Hipsters have illegally repainted 14 blocks worth of bike lanes after the communities Hasidic Jewish population had request them be removed because of safety and reasons of "religious modesty."
Some bicyclists are a-holes,like some of them drive me mad when they ride in the middle of the car lane!! but overall I think we need more bicycles on the roads.
"A source close to Mayor Bloomberg said removing the lanes was an effort to appease the Hasidic community just before last month's election."
Ha!
I think hipsters and Jews could get along really well and is that a car tire on that man's head in the picture??
those Hasids sure do have a sense of fashion, and when you walk into their community in Williamsburg, it's like youre going into another time. They even have their own ambulances and stuff like that. can't they just re-route the bike lane? plenty of roads in Williamsburg that dont run through Hasidtown. Also, that holy talk is bullshit, a lot of those Hasids bang bed-stuy/bushwick hookers.
hipsters are crazy annoying and they don't obey traffic laws, so I'd be pissed off, too, but sorry: safety and accommodating sustainable transportation should always be given priority over someone's personal religious beliefs in any public place.
also, scantily clad? compared to what? I don't think I'd really leave it up to a Hasidic jew or any other conservative religious group to determine what is and is not acceptably modest clothing.
what's next...are they gonna build a wall around their neighbourhood to keep out the smelly and unshaven ones in skinny jeans. Have they lost their freakin' minds.
well, I don't live in Williamsburg, but only scantily clad hipsters (talk about a vague category if there ever was one) ride bikes and use bike lanes? Scuse me?
If they are riding tomorrow....they better be in sleighs...as when this fricking snow storm hits....it could be the mother of all mothers.
Frozen naked pop cyclist....something you would not be tempted to lick.
It's quite obvious that cyclists in the city break the rules, and yes sometimes it's solely because they can. However, as a cyclist commuter in Brooklyn for 7 years, I can attest that some of the rules need to be broken sometimes as a matter of safety. Yes, you read that correctly.
Fow example, a lot of accidents happen at red lights, but not the way you would think. Often, a cyclist is stopped along the right hand side and when the light turns green, the adjacent driver just plows right into them turning right through not paying attention. It's actually therefore SAFER to run red lights on a bicycle, assuming scoping out the intersection thoroughly.
It's been statistically proven that only 2% of accidents in the city occur in a bike lane. However, they only work when they're AVAILABLE. Hot dog vendors, tourists, vans double parked, cars standing, every one seems to think the bike lane is an extension of the sidewalk or an extension of the road. It's much more dangerous to have to pull out into traffic because someone is standing where they shouldn't be than it is to just ride in the car lane! When was the last time you saw a cop enforce this?
Cars make illegal u-turns, speed, run red lights, cut people off, and 'door' cyclists like it's candy. Pedestrian's jaywalk like it's a job, and often without looking [the Hasidim are notorious for this, I've seen women just push out their baby carriages right in front of me as if I didnt exist.].
How many times has a motorist screamed 'go ride in the park' at you?
My point is that the city needs to recognize cycling as a valid, logical, safe, economically and ecologically friendly alternative method of transportation. If this happens, then I would bet my bicycle, cyclists will ride more calmly instead of going into warrior survival mode.
How many more ghost bikes do we need before the city [both the people and the municipality] wakes the fuck up?
jplourde - the last time I was in BK I stayed at my friends place. He lives @ Bedford and Nostrand...I swear he said the same exact thing about the Hasidim pushing their baby carrages into the intersection. And we also came pretty damn close to hitting a male cause he just wasnt looking where he was going.
Anyways. I am not a Hipster...I do ride a bike everyday...about 14miles a day in and around San Francisco. I do not ride a fixie either(BLAH) Bike lanes are a must out on the streets where the death monsters are. Most people in the city are to worried about the car next to them and arent looking for a bike in their rear view. Just about everyday I have my life threated by a random motorist....rarely with valid reason as I do sometimes try to squeeze my way through traffic and quite frankly I scare people sometimes. Yeah I do it on purpose...to make people aware that bicycles are on the road and maybe next time you will be more aware that bicycles have a right to use every lane of the road on any road in the damn city.
