aren't paying attention to their surroundings, the 59th Street Bridge (what real New Yorkers call it) bike/pedestrian lane is simply too narrow. Others have echoed my complaint and have told me, or written on message boards, that they try to use the other crossings I've mentioned.
The city, it seems, has heard our complaints. Yesterday, Mayor Bill de Blasio has announced that new bike lanes will be built on the Brooklyn and 59th Street Bridges.
I must say, though, that I have mixed feelings. My hope is that the new lanes--and, more important, the approaches to them--will be well-designed. As I've lamented in other posts, too many bike lanes are poorly-conceived or -constructed, going from nowhere to nowhere or, worse, leaving cyclists (and, often, pedestrians) in hazardous spots, forcing them to make stops and turns that leave them vulnerable to being struck by motor vehicles.
I also must confess that new bike lanes will be built leaves me with another kind of apprehension. Other cyclists have confirmed my impression that aggression and hostility from motorists has increased. That rage was echoed in a "man in the street" interview broadcast on a local news station: The interviewee, whose first name is Spiro (I didn't catch his last name) complained, "the mayor is building bike lanes when there's a pandemic." He added, half-jokingly, that he was going to run for mayor and, if elected, the first thing he'd do is to "get rid of the bike lanes."
His comments were tinged, I thought, with class resentment: I could practically hear him thinking that cyclists are "privileged" on the backs of poor and working people like him. That, I think is what led him to the false equivalency: Building bike lanes doesn't detract from the fight against COVID-19 or anything else. If anything, building lanes, if done properly, can be part of the battle, and the work that needs to be done after: Cycling is good for physical and mental health, and can be done while maintaining proper social distancing.
All we can do is hope: that the new lanes will be well-designed and -built, and that folks like Spiro will come around.
*--In his Vanishing New York, Jeremiah Moss wondered, " [I]s there anything more blandly sweet, less evocative of this great city and more goyish than any other baked good with the possible exception of Eucharist wafers than the cupcake?"
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