New York at the SAME TIME
About 9 days ago, this article was in the New York Times.
It was the story of a lawful good cyclist who, for the sake of the law, god and country, stopped at every red light.
The NYtimes article was actually published on the same day that 100PSI wrote his article about stopping at every red light for a week. Weird, right? It’s like we’re all connected, man. And then everyone tears off their business suits, and they’re all wearing tie-dye.
So, this week some readers responded to the good cyclist. One was a biker who blamed not-stopping on the unruly New York pedestrians. This sort of makes sense at first – I mean the pedestrians in NYC (as well as Boston) are terrible, but wouldn’t they be worse if you were trying to run a red? Two true statements does not an argument make.
The other response was from a non-biker who said we need more regulation, and hadn’t thought about how expensive it is to regulate something.
I love watching the NY cycling debate unfold at the same time as the Boston debate. It’s weird because (from my perspective) New Yorkers seem to have a wider cycling base, and roughly 20 times the amount of bike lanes as Boston (400 vs. 20, right?). It just reminds me that we have a lot of ways to go; New York has done so much in the way of physical infrastructure and they are still in the same place that we are.
As much as I hate to say it, it’s shit like running red lights that is going to make the difference in the end.
Heart and minds, you assholes. That’s what we need.
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