Rich Mintz  

I had a brief conversation with someone this afternoon who, discovering that I had arrived by bicycle to meet him, could not believe that I would ride a bicycle on the streets of New York. He was a lifelong New Yorker (I’m guessing), somewhat older but not vastly older than me, who was apparently of the opinion that biking in Manhattan was something that only a crazy person would do. Among the things he said were (1 – in jest, I assume) that taxi drivers steer directly for bicyclists, and (2 – apparently seriously) that he would never let his children ride bicycles.

Obviously people have their own opinions based on their own experiences, and have a right to, and I know nothing about why this person formed his. But this point of view is empirically disconnected from contemporary reality for someone (like me) who is on a bike every day in Manhattan.

Aside from the measure of unavoidable risk associated with being on a small bicycle immediately adjacent to large wheeled missiles controlled by fallible humans, it is only extremely rarely that I feel physically in danger on a bike in New York City. I am, obviously, a competent street bicyclist, in good health, unafraid to take the lane, large enough that it is less likely I won’t be seen, alert when I’m riding and free with my bell, smart and self-protective enough to stop at red lights. But still.

Drivers in New York City obey the law and are accustomed to driving safely in tight quarters without hitting anything, and (as I’ve said previously) taxi drivers are the ones I fear the least. All NYC drivers stop at red lights (or yellow lights), with exceptions being so rare as to be notable. NYPD traffic control officers understand the flow of traffic and work to keep it moving, and without exception have always respected my right to be in the road and treated safely by other road users. (More than once I’ve seen a NYPD officer yelling at a motorist who put a bicyclist at risk.) I’m on extra-high alert whenever an SUV with out-of-state plates is nearby, and near tunnel and bridge approaches; but elsewhere in Manhattan, where most drivers are locals, I am by and large treated with respect.

I bike 30 or more miles in Manhattan in a typical week, and virtually all of it is on roadway on which DOT signage clearly indicates bicycles are welcome. Almost all of that is in designated bike lanes or on designated bike paths, and more than half of that is on separated paths, where pedestrians stepping into the street without looking pose the primary hazard. (See above: I have a loud bell, and I use it when I need to.) And I cover the whole city, up and down from 125th Street to the Battery, west and east sides. There are a few places I avoid because traffic volume is heavy and a pain in the ass, but there’s no place I avoid because drivers are reckless. They aren’t.

In the past few weeks I’ve biked in Chicago and in DC and I found the same situation. Social attitudes are changing, thank God. I can’t speak for the suburbs (the two places I felt physically at risk on a bike were on the Roosevelt Bridge in DC and on the Pulaski Avenue viaduct in southwest Chicago, one used primarily by suburban commuters and the other fairly distant from the central core), but in the city, bicycles are becoming respected and coming to be expected as road users. And, in a virtuous cycle, this encourages people who aren’t trendsetters or early adopters to take up the practice. Tonight I saw a woman pulling her daughter in a trailer in the left lane of 9th Avenue in heavy afternoon traffic — she even ran a red light, which shocked me but is indicative of her sense of safety and control.

Tags: bikes, NYC

ShareThis

This entry was posted on Monday, September 19th, 2011 at 9:00 pm. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.