Cyclists on CPW on a recent Sunday. (
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New York City is a residential, business and an industrial city. It stays vibrant and ahead of other great cities around the world with new ideas and fierce competition. We are not a still quiet doll’s house where people and cyclists can go anywhere they wish without consequence. Most pedestrians are mindful of the dangers of crossing between huge tractor-trailers and simple cars. Bikers, however, seem to thrive on taking chances and then condemning others when they are hurt or killed. It is indeed a tragedy when someone loses their life in traffic.
We are a city where multi-ton equipment is moved to building sites everyday. Certain avenues are where these behemoths travel to get the equipment and building materials to the construction sites. Should the streets where trucks carry equipment and materials be used by bikers? Cyclists should be banned from these streets. Cars and trucks jockey for lanes as they move towards their goals. It is nearly impossible for the average driver to find a way to get into the proper lane, let alone an unprotected biker. And the city does not seem to care. Bike lanes with barriers are not the cure for this lack of safety as we all know that serious bikers flaunt the barriers and lanes. The city needs to ban bikes from certain roads completely.
Spending $54,000,000.00 on bike lanes sounds good, but it is a big splash meant to impress. When is the city going to spend the necessary money to require all bikes to have visible licenses so they can be accountable? When will the city require bikers to know the rules of the road? Why not have a rear view mirror, such as a small mirror located on the handlebar near a grip. There should be classes across the city to teach bikers safe driving and learn state regulations. The young woman from Australia who lost her life by pulling into the traffic lane on Central Park West had no experience driving on the right side of the road, as in Australia they drive on the left, where she would have pulled towards the sidewalk. This major difference in driving patterns can be confusing for all drivers.
Some of the mayor’s $54,000,000.00 needs to be spent on setting up a system to educate bikers for their safety and for pedestrian safety. Bikers fly through intersections, fly through red lights and threaten pedestrians all across the city. Not all bikers drive this way, but pedestrians need protection from bikers, too.