Monday, June 24, 2019

OP ED NYPOST 6-21-19 NY has to take back turf from 2 wheeled terros

New York has to take back its turf from the two-wheeled terrors

New York City’s entitled bicyclists regularly endanger pedestrians. So why does the city keep giving them more turf?
A new Hunter College study looked at Manhattan cyclists, and found that 24% blow through red lights, 30% use electronic devices while biking and 6.4% wheel the wrong way down the street.
That’s not just contempt for the law, it’s contempt for the people who have to scramble out of the way of these Lycra-clad menaces.
And while a bike may not be as deadly as a car, the cyclist is more likely to come up on you out of nowhere.
Plus, watching your phone while cycling is just nuts. “It’s difficult enough to navigate a city street on a bike in and of itself, but wearing an electronic device . . . could endanger other street users,” notes Hunter sociologist Peter Tuckel, who authored the study.
Sure, too many pedestrians also get distracted on their phones — but that doesn’t make them a menace to others.
But the cyclists somehow control ever more of the city, which now has over 1,200 miles of bike lanes, with more on the way. How does the loss of motor vehicle lanes not increase congestion?
Sooner or later, regular New Yorkers need to take back their streets.
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Subject: Fw: Fwd: Video: 'Nobody Cares' About E-Scooters Despite E-Bike Crackdown

Both need to be illegal-or the enforcement needs to be consistent and effective-for public safety reasons-and revenue raising. The current situation is NOT tenable.
Both Bloomberg & DeBlasio administrations have been negligent. The rogue riders have been enabled. The NYPD has been undermined and now seems to have
largely thrown up its hands. The public has been harmed. Every day we are reminded of this having to treat our every step as a walk on the wild side. NOT acceptable.
NOT worthy of New York City. It will require a mayor getting behind a cooperative effort. Compstat approach. Special squad that coordinates with local precincts. Cops on bikes. Cops on scooters., Sustained until the cyclists  ride responsibly and the public is calmed. Then consistent sufficient enforcement. Transportation Alternatives arm twisted and spun its way
to undue influence. Now its going to be harder to put the beans back in the lunchbox.Let's get this addressed prior to Mayor DeBlasio's exit. Leave a legitimate legacy of effective
governing.
Thanks-
Jack Brown
Coalition Against Rogue Riding

https://patch.com/new-york/upper-east-side-nyc/s/gqqb3/video-nobody-cares-about-e-scooters-despite-e-bike-crackdown?utm_term=

FEMALE MESSENGER FATALLY STRUCK ON 6th Ave

On Mon, Jun 24, 2019 at 4:13 PM Jack Brown <jckmbrown@yahoo.com> wrote:
Chirlane- Please convey to Mr. Seth Stein that his PR words ring hollow. Messenger was not in the bike lane so the system can be tight as a Riker's cell and if a rider doesn't use it-SO WHAT?  Time is coming when Mayor de Blasio is going to have to face the reality of this public safety crisis. Perhaps by that time his quixotic pursuit of the presidential nomination will have ebbed and flown.
Regards-
Jack Brown
Coalition Against Rogue Riding.



CHELSEA, Manhattan (WABC) -- A female bike messenger was fatally struck by a delivery truck in Manhattan Monday morning.

It happened just after 9 a.m. Monday on Sixth Avenue between West 23rd and 24th streets in the Flatiron District.

Authorities say the 20-year-old woman was riding in the middle of the street and not in a bike lane when she was struck by a white delivery truck.

The incident was initially reported as a hit and run, but police say the driver circled back and was not issued any summonses.

He was apparently unaware he had struck a person but was flagged down a few blocks from the crash and immediately returned to the scene.

The victim was bleeding from the head and was rushed to Bellevue Hospital, where she succumbed to her injuries.

Her identity has not yet been released, but friends say she was from Virginia and staying in Brooklyn.

The area was closed for the investigation, leading to major traffic delays.

The victim's helmet and belongings were still lying in the street hours after the crash.

The Department of Transportation says this is the 11th bicyclist to die this year, compared to 10 cyclists in all of 2018.

"We grieve at any loss of life on our streets, and our thoughts are with the victim's family and friends," said Seth Stein, a spokesman for Mayor Bill de Blasio. "While cycling continues to explode in popularity, we will continue our work to make our bike lane network safer for everyone."

On Jun 24, 2019, at 2:43 PM, Jack Brown <jckmbrown@yahoo.com> wrote:

Was she wearing a helmet? She was in the road-not bike lane. Something very sadly wrong with this picture.
The lack of a responsible bike culture is causing injury and death.How the situation in the streets and on the sidewalks
has come to this displays a negligence-a depraved indifference-to human life, the quality of life and human suffering in the
city. A public safety crisis that has been allowed to wind out of control by conflating going green with promoting an irresponsible
indifference to reason and balance. These deaths, severe injuries and untold number of harrowing close calls are the
result of a perhaps delusional assault on the rights of the public to satisfy the greed and ego of a few The reality is NO ONE
benefits with the streets and sidewalks out of control. NO ONE.
Jack Brown
Coalition Against Rogue Riding


Sunday, March 22, 2015

Lawsuit aims at former Mayor Michael Bloomberg's pedestrian malls, bike lanes initiatives

DAVID HANDSCHUH/NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Former Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s bicycle initiatives are under attack in a lawsuit filed Friday.

