a conversation with livery car driver
Observed by lawandorder on Tue, Sep 11 2007
After I took this guy's picture and told him to leave the bike lane... he left the bike lane. He followed me and we had a "conversation" of sorts as we went along. He asked me what I had said (maybe he didn't hear me). "Where am I supposed to go? I was waiting for a customer!"
I said, "find a legal spot."
"Where?! There are no spots!"
"Hey, that's not my problem, I don't drive a car. Listen, write Bloomberg.."
"Fuck Bloomberg!"
"Write him and ask for spots to be allocated for taxis..."
"Do you think Bloomberg gives a fuck about you and me?!"
"I don't know, but thanks for the leaving the bike lane.. bye!"
[rough transcription]
Although he was pissed, it was the most extensive exchange I've had since I've started taking pictures of cars in bike lanes. I kinda felt bad for the guy. Yes, he was wrong and endangered my life. But really, this issue will only be solved when the City:
1) raises the price of curbside parking until some spots are available
2) ends the Dept of Finance's Stipulated Fine program
3) dedicates more curbside parking for taxi pickups and commercial deliveries
4) actually enforces the law
I will keep taking these photos. Hopefully this site will someday inspire Bloomberg (or whomever) to answer the driver's question affirmatively.
4 Comments
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Posted on Wed, Sep 12 2007 at 03:04 PM
You expect NYC to actually enforce the law?
Not in a million years will this happen.
Posted on Wed, Sep 12 2007 at 03:26 PM
I believe that the parking cops write as many tickets as they can; I think they are under pressure to do so. If bike lane tix were "worth" two ordinary tix against the parking cops' quota, you can bet there would be enforcement.
Posted on Wed, Sep 26 2007 at 10:35 AM
stop deluding yourself. the city is for cars and prefrence, rightfully so, is given to them. we're not in europe where public transportation is excellent and urban sprawl is foreign to them. most pple in the city do not live in manhattan and taking public transportation takes double the amount of time. CARS are here to stay. go move to amsterdam you europhiles, and admit for once that you are in the wrong! then they shouldn't have put bike lanes on the pavement? that's true, it was only placed there to cater to your bike lobby regardless of how inappropriate they actually are. can't you tell that the reason there are so many violatoins is that there is no alternatives for cars, for the largge part. yes, many times drivers are wrong. but the city is designed for cars not bikes and so enforcing bike lanes is impossible simply because its laws cannot be adhered to. !!!!
Posted on Wed, Oct 10 2007 at 10:00 PM
If we get Richard Brodsky to understand NYC is not a parking lot for his constituents, then Mayor Bloomberg's congestion-pricing plan has a chance. Once that plan goes into effect, livery and yellow cab drivers will have plenty of places to sit and wait for their customers. No congestion pricing = continued stress on global-warming-reducing bicyclists.