My new post at On Transport. So why do so many selfish New York cyclists do it? They just enjoy putting their lives on the line to save a couple minutes.
No real rebuttal here… along with other good habits I’ve picked up (like, um, wearing a helmet), I now make it a point to turn left onto Houston Street from Second Avenue to get to Allen Street rather than ride salmon along East First Street. Even though Houston Street is the Bicycle Avenue of Death.
But riding against traffic has different degrees… are you heading the wrong way down an unmarked (for bikes) six-lane avenue, or are you going opposite traffic on a wide, bike-laned one-way side street? Never go the wrong way down an unmarked avenue, that’s just asking for death. There’s also very little excuse to do the latter in NYC, because all the parallel streets alternate in one-way directions and there’s almost always a nearby bike lane headed in your direction. But, if you’re just tooling around on low-density side streets outside of the major traffic zones (like, say, Williamsburg, which has surprisingly quiet streets that are not named Bedford), then, well, your major risk there is a ticket. I still say, don’t do it, and find a nearby bike lane - or a nearby regular street - that goes in your direction.
And if you’re only going one block or so… if you must, make sure the cars have the red light and there are no pedestrians around. Why risk riding directly into traffic?
(BTW, why does it seem lately that the closest calls I’ve been having - I’ve been riding safely so things have been pretty low-key - are with those minibuses that pick up handicapped people? Those vehicles are fairly wide, and their protruding side mirrors keep nearly giving me a haircut. I think it would be ironic if a handicapped transport gave me a handicap. I also think I want every one of them on Earth to have an engine seizure so that I never see one again. They are big and unwieldy and unsafe to anyone not driving or riding in one. BACK TO THE DRAWING BOARD, BOZOS.)
