Times Square for the Peds!
It's always been a bit of a war on the streets on NY. Cars hate bikers and pedestrians, bikers hate cars and pedestrians, pedestrians hate bikers and cars. That's always been the simple math and keeping those relationships straight in your head has always been the trick to safe cycling through the city. Of course, everyone hated each other only at the times we were in direct competition for the same square foot of space, which generally meant a piece of the street.
The lines are getting evermore blurry
The mayor's plan to close roadway as it goes through Times Square to Herald Square ought to be a laudable one. To compromise the flow of traffic on the island of Manhattan so that it is completely inconvenient to drive around is truly a wonderful thing. Manhattan is a small congested space, and having two ton machines crawling around it is environmentally wasteful and hazardous.
I accept this.
But to close Times Square to cars will also impede the flow of bicycle traffic, and this leads me to a conundrum.
On one hand, to ride without worrying about cars is wonderful. It puts the fun back in 'cycling', and makes it easier for people to become commuters. Riding becomes not just for those crazies that like to mix it up with traffic.
On the other hand, once you become an able NYC bicycle commuter, the point IS to mix it up with traffic. In fact, by confidently riding in traffic, you can get to where you're going faster than the traffic. When traffic flows, you can flow with the traffic, moving between the lanes as if you are a silent ninja (I love the ninja analogy).
The picture above shows DOT workers painting the bike lane that currently goes from 42nd street to Herald Square. When they were done, it looked like this:
And THAT is the problem.
Riding the current green lane is a complete waste of time as a cyclist. The placing of the lane between the curb and the Venetian style outside seating lulls pedestrians into thinking they're actually in Venice.
But, of course, gondolas move slower then bikes.
I believe that the new style bike lanes defeat the purpose of bicycle commuting. They force you to go slower in deference to pedestrians and to have almost ten blocks worth of these counterproductive lanes will create a point for bicycle congestion as well as for cars.
And a Shanghai style bicycle grid-lock is not what got me riding in the first place.
I think the lesson that I've learned from the Kent street bike lane is that good intentions can go awry. Yes, it's good to have bike lanes, especially for people who are timid in traffic. But maybe timidity is not what makes a NYC bicycle commuter. Maybe the point is that the bar is high, and that to be an effective commuter, you have to learn to ride with cars. To inconvenience everyone else (more experienced cyclists included) seems unilaterally prescriptive and ultimately will create more negativity towards cyclists. the same goes for the continuation of the green lanes to 23rd street.
I don't want to add to to the hate equation I started off with. It's enough for me to hate peds and cars on regular streets when I'm on my bike. I do not want to hate other cyclists as well, especially in bicycle lanes. I will steer clear of Times Square when this gets implemented, and it'll be a shame, because a night-time cruise through Times Square is what makes riding in this city so wonderful.
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