It seems to take a long time to make streets safer for bicyclists. Nicole Freedman made a great start in Boston in 2011, but riders are still being hit in 2015. At the Atlantic magazine’s “City Lab” blog, Sarah Goodyear writes about the latest techniques of vigilantes working to make New York City’s streets safer.
“They showed up on the street on the morning of October 7 — 25 orange traffic cones marking the bike lane that runs northbound on Chrystie Street in lower Manhattan. Several had sunflowers poking up out of their necks.
“The cones were the work of an anonymous group that announced its intentions on Twitter, calling itself the ‘Transformation Department.’ …
“The Chrystie Street bike lanes — one on the northbound side of the street and one on the southbound — are one of the city’s main commuter routes, providing key access to and from the Manhattan Bridge, which connects Brooklyn and Manhattan. Thousands of people ride the route everyday …
“But the infrastructure remains painfully inadequate in the eyes of many advocates for safer streets. …
“Installing flexible bollards to keep cars out of the bike lane would be one example of an improvement that would not require a street redesign and that could be implemented relatively quickly, says [activist David ‘Paco’] Abraham. Instead, even maintaining the status quo has proven difficult.
“An NYC DOT spokesperson said in an email that a proposal for a two-way bike lane [is] under review. …
“The makeshift safety cone installations are the most visible manifestation of the frustration that advocates and bike commuters like Abraham feel over the disconnect between the city’s stated policies and its actions on the street. ‘We’re tired of seeing people injured,’ says Abraham. …
“The Department of Transformation has clearly captured the imagination of some New Yorkers with its efforts. This week they set up a GoFundMe page to pay for more cones and raised $1,000 in a single day. Abraham says the ever-growing community of people who ride bikes — and more broadly, of New Yorkers who want the streets to be safe for all users — no longer will be satisfied with a minimalist approach to bike infrastructure.”
More here.
Photo: Streetfilms
A cyclist uses the Chrystie Street bike lane in lower Manhattan. 
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