Neighborhood Threat

At this point I’m the last blogger in Brooklyn to write about <a href=”http://www.nag-brooklyn.org/blog/2008/09/guest-post-safe-biking-in-north.html”>the terrible accident between a bike rider and a Northside car service driver</a>. A letter was sent out to the community and CB1 urging a boycott of Northside, and there was some debate back and forth on the CB1 mailing list about the virtues of this approach.

The points made in the letter boiled down to the fact that in many people’s opinions, Northside has been a bad neighbor, as follows:

• Drivers idle in bus stops, causing the buses to have to stop in the middle of the street. That causes traffic to back up and subsequent delays. (Drivers are not allowed by law to solicit fares on the street. Car service has to be called. There’s a different set of laws than with yellow cabs.)
• Drivers pull up to collect their fares and honk, instead of asking the dispatcher to call the fare and tell them the car is waiting. I can attest to that. I’ve had drivers pull up to our house and honk when I was standing right outside.

My position on the list was that even given all of this - which many vehicles in the neighborhood are guilty of (Mobile Wash units, off-duty ambulances, armored cars) - the issue appeared to be with the individual DRIVER and not the entire fleet of cars.

Since the original call went out (which didn’t come from the injured cyclist), Northside has met with the victim and is covering all of his medical bills. The cynic in me could say, “That’s only because they got caught.” To me, Northside has always been reputable. There’s always a bad egg in every company - I can tell you about the car service we use at the office who tried to take me home to Greenpoint via the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel - but I am glad that this is being resolved.

If you read the interview linked at the top of the item, the cyclist makes many excellent points about bike lanes and what they bring to the community, and also reminds drivers AND CYCLISTS of their responsibilities.

On that note, the CB1 debate brought up a popular complaint of mine, inconsiderate cyclists on the Pulaski Bridge. I understand that it sucks. I understand you don’t want to dismount. But I’ve been run into TWICE, deliberately, by cyclists trying to make a point. I’m not going to ask you to walk your bike across the bridge, but pedestrians get the right of way, and if you have to get off for half a second, deal with it. Just deal with it.

And show up to the CB1 Transportation Committee meeting, where they plan on discussing how to ameliorate that problem.