Breaking News: Court Victory in New York on the Prospect Park West cycle track.
A judge on Tuesday dismissed an effort by Brooklyn residents to remove a hotly contested bicycle lane installed by the city on Prospect Park West, in one of the most closely watched controversies over a signature policy of the Bloomberg administration….
The plaintiffs, a pair of well-connected civic groups in Brooklyn with ties to Iris Weinshall, a former city transportation commissioner, had accused the city’s Transportation Department of cherry-picking statistics to create a favorable portrait of the lane and misleading residents about its benefits. …
The suit, filed in March, had come to encapsulate a moment of unusual civic strife over one of City Hall’s most notable policies. The city and its supporters say bicycle lanes are progressive, healthy additions to streets that reduce traffic accidents and promote more environmentally friendly modes of transport. Opponents have accused the city of neglecting the needs of car drivers and say the lanes can create dangers for pedestrians.
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The Sadik-Khan Strategy
With good timing, a Slate profile of NYC Transportation Commissioner, Janette Sadik-Khan – and how she wins her battles.
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Coincidentally, Streetsblog NYC has just done a report on the study of our bike lanes: Vancouver Merchants Badly Misjudge Effect of Protected Bike Lanes.
Some helpful comparisons to other cities too.
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Meanwhile, back in our ‘burbs, Frances Bula reports:
Suburban planners struggle to boost cycling
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David Suzuki weighs in on the bike lanes:
Most arguments against bike lanes are absurd. Consider this: we have wide roads everywhere to accommodate cars, most of which carry only one person. On either side of many of those roads, we have pedestrian sidewalks. In most large urban areas, we also have bus lanes and transit systems such as subways and rapid transit. When cyclists ride on roads, drivers often get annoyed. If they ride on sidewalks, pedestrians rightly get angry.
Human-powered transportation will only get more popular as gas prices rise and as the negative consequences of our car-centric culture increase. We should be doing everything we can to discourage single-occupant automobile use while encouraging public transit and pedestrian and pedal-powered movement.
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Despite critics, Vancouver will keep its cycle tracks
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That’s Philip Langdon’s conclusion at the New Urban Network . He does a good summary piece on the cycle tracks, and includes extensive quotes from a Helsinki study that debunks separated cycle tracks:
Some Vancouver residents remain cool to elements of the bike network, as can be seen in messages posted on Vancouver news sites in response to the recent reports. One Straight.com reader pointed out that the Traffic Planning Division in Helsinki, Finland, has advised against cycle tracks, especially two-way cycle tracks, in dense urban locales.
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