MyBikeLane

Contractors dump a pile of stones in the bike lane on East 90th Street, and, you'll see a taxi further down the street. A myriad of cars and trucks block the bike lane on East 90th Street.

The latest trick at this contruction site is to leave the gate open blocking the bike lane even when there are no vehicles entering or leaving the site. This increases the already serious risk of cars emerging from the garage just past this spot hitting cyclists as they pop out from behind the gate.

General Theological Seminary on West 20th Street had contractors working (illegally) this Sunday morning prior to 9 a.m., who rather than taking open parking spaces on the block instead used the bike lane as their private parking lot. Many New Jersey residents believe all of New York City is a regulation-free zone to be exploited for work and play, so why should this violation be anything unusual to the worker performing illegal work? Neighborhood residents complain of the Seminary's construction violations, so the hypocrisy of not having a good-neighbor policy perhaps might be the topic of a future sermon.

Here on West 77th Street between Amsterdam Ave. and Broadway there is a potentially deadly convergence of hazards in the bike lane. First, there is an underground Hertz garage on the south side of the street from which you see the black SUV emerging.

Second, due to contruction, the sidewalk is closed and a tall construction shed (blue plywood on the right) has been built along the curbline, just to the east of the underground garage exit. As a result, drivers emerging from the underground parking garage must pull out much further into the roadway to look for oncoming traffic.

Third, because the Fire Department employees illegally park their tinted-window SUVs next to the shed and partially blocking the bike lane (green Chevy in photo), cars emerging from the underground garage actually have to pull into the bike lane and sit there (as the black SUV in the picture is doing) in order to see if they can fully enter the street.

As a result, you constantly have cars pulling blindly into the bike lane. Here's a video clip showing this spot last year, before there was a construction shed and FDNY compounding the problem.

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This wasn't pleasant.

This guy did have one of those removable revolving lights on top of his sedan, but he was no where to be seen. There is a big parking lot to the right of the scene shown (next to hecksher playground), where all the Parks Dep't vehicles park. He could have parked there, but he was too lazy. So he parked in the bike lane, forcing bicyclists and others into traffic. The NYPD passes by without doing anything.

Here's the same guy as in post http://nyc.mybikelane.com/post/index/181, in the same location and up to his old tricks: blocking both the sidewalk and the bike lane and creating an unsafe condition for everyone. He saw me taking the photo (inset, left) and came up to tell me I should "go to work" and stop bothering him. I patiently explained to him that he was forcing pdestrians and bicyclists into the street but he just kept yelling that I should "get to work" (inset, right). Just because you're "doing work" doesn't mean you have a license to do this, pal. I hope no one gets hurt, but if they do, hopefully they will find this post and will be able to use it to nail him (legally speaking) to the wall.

I have no idea if my calls and emails to the city and the construction contractors working here helped, but the bike lane at West 78th & West End Avenue has now been free and clear of construction materials for 3 days and so I officially declare it liberated (the biker decal was damaged by the steel plates stored on it, but c'est le guerre).

To demonstrate that I am not so parochial as to care only about dangers posed by illegally parked vehicles to bicycles, I noted that the placard on the dash of the Mercedes in the picture was issued to an "honorary police surgeon" and the car is parked right in front of a hydrant at 8:30 am: http://www.flickr.com/photos/43954081@N00/321551270/

Didn't Hippocrates tell us to "do no harm"?

Truck of crew responsible for steel plates in bike lane (see post #1)

The supervisor of the construction crew cutting open the northbound lane of West End Avenue just south of 78th Street (employer--"Tucci Equipment") assured me that his crew had only "temporarily" stored these stell plates in the bike lane. We'll see. For shot of culprits, see #2