The Coalition Against Rogue Riding (C.A.R.R.) demands strict enforcement of traffic regulations for all street vehicles, including bicycles, and supports measures that will enable these regulations to be enforced reliably and efficiently.
A Bronx cyclist at 149th-Mott Haven section of Da Bronx was not satisfied with refused service at Burger King. Smashed window. Drive by smashing. Tutored by Sean Avery?? Try Mickey D.
MOTT HAVEN, The Bronx -- A man got violent when he couldn't have it his way at a New York City Burger King.
The
man, who was riding a bicycle, shattered a Burger King drive-thru
window with a chain when he was told he wasn't allowed to use the
window, police said.
The man was at the fast-food chain's Bronx location on East 149th Street on August 27 when he lashed out on a teenage employee.
The
19-year-old employee told the cyclist he was not allowed to pick up
food at the window because he wasn't in a car. Video shows the man
getting aggressive and shouting at the employee. Police said he then
takes out a chain to violently smash the drive-thru window.
ice-or lack there of-because he was NOT DRIVING a motor vehicle. The rules are the rules-What Micky D says goes. Well this apparently interfered with said cyclist customer sense of entitlement-"All the rights and none of the responsibilities of the road" Said dissatisfied customer took a chain and shattered
the drive through window. A drive by smashing. Was he tutored by Sean Avery?
Apparent members of Transportation Alternatives attempted to disrupt and nullify a community
meeting in Park Slope. The topic was the protected bike lanes installed under questionable circumstances by the NYC DOT. A common tactic of the TA dupes is to create such a ruckus
that order and discussion cannot prevail. The organizer Myra Manning a neophyte at this started.
A documentary by film maker John Halpern-Betrayal on 14th Street ignited the disruptors.
A small physical encounter ensued. The bike advocates acted like groundlings at the Globe Theatre in London throwing vegetables. Former lead investigator for the office of the Public Advocate and
longtime Brooklyn community activist Ralph Perfetto stepped in in his suit and took over the reins
of the meeting. Thereafter it proceeded in a relatively orderly fashion. Salient points were made about the DOT study that showed only 1.1 % of commuters travel by bike. Further comment was made by a retired FDNY Lt about the lack of check off with the FDNY about the bike lanes-which was claimed. Further I contributed There can be no safety without a responsible bike culture. Enforcement
is the backbone of a responsible bike culture. Trans Alt has exerted undue influence and prevailed on Mayors Bloomberg and De Blasio to suppress enforcement-to "increase ridership" and allegedly create safer streets.
A forum set up against the 9th Street bike lane devolved
quickly when it was started with a bizarre video against a Manhattan
bike path. (Anna Quinn/Patch.)
PARK SLOPE, BROOKLYN — A meeting organized against the bike
lanes on Ninth Street quickly devolved into screams, shoves and a mutiny
of the forum's moderator after it bizarrely began with a video against
street changes in Manhattan.
Dozens of people packed into a
church basement Wednesday for the "Town Hall" meeting, the second set up
by Ninth Street resident Myra Manning after she started collecting petition signatures protesting the bike paths earlier this year.
But
the crowd soon grew confused, then outraged, when Manning handed the
meeting over to John Halpern, a filmmaker who said he'd give the room a
preview of his new movie about a "heinous, unethical thing" — the busway
and bike lanes on 12th, 13th and 14th streets in Manhattan.
"We came here for Ninth Street not 14th Street," one person yelled from the crowd.
"That
is defamation!" another shouted as Halpern began making claims that
advocacy group Transportation Alternatives is funded by Steve Ross, a
"crony" of Jeffrey Epstein (Ross' name is not on a list of the
nonprofit's funders found here). Matters
only became worse after the 15-minute film played when the crowd
protested Manning acting as moderator because her "introductory remarks"
bashed the bike lanes.
In the hubbub, Halpern ended up flipping
off the crowd and shoving cycling advocate Doug Gordon, who got up and
started reading the names of the people killed on Ninth Street,
including two children who died last year and prompted the addition of the bike path. The
rest of the meeting included a dozen or so people getting up to share
their thoughts, at the direction of new moderator Ralph Perfetto.
