Streets for People.
There was an interesting discussion on the Brian Lehrer show earlier about pedestrian plazas, hostile honking and other transit transitions in a city that is rethinking the role of streets and how they are shared.
If you ride a bike in the Big Apple, you might notice a few things:
-There are more people riding. 
-There are more bike paths.
-There are still plenty of potholes.
-There are higher hostilities from drivers.
While the city’s most biker-friendly transportation commissioner yet is changing the face of city streets with more pedestrian plazas and cycling infrastructure, it seems that we are still living in a transit limbo. We still lag far behind places that intentionally value and promote bike culture. Copenhagen is the ideal model on an international scale with bike lanes that are practically as large as street lanes. And Colorado is considering the creation of a bike lane for the commute specifically from Boulder to Denver. But in New York City, while the numbers are growing, there still aren’t enough people to populate such lanes. So, bikers continue to ride on both sides of one way streets–which is legal as long as you are still moving with traffic. Or, they ride entirely illegally, in the face of oncoming traffic. Either way, cars do indeed seem frustrated and yes, the honking has intensified
But in my opinion, there is still a sense–or perhaps a growing sense–that your ride is a political statement and not just a form of transit. This is especially so in parts of Manhattan where biking is the opposite of enjoyable except for the adrenalin rush. And in a part of Brooklyn, it has actually become a political and cultural divide. The bike path in south Williamsburg has had a funny disappearing act. (I would recommend reading the back story on that one. NY Mag did a very interesting article on the tensions of a shifting neighborhood.)
There are studies–and debates about the numbers cited–showing that more people are biking. But at the same time, the NYPD confiscated a truckload of bikes without warning and without notice of where bikes were going, according to Gothamist. We might just be experiencing growing pains. And hopefully the eventual product will be worth the struggle.
