![]() ![]() Little West 12th Street in the Meatpacking District has been transformed from an underused open street into a bustling, lively hangout thanks to 5,000 square feet of donated sod - Exhibit A in the open-and-shut case for more car-free streets in pedestrian-majority neighborhoods. The city's future depends on it - quite literally. That means we need a connected, protected, low-stress bike lane network in each and every neighborhood in this city. Our goal is for each and every teen to have the option to safely bike, walk, scoot to school. One notable incentive for these students? Schools that provide indoor, secure bike parking (here's looking at you school administrators!). All of them joyful and appreciative of the time away from screens, feeling the wind in their hair and connecting with nature and those around them. The last few weeks, we've been interviewing students - some in Queens, some in Manhattan on the Hudson River Greenway, some biking across Central Park. This generation is politically active and solutions-oriented. And, biking sure is FUN! What better way for New York City's teens to navigate the city and get themselves to school? Biking promotes independence and exploration. So let's say I was even massively off and it was 600 - it still proves spatially bikes are a great deal for NYC.īiking is cheap. Thus a paper count I got 545 vehicles (and 8 buses) versus later using just the straight video which I could only come up with 525, but the parked cars can shield a few here or there. One note: the "range" for vehicle numbers is due to me having to do a manual count on paper due to the angle of the camera placement. You'll have to watch the video to find out, but it's a better count than 2021 and this time proportionally the results were even better for bikes. And with bikes only having one lane versus the four for other vehicles (which includes a partial BUS ONLY lane) it proves that the bike lane not only is worth it - but we need to think about making them wider since they are getting real crowded in Manhattan! (See here: ) In 21 minutes there were 171 bikes, 323 vehicles and 11 buses. I actually did a taping near this spot almost in 2021. You don't want to face dodging a dozen bikes per block. At rush hours it's a constant steady stream. The pairs on 1st Ave and 2nd Ave are a perfect example. ![]() And there are safe options nearby to travel. I think I have a theory: in NYC the best and most popular bike lanes don't have many wrong-way riders, or very few. Not one! I'm a New Yorker of course, and even I admit to seeing a percentage of salmoning (that's going the wrong way in a bike lane) but to witness this result was cool. In fact during this 30 minute taping from 5-530pm on Monday, April 3rd a very shocking thing emerged I was unprepared for: not one rider in the video rides the wrong way. Every time I've done these during rush hours the results are even better than I expected. As usual despite many cranks & drivers stating that bikes barely ever use bike lanes, selective anecdotes are not facts. So I set up the camera to record for two half hours in separate locations yesterday and present a condensed video of my results. I've been meaning to get back to doing some counts of bike and micro-mobility users on some of New York's most popular bike lanes. ![]()
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