Ill give an example so you dont think Im riding around putting peoples lives in danger.
Im riding up Fell street, it s aone way street and I am traveling in the bike lane with traffic. Along my left side are paralel parked cars and now Im approaching a gas station beyond the parked cars that has a curb cut that dumps right though the bike lane. I can see that there is a car inching to get into traffic from the gas station but they cannot see me over the parked cars. I slow down a bit to make sure I can stop if at the last second the car does not see me. Now the car is about to dash into traffic and I appear from behind the parked cars. I stop with plenty of room as does the car. The look on their face is usually shock and fear.
That I feel is just a friendly reminder that we exist on the road and maybe you should be more aware next time.
Happy cycling.
Halloween 09 was the last Friday of the month which coveniently coincided with critical mass. I do not participate in this madness cause I usually have a happy hour to get to on Fridays and the idea of it I think is a bit rediculous. So Im riding on McAllister crossing Van Ness Ave and critical mass is passing McAlister on Van Ness. Myself, 2 other bicyclist not participating and a number of enraged motorists are stopped by the mass at the intersection. One lady gets out of her car and pleads with the mass but they arent budging. Another man gets out his car with a can of areosol spray something in his hands, spraying the passing bicyclists in the face. A couple of them get off their bikes and throw them at him. He dodges a couple gets clipped by a couple others and makes his way over to me. Mind you I am 15-20 feet from the nearest mass participant and I say to the guy "that shit aint right, man!" And he darts at me and gets me on the back of the head as I turned away! WTF??? I get off my bike and push the guy and he trips and falls over the sidewalk construction plywood. I get a huge applause from the crowd - the guy gets up and starts stomping on my bike...I push him off again pick up my bike and push it through the mass as fast as I can. I just didnt want to get myself more involved then I already had. I saw a police officer who was monitoring the mass at another intersection, let her know of what was going on and I took of in disbelief of what just happened.
Lately I have been thinking of buying a cheap camera w/ video, attach it to my handle bars and record my entire ride door to door every day and start a blog. I think it would go over pretty well.
Bikes and Cars and Peds....The Holy War! I had a medical doctor car door me years ago on Commonwealth Avenue years ago! It is hard to belive it is still happening in our American Society today. I guess it is just to damn hard to convience the Engineers in the Department of Transportation Bikes are a vehicle and need their place on the road. Most likely cause they never get out of their suv.
the great thing about bicycles & bicyclists is that they are a problem that inevitable solves themselves. that is, because it's dangerous most bicyclist end up dead or (if they ever get enough money) they buy a large car themselves. there's really no point in traffic engineers even trying to accomodate them.
"Lately I have been thinking of buying a cheap camera w/ video, attach it to my handle bars and record my entire ride door to door every day and start a blog. I think it would go over pretty well."
Good one, archiTEKE -- do it ! I'd watch. . .
Big segment on Copenhgen bike social engineering on NPR the other day. The city intends to increase in-town bike commuting to 50% in a few years, via tax policy among other things. So far they have instituted bike lanes that run between the sidewalk and the parked cars, so that riders are separated from traffic.
I have to admit that I'm getting a bit weary of "the religious" pushing their "rights" on the world, as if their choice is an unalterable condition of nature -- like being gay, for instance ?
If that makes me a raging anti-Semite, so be it. . .
Well, like someone pointed out, almost all bicycle accidents are caused by traffic crossings or intersections between the different modes of travel.
They say riding on sidewalks is more dangerous but I've always felt safer. Although in NYC, I'd imagine only assholes ride their bikes on sidewalks.
The problem with accommodating bicycles on roads is that roads were purpose built for cars. So, what normally happens in 4-lane roads with no bikes (have 15 ft wide lanes) get pared down to 12-10 ft wide lands with bicycle lanes. The narrower lanes make people focus more on driving than on the environment around them.... which, in turn, makes riding a bicycle ever more dangerous.