Former Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s legacy of installing pedestrian malls, bike lanes and bicycle rental stations on city streets is under attack in a lawsuit filed Friday in Manhattan Supreme Court.
Carl Person, the former Libertarian Party candidate for state attorney general, says the measures are illegal because the mayor never did an environmental impact statement as required by law.
The court papers say those innovations created “significant” environmental harm as drivers -- particularly cabbies -- spend more time wasting gas in slow moving traffic and economic harm because it takes longer to move around Manhattan.
The effect of these innovations "has been to create more congestion" because vehicles have fewer moving traffic lanes on the major avenues, the court papers say.

Steve Vaccaro, an attorney who helped write the 2014 law, said the maximum penalty is $250 and 30 days in jail.

PETER NGUYEN/GETTY IMAGES/ISTOCKPHOTO

Alexander Smotritsky, 39, was three blocks from his Bath Beach home when he struck Xiali Yue, 61, Monday morning at 21st Ave. and Cropsey Ave., cops said. She is in critical condition

           ******Steve Vaccaro******  

Attorney Steve Vaccaro is like a Transportation Alternatives "legal button man." Sues the city at the drop of a hat. Tries to intimidate the NYPD. The law does not mention cyclists being penalized if a rogue rider hits a pedestrian who is within a cross walk and has the right of way. This is a Vision Zero blind spot. We believe this is an intentional neglect of equal motor vehicle culpability. A prejudicial law that is a result of Transportation Alternatives radical mission to drive the auto from the city and recapture the streets and sidewalks for the bicycle.

*****Having Vaccaro write the law is akin to having lobbyists(TA employs and is a registered lobby group) write a Federal law. It is akin to having Halliburton write the laws pertaining to Fracking.******


Alexander Smotrisky, 39, was just three blocks from his Bath Beach home when he struck Xiali Yue, 61, Monday morning at 21st Ave. and Cropsey Ave.

The driver who rammed into a woman as she crossed a Brooklyn street, critically injuring her, was charged under the city’s fledgling right-of-way law, police said Tuesday.
Alexander Smotritsky, 39, was three blocks from his Bath Beach home when he struck Xiali Yue, 61, Monday morning at 21st Ave. and Cropsey Ave., cops said.
She was crossing 21st Ave. walking north in the crosswalk with the light when Smotritsky’s Ford Fiesta hit her while making a right onto Cropsey around 8:13 a.m., police said.
The Fiesta struck her with the center of its bumper, cops said. A police source said she was in grave condition.
The right-of-way law has been in effect since August and makes it a misdemeanor to strike a pedestrian who has the right of way. Twenty-two people have been charged under the law, including Smotritsky.
Steve Vaccaro, an attorney who helped write the 2014 law, said the maximum penalty is $250 and 30 days in jail.
“The hope of the people who are behind this law is that it will lead drivers to take these cases more seriously,” he said. “Up until this law was passed it was really common for there to be no charges at all.”
A man who answered at a listing for Smotritsky said he wasn’t home. He said he was unable to take a message.
Smotritsky also faces a violation of highway safety law for a failure to exercise due care, cops said.

Court Rules Citi-Bike In Petrosino Square Can Stay

Admirers photograph Carole Feuerman’s Survival of Serena an exhibition in the artist space located at the northern part of Petrosino Square on Lafayette Street and Cleveland Pl. between Kenmare & Spring Streets at the intersection of SoHo, Little Italy, and Chinatown.  (Photos: Geoffrey Croft/NYC Park Adovcates) 

The City surreptitiously installed a 32-dock Citi-Bike docking station (below) in April 2013 which replaced park space that had been dedicated to art installations since 1985, and even though there is an alternative location fro the bikes directly across the street. 

Manhattan
By Geoffrey Croft

In yet another strange ruling from the Supreme Court  Appellate Division First Department involving a parkland alienation case the court ruled that a controversial Citi-Bike docking station in Petrosino Square can stay.


"The trial court erred in failing to acknowledge the distinctions between recreational bicycling and bike-share commuting, which, though similar in instrumentality, serve completely different purposes," Plaintiffs argued. 


The Court did not agree.


The Appellate Division found that the bike share station served a proper park purpose of allowing members of the public to ride and dock a Citi-Bike at Petrosino Square, where they may “enjoy the Park as a respite, a spot for a meal or even as their final destination.”


In other words because the public can theoretically ride a Citi-Bike to the square where they can theoretically use the sitting area the docking station constitutes a "park purpose."  So even though that is clearly NOT the purpose of Citi-Bike nor how the bikes are used there the transportation bike sharing program can stay. 


And to add insult to injury, bike riding is prohibited in Petrosino Square according to the Parks Department.    


Section §1-05 Regulated Uses states that, "No bicycle...shall be ridden or otherwise operated in a pedestrian way, park path, sitting area..."


In 2013 Plaintiffs filed suit arguing that the city ignored state "parkland alienation" law and its own regulations when they installed Citi Bike racks in tiny Petrosino Square, a Parks Department owned property on  Lafayette Street in SoHo.   The suit alleged that the Department of Transportation and the Parks Department improperly failed to get necessary approval from the state Legislature to use parkland for a non-park purpose.


During the suit Corporation Council had absurdly tried to argue that the Square belonged to the Department of Transportation. 


Several requests seeking comment from the City's Law Department were not returned.  Attempts to reach Plaintiffs and their lawyer were also unsuccessful. 


"This is not a legitimate park purpose for Petrosino Square. It's an outrageous violation of law," Plaintiff's lawyer Randy Mastro, Gibson Dunn's senior managing partner said last month.