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posted by janrinok on Wednesday November 16 2016, @03:28AM   Printer-friendly
from the oi,-shift! dept.

It's barely been a week since New York started allowing people to go online and report vehicles blocking bike lanes, and the city has already logged more than 200 of these annoying and dangerous violations.

As predicted on CityLab, there now exists a map of illegal parking in bike lanes. Based on tips to New York's 311 app and website, the city-produced map shows alleged lane violations occurring mostly in Manhattan and Brooklyn with a decent smattering in Queens. Red dots indicate situations where the police "responded to the complaint and took action to fix the condition," according to NYC Open Data. Blue ones denote where police decided "action was not necessary," where the offending vehicle had skedaddled before cops arrived, and complaints with insufficient info from tipsters.

Drivers block bike lanes because city blocks do not have designated unloading zones.


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 16 2016, @03:47PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 16 2016, @03:47PM (#427553)

    which means, essentially, that cyclists will have to slow down to near pedestrian speed at every intersection, in order to be safe. Makes cycling really unattractive to anybody who actually wants to get somewhere.

    Poor babies... How about the other 99% of the traffic on the road that has to "slow down" for the safety of the bicyclists? Bikers are too good to slow down for their own safety? There is a guy that bikes home every day up the busiest street (a six lane clusterfuck) in my town every day at 5:00. Apparently, red traffic lights don't apply to cyclists, because I see him regularly cross busy intersections against the light. There were a few times I thought he was going to die for his stupidity. The worst part is that the city build a bike path and fucking million dollar bike/pedestrian bridge just to get assholes like this guy off that road. And bicyclists wonder why car drivers hate to see them on the road.

    When I bike to work, I use side and back roads that are less busy. Sure, it takes me an extra half mile, but I'm not an inconsiderate asshole clogging up the busiest road in town at rush hour.

  • (Score: 2) by Scruffy Beard 2 on Wednesday November 16 2016, @05:56PM

    by Scruffy Beard 2 (6030) on Wednesday November 16 2016, @05:56PM (#427647)

    You misunderstand.

    To use segregated bike lanes (and side-roads) safely, you need to stop at every intersection to check for turning cars. If I travel on the main road with everybody else, most intersections are protected by stop signs.

    I generally only get off the road when I am too tired to maintain, say, 12km/h.

    Generally, if there is more than one lane, drivers are free to go around.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 16 2016, @07:40PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 16 2016, @07:40PM (#427716)

      You misunderstand.

      To use segregated bike lanes (and side-roads) safely, you need to stop at every intersection to check for turning cars. If I travel on the main road with everybody else, most intersections are protected by stop signs.

      This is a prime reason why there is such a chasm with motorists and bicyclists. Bicyclists do not see any inconveniences suffered by motorists as relevant or significant, yet their own inconveniences are exceptional.