Looks to me like it's the car occupants that are more likely to end up dead...
so as far as "safety" goes, those Williamsburg residents should try to get cars the hell out of their neighborhoods instead (and don't drive around in them either), 'cause I'll bet I know how a lot of the pedestrians in the statistic above are dying, and it usually ain't by being hit by bicycles.
Yes and no. Those statistics are always misleading no matter which lobby they are for. Riding a bicycle is more lethal... but since less people ride bikes, there is a lower incidence.
You could make a similar correlation between cars and airplanes... the odds of being in a plane crash are very slim but nearly all planes crashes are fatal.
However, car accidents are up there as a leading cause of death and injury in the US. So,. if we're going to go after cigarettes as a "preventable" cause of death, they should go after cars as well.
True, a better statistic would be deaths per car miles vs. deaths per bicycle miles, but what you write goes to how humans "perceive" danger vs. the reality of danger. I like using death odds statistics because they are usually coldly used, based on data, by insurance companies in actuarial tables and such, and are mostly not "politicized" (similar to Vegas odds on sports events).
Like you say, plane crashes are usually fatal when they occur, but the fact is they hardly ever occur compared to the millions of miles flown. And cars are apparently safer than bikes, to the occupants, because you're surrounded by tons of metal....unfortunately you have millions of other behemoths whizzing around you, some driven by mental defectives, which can crash into you in a car (or you on a bike or you on foot) at amazing speeds - thus the statistic above (and none of that is a statement about who is at fault in those events, that's a separate issue).
Another way to look at it is: if most vehicle fatalities occur at higher speeds than occur in city driving, and if the bulk of bicyclists are found in cities, then we can say the drivers kill themselves and other drivers in places other than where drivers kill riders. For what that's worth.
Well -- anyway, we can say for certain that few riders are killing drivers !
Orochi - roads were *not* purpose built for cars. Have you ever seen a photo of a city street from the early 20th century? You'll see cars, bikes, horses, trams, pedestrians, and more, all sharing the same space.
The cities of the world were apparently in real danger of drowning in horse manure by the end of the nineteenth century. The invention of the automobile solved that problem, anyway. . .
I wonder what type of coverage this would have received had it been evangelical Christians or, dare I say, Muslims complaining about scantily clad hipster cyclists in their neighborhoods.
I am not too familiar with all Jewish Customs but on the Sabbath there is strict limits on what people can carry and there is this thing that is done with string and or wires that enclose a space and create a boundary that religious Jews consider to be their home, usually a few blocks in their neighborhood. Within this boundary they can carry a stroller and other things. The Hipsters cursing through on a Saturday probably don't know why they are looked at as invaders and how their casual dress can come across as insulting if not hostile. I am not justifying it just saying this is also a thing here in Chicago near where I live. A problem for folks who hold onto religious customs but live in a city near other folks who don't know their customs is someone is going to offend and the window of opportunity to diffuse a conflict is very small.
Looks like Brooklyn is well past that narrow window of calming down over a misunderstanding at best or a blatant disregard for others at worst. Where were the Yale and Oberlin Students to tally up the Micro Aggression?
If a neighborhood doesn't want bike lanes and is not the only way to get from one end of town t the other then let them be isolated on their own if that is what they believe is best for their community.
Feb 5, 16 9:04 pm ·
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Can of worms (Williamsburg)-- Jews Vs. Hipsters
Hipsters have illegally repainted 14 blocks worth of bike lanes after the communities Hasidic Jewish population had request them be removed because of safety and reasons of "religious modesty."
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/brooklyn/bike_war_paint_g7EizkFEZktV3IlNUJosQM
to hell with that, have you seen Iron Man 2 trailer??
i hate bicyclist too...does that make me jewish?
Some bicyclists are a-holes,like some of them drive me mad when they ride in the middle of the car lane!! but overall I think we need more bicycles on the roads.
"A source close to Mayor Bloomberg said removing the lanes was an effort to appease the Hasidic community just before last month's election."
Ha!
