[sustran] Bicycles - Improving the image

[J.H. Crawford]

>  First I'll explain my accident since it illustrates various points.  I
>was riding up Sixth avenue (which is one way northbound) in the new bike
>lanes the city had just built and provided.  From the western curb,
>where cars were parked, there was approx. 3 ft of white stripped bike
>lane.  This was shielded from traffic by a three inch high  elevated
>safty island some two feet across.  It stopped, at each intersection,
>short of the corners to provide a recess into which a 10 ft wide
>crosswalk was lined. 
>
>  Now, as I was comming north at a pretty good clip since the lane was
>clear and I had the lights, and there was no sign of the warning flash
>that the light at 42nd street just ahead of me would change. I
>maintained my speed because you don't want to get stuck at heavily
>trafficed 42nd street.  As I went into the intersection, watching all
>the way, the crowd at the curb on the northside of the intersection was
>stand on the curb!  Not out in the street as New Yorkers expect.  They
>were properly standing back on the sidewalk, thus the bike lane was
>clear.
>
>  Just as I entered the northside crosswalk, I saw the crowd line buckle
>a bit, this woman in a tan suit, came through crouched low and bolted in
>front of me.  Fortunately I'd picked up on the crowd line at the curb
>making some movement, so I was already braking.  But there was less than
>3ft and about .5 a second in which to operate so we collided.  She went
>down, and I of course toppled too. She got up and brushed herself off,
>gave me a nasty look and then turned to the crowd with a look of
>'appeal' she got stone-faced disapproval, and scurried on her way, still
>moving against the light.

This is a very clear-cut case, not what I was expecting at all.
The woman was clearly 100% at fault for this accident.

>  Anyway, they eventually had to remove the islands, so now all they
>have is a painted bike path. High cars, Trucks and Vans would straddle
>the islands and people waiting for parking spaces would block the many
>separations left to let parked cars in and out.  It was a mess.  But,
>from it all, I do remmeber and continue to thank the New York Pedestrian
>in my prayers for their efforts to try to make some order out of what is
>usually kamikazie catch-as-catch-can traffic/pedestrian space use.  Who
>would even think from their experience on NYC streets that beneath it
>all there is a burning desire for order?  

Oh, absolutely. It's the only way New Yorkers manage to survive.
New York is in fact the most orderly city I've ever seen
(never been to Tokyo).



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J.H. Crawford    Crawford Systems    joel at xs4all.nl    http://www.mokum.com/