Some
were neighbors from Ninth Street who, like Manning, said they worried
about emergency responders being able to fit down the street and
cyclists who they say don't always follow the rules of the road.
But others who live on or use the street contended that it has become a lot safer since the bike lanes were put in.
Department
of Transportation Brooklyn Borough Commissioner Keith Bray told the
crowd that FDNY had signed off on putting in the bike lanes, but that he
planned to reach out and make sure they hadn't had any problems.
"The
bottom line is...We do feel and stats have shown that when we put in
protected bike lanes injuries go down for everyone," Bray said. "If
there are any concerns [FDNY] have about the bike lanes I have not heard
them — and they do talk to us — but I will proactively reach out to
those agencies to see if there are issues."
Eric McClure,
chair of Community Board 6's Transportation and Public Safety Committee,
told the crowd that the community board had approved the bike lanes
unanimously.
He added that, noting he was speaking as a resident
not on behalf of the board, that the width of Ninth Street makes it so
there is room for two SUVs, two UPS trucks and a firetruck if need be.
"The
flyer for this meeting created kind of a scary scenario where emergency
response vehicles might not be able to reach a fire or a person in
need," he said. "You can deny [the measurements] but I will go out there
and measure it with you."
The DOT is plowing ahead with palns to add 80 miles of protected bikes lanes in Brooklyn
despite community board opposition. Despite cyclist deaths. Some electeds are proclaiming its
about safety. Actually its about the lack of a responsible bike culture and common sense.
There needs to be an independent study done to restore reason and balance to the exercise in zealotry
perpetrated by Transportation Alternatives and their Koch Bros. like offshoots.They've conflated
"going green" with a lawless bike culture that has both damaged the environment and created a public safety crisis. So much for disrutpive "visionaries".
Here are some other stories (having nothing to do with BdB’s campaign) that you may have missed last week:
And just maybe he can bring balance and reason to the "remorseless pursuit of a house of cards"
with the toxic public safety crisis brewed by the visionaries of Vision Zero.Blind is a blind does.
Of course that's after he finishes at the gym.
Christopher LeGras-Attorney-muckraker-truth teller has punctured the Vision Zero bubble yet again.
Now that NYC Mayor de Blasio has reckoned with the reality of a Zero confidence in his quixotic
presidential bid-perhaps he can come back to earth on Vision Zero. The highs the lows the political hypocrisy. Hey Charles Komanoff it looks like you and that "very stable genius" in the White House
have a lot in common. Robert Moses must be rolling in his grave with mirth. Here's hoping you don't
have a bike accident and need an EMS to come a whisk you to the hospital-or maybe you don't ride a bike anymore.Don't hold your breath waiting for the responsible bike culture some wing nuts got to
Billionaire stable genius Bloomberg and current flyboy de Blasio and got them to with hold enforcement by the NYPD. Maybe you can rent a drone eh Charlie?
SUICIDE MODE?
New York City firefighters union calls out
Vision Zero, bike lanes, and road diets: “You’re basically eliminating
the ability for emergency service vehicles to get around”
Will firefighters unions in other cities follow suit?
(QUEENS, NYC) An FDNY truck trapped on the Skillman Avenue road diet in Queens. Photograph courtesy of Dorothy Morehead.
After four years of lane reductions, arterial bike lanes, road diets,
and other so-called “traffic calming” measures on the streets of New
York, the country’s largest firefighters union is saying enough. The New York Post reported
yesterday that the Fire Department of New York’s response times have
risen dramatically over the last year, and that the city’s firefighters
union – the largest in the country – says that Mayor Bill de Blasio’s
Vision Zero initiative is a major cause.
Bobby Eustace, the United Firefighters Association’s recording
secretary, told The Post, “Vision Zero is fully intended to save lives
from traffic accidents, but by [the city] adding in concrete barriers
and flower pots and everything else like that, you’re basically
eliminating the ability for emergency service vehicles to get around.
Intersections are now gridlocked, and our guys just can’t get around.”
