[sustran] Bicycles - Improving the image

[Obwon]

J.H. Crawford wrote:
> 
> We're treading on contentious turf here, so let me start by
> saying what I think about bicycles PERSONALLY.
> 
[...]

  Sidewalk cyclist:

  It is important to know some of the background of what causes this
problem.  Here in NYC, most cyclists aren't interested in riding on
sidewalks crowded with pedestrian traffic.  We prefer the streets
because we can often move faster will less probablity of collision since
pedetrians can and do move about on the sidewalks in unexpected ways. 
People talk walking backwards, stop suddenly and turn around etc., 

  Yet...  Dilivery people use the sidewalks, not just because they are
pressed for time  as in -deliver the meal while it's hot or the boss
yells -- But also because cars at the curbside are often parked so
tightly bumper to bumper, that you can't get to the sidewalk except from
the corners.  The nearest lampost to lock up, may well be several
hundred feet past your destination.  So that too induces time pressed
riders to ride to it to save time. 

  Our city blocks, the crosstown ones are about 1/6 mile in length or
so.  They are indeed very narrow, except for the main crosstown streets
-- 
 
1. Houston street (approx. 1 st.)
2. 14th street (about 1 mile north)
3. 23rd street
4. 42nd street
5. 57th street

 Which gives you some idea of how far the wide crosstown streets are
spaced.  Now, the average crosstown street in NY is usually a north and
south side curb lane with parking and one and a half lanes, one way east
or west, of travel space.

 This means that double parked cars or cars waiting, discharging
passengers or picking them up, vans and trucks making deliveries, as
well as garbage trucks making collections, cause the street to become so
tightly blocked that even a bike can't squeeze through.  Messengers,
delivery people, of course are pressed because their time means money,
being paid on commissions or tips, they need to keep their units high.

  Even casual bikers are vexed by such situations and are not willing to
wait (sometimes as much as a half an hour) for traffic to clear on an
over used block.  So they are forced onto the sidewalks to get around
these jams which can cost them terrible amounts of time.  Time which
drivers can usually make up by simply driving faster.  For bikers there
no such out. A radio assisted biker could make one or two deliveries in
that half hour, resulting in a possible 5 to 7 dollars earnings, every
penny of which they need very badly.  Delivery people are usually on
hourly, but they get chewed out and may lose their jobs if they deliever
meals cold.  Quite obviously these people don't take these jobs because
they are the best of several competing options avaliable to them.  So
they are under extreme pressures to make things workout for themselves.

  So these things need to be considered when rulemaking/traffic design
is under consideration.  Instead, the city council has threatened these
already struggling people with 150 dollar fines and the loss of their
bikes, for taking actions they deemed necessary to either keep their
jobs or make those jobs pay.  If the police had strickly enforced these
laws, thankfully they do not, the messenger and bike delivery industries
would be effectively closed down.  Delivery people could observe these
laws, but then they'd be seen by their employers as ineffective in
getting deliveries made properly. 

  Messengers could observe these laws, but then they'd make fewer
deliveries, make fewer commissions and not be able to hold on to the job
becauee of the reduction in pay.  Bosses/companies could try to either
raise prices (not much luck there, believe me they've tried) or by
hireing more bikers.  Either way everyone suffers and that's even before
these bikers get any fines or have their bikes confiscated, which of
course put them out of business entirely.  

  The casual rider too feels entitled to break these laws because they
seem so unfair.  People jay walk with impunity, so why shouldn't they be
allowed to proceed through an intersection, against the light and after
the traffic/pedestrians are clear?  Why should thay have to sit the full
minute, 1 $ 1/2 to 2 minutes when foot and auto traffic have cleared in
fifteen to twenty seconds?  Standing there with the bike on an empty
street waiting for a light to change, while the light at the next block
is green and will probably turn red before they get to it too.

  People who can and do ride bikes, hear of these dramatic enforcement
programs and know that they aren't likely to enjoy riding under such
strict and improper rules, simply stop riding bikes and stop planing
too.  If they haven't money to pay public transit fares, many of the
trips they would make are simply abandoned.  So it doesn't result in
more transit fares and more deliveries will be assigned to motorized
vehicles.

  Obwon