I think hipsters and Jews could get along really well and is that a car tire on that man's head in the picture??
those Hasids sure do have a sense of fashion, and when you walk into their community in Williamsburg, it's like youre going into another time. They even have their own ambulances and stuff like that. can't they just re-route the bike lane? plenty of roads in Williamsburg that dont run through Hasidtown. Also, that holy talk is bullshit, a lot of those Hasids bang bed-stuy/bushwick hookers.
hipsters are crazy annoying and they don't obey traffic laws, so I'd be pissed off, too, but sorry: safety and accommodating sustainable transportation should always be given priority over someone's personal religious beliefs in any public place.
also, scantily clad? compared to what? I don't think I'd really leave it up to a Hasidic jew or any other conservative religious group to determine what is and is not acceptably modest clothing.
what's next...are they gonna build a wall around their neighbourhood to keep out the smelly and unshaven ones in skinny jeans. Have they lost their freakin' minds.
well, I don't live in Williamsburg, but only scantily clad hipsters (talk about a vague category if there ever was one) ride bikes and use bike lanes? Scuse me?
this borders on the edge of something I would read in The Onion.
apparently topless ride/protest along bedford is scheduled?
If they are riding tomorrow....they better be in sleighs...as when this fricking snow storm hits....it could be the mother of all mothers.
Frozen naked pop cyclist....something you would not be tempted to lick.
hipster? please define.
It's quite obvious that cyclists in the city break the rules, and yes sometimes it's solely because they can. However, as a cyclist commuter in Brooklyn for 7 years, I can attest that some of the rules need to be broken sometimes as a matter of safety. Yes, you read that correctly.
Fow example, a lot of accidents happen at red lights, but not the way you would think. Often, a cyclist is stopped along the right hand side and when the light turns green, the adjacent driver just plows right into them turning right through not paying attention. It's actually therefore SAFER to run red lights on a bicycle, assuming scoping out the intersection thoroughly.
It's been statistically proven that only 2% of accidents in the city occur in a bike lane. However, they only work when they're AVAILABLE. Hot dog vendors, tourists, vans double parked, cars standing, every one seems to think the bike lane is an extension of the sidewalk or an extension of the road. It's much more dangerous to have to pull out into traffic because someone is standing where they shouldn't be than it is to just ride in the car lane! When was the last time you saw a cop enforce this?
Cars make illegal u-turns, speed, run red lights, cut people off, and 'door' cyclists like it's candy. Pedestrian's jaywalk like it's a job, and often without looking [the Hasidim are notorious for this, I've seen women just push out their baby carriages right in front of me as if I didnt exist.].
How many times has a motorist screamed 'go ride in the park' at you?
My point is that the city needs to recognize cycling as a valid, logical, safe, economically and ecologically friendly alternative method of transportation. If this happens, then I would bet my bicycle, cyclists will ride more calmly instead of going into warrior survival mode.
How many more ghost bikes do we need before the city [both the people and the municipality] wakes the fuck up?
jplourde - the last time I was in BK I stayed at my friends place. He lives @ Bedford and Nostrand...I swear he said the same exact thing about the Hasidim pushing their baby carrages into the intersection. And we also came pretty damn close to hitting a male cause he just wasnt looking where he was going.
Anyways. I am not a Hipster...I do ride a bike everyday...about 14miles a day in and around San Francisco. I do not ride a fixie either(BLAH) Bike lanes are a must out on the streets where the death monsters are. Most people in the city are to worried about the car next to them and arent looking for a bike in their rear view. Just about everyday I have my life threated by a random motorist....rarely with valid reason as I do sometimes try to squeeze my way through traffic and quite frankly I scare people sometimes. Yeah I do it on purpose...to make people aware that bicycles are on the road and maybe next time you will be more aware that bicycles have a right to use every lane of the road on any road in the damn city.
Ill give an example so you dont think Im riding around putting peoples lives in danger.
Im riding up Fell street, it s aone way street and I am traveling in the bike lane with traffic. Along my left side are paralel parked cars and now Im approaching a gas station beyond the parked cars that has a curb cut that dumps right though the bike lane. I can see that there is a car inching to get into traffic from the gas station but they cannot see me over the parked cars. I slow down a bit to make sure I can stop if at the last second the car does not see me. Now the car is about to dash into traffic and I appear from behind the parked cars. I stop with plenty of room as does the car. The look on their face is usually shock and fear.
