If I had an odometer on my 34 year old Motobécane touring bike I'm guessing it would register in the 6 figures in terms of mileage. Plus I began biking in the city 6 years before that–40 years a survivor. That makes me a pretty avid and experienced cycling advocate. Our traffic commissioner Jenette Sadik-Kahn is my hero. I would vote for a fourth Bloomberg term if I knew he would keep her on. So I freely admit when comes to the issues surrounding bicycle safety, the Citibike program and the hysteria it elicits from the 2-wheel challenged public, I am not objective. I've spent a lot of time over the years patiently trying to educate friends and acquaintances when they make idiotic remarks about my fellow cyclists.
As an unnoticed minority I've always had a special pride in being one the few and the brave who used a bicycle for basic transportation long before there was any attempt by anyone in city government to promote or accommodate bicycles in any way. As a minority, you tend to be a little patient with the indifference and intolerance of people who only notice the worst element of your kind–sort of like if one based their perception of all gay men on the public behavior of Andrew Cunanan and Richard Simmons. The asshole that almost ran you down as you crossed the street is going to be the one you remember. However, now I have run out of patience. Assholes are assholes whether on two wheels, four wheels or walking on two feet with their noses pointed down at their smart phones.
The success of Ms. Sadik-Kahn's efforts to get more people on bicycles combined with the rollout of the Citibikes has caused a disproportionate number of biped assholes to awaken from their touch-screen induced stupors. The foolishness began 3 years ago with the introduction of protected bike lanes. This year with the rollout of Citibikes the level of shrill and righteous indignation has been raised to new heights – the prime example being WSJ editorial board member Dorothy Rabinowitz who's over-the-top video where she looks and sounds like an SNL caricature of upper east side privilege as she bemoans our neighborhoods being "begrimed" by this horrible thing and how helpless she feels in the face of our "autocratic mayor" being lead by our "ideology blinded traffic commissioner who is ruled by the all powerful bicycle lobby." It got huge laughs when it was shown on The Daily Show. While Ms. Rabinowitz's presentation was laughable she was joined by more reasonable but equally misinformed pundits, bloggers and columnists who predicted widespread carnage and lawsuits galore. I have a four word response for all of them. Kiss my ass suckers!
While the final Carnage Score for the year, which by law NYCDOT is required to publish won't be in until early next year, there are no indications that the four-wheeled variety of transportation will loose the King of Carnage title for 2013. In the first five months of the Citi Bike program no one has been killed on one and there were mostly minor injuries with the 24 reported accidents involving Citi Bikes. I got this number from a NY Times article by Matt Fleginheimer. Also when I tried to find information about lawsuits involving Citi bikes, I could only find references to three and two of those were cases of people suing because they tripped on a docking station (one of the tripping suers was a blind man). It was interesting how many lawyer websites pop up when you do a search for Citi Bike lawsuits. To bad all the SEO work didn't seem to be producing much business for them.
As Mr. Fleginheimer said in his Times piece, officials are a little skittish about releasing too many solid statistics until the end of the year. There's two months left in the year. The first snowstorm could precipitate an unforeseen Citi bike disaster. Blood in the snow covered icy streets! In any case I will be revisiting this when the final numbers come out next year and I'm pretty confidant that there will more snarky gloating on my part. My own non-objective observation is that the common but counterintuitive theory that as bicycle ridership increases, the per capita rate of accidents goes down. The the bike lanes and traffic flow changes that my beloved Jenette has put in place have contributed the beginnings of real cultural change on NYC streets, but Citi Bikes has really made a big difference. There is generally more all around awareness between pedestrians, cyclists and motorists.
There are still plenty of assholes out there both on foot and on wheels, but we have a long way to go before we become Amsterdam or Copenhagen. I'm not sure I would want New York to become Copenhagen, which I found a bit eery because of the lack of car horns blowing there. New York wouldn't seem quite right without all the assholes in cars who think that blowing their horns has some magical power to make everything in front of them move. They always make me smile.
So fair warning to all the 2-wheel challenged who know me (you know who you are) and all those who cross my path. I am armed with facts and stats to back them up. No foolishness about me and my kind will go unchallenged.
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