I've been reading Michael Greene's BikeBlog for some time now and I gotta tell you, he paints a pretty bleak picture of cycling in New York City. From the sound of things it seems the Bloomberg administration has a vendetta against cyclists.
It seems the trouble all started during the Republican National Convention in 2004 when hundreds of Critical Mass cyclists showed up to protest. Ever since then the city has been cracking down on cyclists of all kinds and not only at Critical Mass rides. Apparently all kinds of esoteric rules around cycling are being enforced in disproportionate numbers. Things like crossing the bike lane line or not having proper lighting, etc.
You have got to read a few of these articles to get a flavor for what's going on:
- A recent Critical Mass ride ends in serious police injury after some questionable crowd control tactics
- The NYC National Lawyers Guild holds a presentation on the constitutionality of the city's cycling control policies
- Most recently the city is giving pedicabs a hard time
To be fair, I have not read any of the opposing sides point of view. In fact, I'd be interested in reading more from the mainstream press on these events to see what is being said.
I can tell you that there is another point of view here that was expressed by my mother who lives just outside of NYC in New Jersey. I started talking to her about my blog and cycling culture, etc. and brought up the happenings in NYC. She was familiar with the events on a surface level from her readings of the New York Times and other local papers. Her view was that there were a bunch of subversive anarchists running around on bikes out to destroy the city. Now my mother can be a bit dramatic at times so I would take this view with a grain of salt...but still, the truth probably lies somewhere in between the two views.
I'm inclined to give the cyclists the benefit of the doubt, however. What do you think?
