Bicycles and the City

The promise of bicycles in New York City may be measured by the number of women who use them.  At the moment, there are two male riders for every female, which leads us to the conclusion that safety improvements have to be made.  This is not a gender issue but is rather an issue of safety.  Rather than claim that women are more cautious than men we prefer to say that there exists a direct correlation between the percentage of women using any city's bicycle lanes and the safety that's provided.  

For us, a major issue has to do with the policing of traffic.  We strongly favor treating bicyclists lie motorists and ticketing them for running red lights or cycling on sidewalks.  Not policing them leads to a rise of opposition to bicycling, and since we favor bicycling, we also favor more policing. 

We strongly favor more bike racks near subway stops and endorse arrangements such as the one at Driggs and N. 7th in Brooklyn near the Bedford L Stop.  These parking racks do no harm to merchants and thus breed no opposition.  We are strongly in favor.

At the moment we have an open mind in respect to the City's new program for bicycle rentals.  In principle, the idea is good, but at least from the last time we saw Paris, the program was not much of a success.  Time will tell whether it's a good idea for New York City