That I feel is just a friendly reminder that we exist on the road and maybe you should be more aware next time.
Happy cycling.
A bit off topic from the Histers vs Jews topic.
Halloween 09 was the last Friday of the month which coveniently coincided with critical mass. I do not participate in this madness cause I usually have a happy hour to get to on Fridays and the idea of it I think is a bit rediculous. So Im riding on McAllister crossing Van Ness Ave and critical mass is passing McAlister on Van Ness. Myself, 2 other bicyclist not participating and a number of enraged motorists are stopped by the mass at the intersection. One lady gets out of her car and pleads with the mass but they arent budging. Another man gets out his car with a can of areosol spray something in his hands, spraying the passing bicyclists in the face. A couple of them get off their bikes and throw them at him. He dodges a couple gets clipped by a couple others and makes his way over to me. Mind you I am 15-20 feet from the nearest mass participant and I say to the guy "that shit aint right, man!" And he darts at me and gets me on the back of the head as I turned away! WTF??? I get off my bike and push the guy and he trips and falls over the sidewalk construction plywood. I get a huge applause from the crowd - the guy gets up and starts stomping on my bike...I push him off again pick up my bike and push it through the mass as fast as I can. I just didnt want to get myself more involved then I already had. I saw a police officer who was monitoring the mass at another intersection, let her know of what was going on and I took of in disbelief of what just happened.
Lately I have been thinking of buying a cheap camera w/ video, attach it to my handle bars and record my entire ride door to door every day and start a blog. I think it would go over pretty well.
Bikes and Cars and Peds....The Holy War! I had a medical doctor car door me years ago on Commonwealth Avenue years ago! It is hard to belive it is still happening in our American Society today. I guess it is just to damn hard to convience the Engineers in the Department of Transportation Bikes are a vehicle and need their place on the road. Most likely cause they never get out of their suv.
the great thing about bicycles & bicyclists is that they are a problem that inevitable solves themselves. that is, because it's dangerous most bicyclist end up dead or (if they ever get enough money) they buy a large car themselves. there's really no point in traffic engineers even trying to accomodate them.
really? ever been to Amsterdam?
"Lately I have been thinking of buying a cheap camera w/ video, attach it to my handle bars and record my entire ride door to door every day and start a blog. I think it would go over pretty well."
Good one, archiTEKE -- do it ! I'd watch. . .
Big segment on Copenhgen bike social engineering on NPR the other day. The city intends to increase in-town bike commuting to 50% in a few years, via tax policy among other things. So far they have instituted bike lanes that run between the sidewalk and the parked cars, so that riders are separated from traffic.
I have to admit that I'm getting a bit weary of "the religious" pushing their "rights" on the world, as if their choice is an unalterable condition of nature -- like being gay, for instance ?
If that makes me a raging anti-Semite, so be it. . .
Well, like someone pointed out, almost all bicycle accidents are caused by traffic crossings or intersections between the different modes of travel.
They say riding on sidewalks is more dangerous but I've always felt safer. Although in NYC, I'd imagine only assholes ride their bikes on sidewalks.
The problem with accommodating bicycles on roads is that roads were purpose built for cars. So, what normally happens in 4-lane roads with no bikes (have 15 ft wide lanes) get pared down to 12-10 ft wide lands with bicycle lanes. The narrower lanes make people focus more on driving than on the environment around them.... which, in turn, makes riding a bicycle ever more dangerous.
Good points.
Another thing Copenhagen has done is time the lights to the speed of the bicycle traffic rather than the motor vehicle traffic.