The union’s public statement is a significant development in the
national discussion over the future of urban planning and
transportation. There are Vision Zero programs in scores of U.S. cities,
and virtually everywhere they are having severe impacts on emergency
response times. Firefighters, paramedics, and police officers in Los
Angeles, Santa Monica, Seattle, Oakland, New York, Boston, and elsewhere
have confirmed to The All Aspect Report that lane reductions,
particularly so-called “road diets,” have increased their response times
dramatically. In L.A., for example, operational response times at Fire
Station 62, located on the infamous Venice Boulevard road diet,
increased by 26 seconds between 2016 (the last full year before the
diet) and 2019. In 2016 the station’s average response time was 6 minutes 38 seconds. So far in 2019
it is 7 minutes 4 seconds. As any first responder will attest, those 26
seconds cost lives. And Station 62’s experience is far from unique in
the city.
The UFA’s statement comes in response to the release of the annual Mayor’s Management Report,
a sort of longform state of the city document. The administration
boasted, “The City’s investment in Vision Zero, now funded with over
$1.6 billion through Fiscal 2022, has ensured resources will be
available to continue an accelerated pace of redesign and reconstruction
of New York City streets as well as for enforcement and education
initiatives to deter unsafe driving and promote safe walking and
biking.”
This “accelerated pace” of change is having devastating impacts on emergency response times. According to the report:
Combined average response time to life-threatening medical emergencies increased 15 seconds compared to 2018.
Average response time to life-threatening medical emergencies by ambulances increased 24 seconds compared to 2018.
Dispatch
and travel time only to life-threatening medical emergencies for
ambulances and fire companies combined increased 19 seconds compared to
2018.
Dispatch and travel time by ambulances to life-threatening medical emergencies increased 28 seconds compared to 2018.
“We had a company in the Bronx [traveling at night last month] hit
one of these barriers going 30 miles an hour, and it almost flipped the
rig because they had no idea it was there,” Eustace said. “That was the
first they saw it. They were simply trying to go around a person
[while] responding to a structural fire, and they smashed into one of
these [concrete barriers].-
New York’s experience is typical of Vision Zero cities
The FDNY union is the first to go on the record, but fire departments
around the country have been experiencing identical problems for
several years. As we reported in the Wall Street Journal
earlier this year, Oakland, California Fire Captain Henry Holt reported
that he learned of a road diet half a block from his station one
morning when he arrived for a shift. “I wasn’t even sure if I was
allowed to drive in those new green lanes,” he said. The city never
consulted the Oakland Fire Department, much less his station, before
installing a project that dramatically impacts his crews’ dispatch
procedures. The road diet has been so bad that at times he’s instructed
his drivers to go into what first responders call “suicide mode,”
driving down oncoming lanes to get around gridlock. Departments in other
cities have reported the same experiences.
Popular music producer James DeSalvo riding bike in Wayne NJ hit by truck tire. Knocked off bike.
Critical head injuries. According to reporter "not wearing a helmet."We hope for the best.
By Eyewitness News
WAYNE,
New Jersey (WABC) -- A music producer from New Jersey is fighting for
his life after he was struck by a tire that popped off a dump truck
while he was riding his bicycle.
It happened around 1:30 p.m.
Wednesday on Black Oak Ridge Road in Wayne and left 53-year-old James
DeSalvo in critical condition.
"The
person on the bicycle going over the handlebars and coming down with a
major impact," witness Sheila Ziemba said. "You could hear it."
Police
say the 2007 Mack truck was traveling south on the roadway when one of
its tires blew out, which caused the wheel to dismount.
It
careened into DeSalvo, a producer who has worked with "Yes" lead singer
Jon Anderson and Darryl "DMC" McDaniels, among other acts.
He was taken to St. Joseph's University Medical Center, where he remains in critical condition.
"The
family and all of the support from the community has really helped them
keep their hope alive," family friend Ruth Ozbolt-Cleary said. "Jim's
biggest accomplishment in life is his kids. He has been there for them
from the very beginning."
Friends describe him as a beloved father of two known for his kind personality, but now, his family is praying for a miracle.
"Next
week will be their 20th wedding anniversary," friend Beth Schafer said.
And we just hope that they can celebrate somehow together."
The driver of the truck, 68-year-old Eugene Petitt, was not charged.
"It's really difficult to see this happen to this family," friend Frank Kulow said.