Not much Spandex; mostly "old lady" bikes with clothing protection for commuters.
http://www.green.tv/newsmarket_cycling_copenhagen
car occupant: 1 in 244
pedalcyclist: 1 in 4,446
for comparison:
pedestrian: 1 in 588
train passenger: 1 in 65,870
Looks to me like it's the car occupants that are more likely to end up dead...
so as far as "safety" goes, those Williamsburg residents should try to get cars the hell out of their neighborhoods instead (and don't drive around in them either), 'cause I'll bet I know how a lot of the pedestrians in the statistic above are dying, and it usually ain't by being hit by bicycles.
Yes and no. Those statistics are always misleading no matter which lobby they are for. Riding a bicycle is more lethal... but since less people ride bikes, there is a lower incidence.
You could make a similar correlation between cars and airplanes... the odds of being in a plane crash are very slim but nearly all planes crashes are fatal.
However, car accidents are up there as a leading cause of death and injury in the US. So,. if we're going to go after cigarettes as a "preventable" cause of death, they should go after cars as well.
Stick that in your pipe and don't smoke it!
True, a better statistic would be deaths per car miles vs. deaths per bicycle miles, but what you write goes to how humans "perceive" danger vs. the reality of danger. I like using death odds statistics because they are usually coldly used, based on data, by insurance companies in actuarial tables and such, and are mostly not "politicized" (similar to Vegas odds on sports events).
Like you say, plane crashes are usually fatal when they occur, but the fact is they hardly ever occur compared to the millions of miles flown. And cars are apparently safer than bikes, to the occupants, because you're surrounded by tons of metal....unfortunately you have millions of other behemoths whizzing around you, some driven by mental defectives, which can crash into you in a car (or you on a bike or you on foot) at amazing speeds - thus the statistic above (and none of that is a statement about who is at fault in those events, that's a separate issue).
Another way to look at it is: if most vehicle fatalities occur at higher speeds than occur in city driving, and if the bulk of bicyclists are found in cities, then we can say the drivers kill themselves and other drivers in places other than where drivers kill riders. For what that's worth.
Well -- anyway, we can say for certain that few riders are killing drivers !
i luv the chinese food @ Hasidic area, YUM^^
hipster do not have friends @ hasidic area, why do they need to go there?
Sometimes one needs to pass the graveyard to get from hone to work ?
Orochi - roads were *not* purpose built for cars. Have you ever seen a photo of a city street from the early 20th century? You'll see cars, bikes, horses, trams, pedestrians, and more, all sharing the same space.
The cities of the world were apparently in real danger of drowning in horse manure by the end of the nineteenth century. The invention of the automobile solved that problem, anyway. . .
I just wanted to stop by to say that I appreciate the humorous naming of this thread, and I enjoyed opening the "can of worms". Carry on.
bump... sorry, this thread is great and more people should see it. how's the bike lobby doing nowadays?
I wonder what type of coverage this would have received had it been evangelical Christians or, dare I say, Muslims complaining about scantily clad hipster cyclists in their neighborhoods.
There. The can of worms is open. Enjoy.
Shouldn't it be "canna woyms"?
i have trouble telling the differenxe between a Hipster and Jidadi based on beards, so I look for the rolled up jeans (good for biking)
I plan on growing a hipster/Jew beard this year. Hopefully by the end I'll be trendy and rich!
go for the ZZ Top look man
I am not too familiar with all Jewish Customs but on the Sabbath there is strict limits on what people can carry and there is this thing that is done with string and or wires that enclose a space and create a boundary that religious Jews consider to be their home, usually a few blocks in their neighborhood. Within this boundary they can carry a stroller and other things. The Hipsters cursing through on a Saturday probably don't know why they are looked at as invaders and how their casual dress can come across as insulting if not hostile. I am not justifying it just saying this is also a thing here in Chicago near where I live. A problem for folks who hold onto religious customs but live in a city near other folks who don't know their customs is someone is going to offend and the window of opportunity to diffuse a conflict is very small.
Looks like Brooklyn is well past that narrow window of calming down over a misunderstanding at best or a blatant disregard for others at worst. Where were the Yale and Oberlin Students to tally up the Micro Aggression?
If a neighborhood doesn't want bike lanes and is not the only way to get from one end of town t the other then let them be isolated on their own if that is what they believe is best for their community.
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