You might remember last year of a major dispute between the Hasidic community and bicycle community in Williamsburg regarding the Kent Ave bike lane. While that lane though redesigned stayed, last week the DOT stripped 14 blocks of bike lane off the street neighboring Bedford Ave with no warning or community voice. Bedford Ave bike lane provides a direct connection for cyclists to the the Williamsburg bridge – possibly the most highly trafficked bike commuter bridge in the city. The community is understandably upset considering how much work and community support must go into installing a bike lane. Apparently removing one requires no thought at all.
Yesterday Gothamist reported that a few people were arrested by the Shomrim or local watchdogs for trying to repaint the lane on Bedford though other sources report no one was actually arrested. Regardless, a group called “OccupyEverything” succeeded in repainting the lane anyway!
Yesterday I had the pleasure of checking out the Bixi bike share demo on Union Square. Bixi, a combination of the words bicycle and taxi, is a bike share program currently used in Montreal. Their service is went into effect May 12, 2009 with 3,000 bicycles available for self-service at 300 stations across three boroughs. If you google the program you will find that people complain about the high fees – from $5 (day) to $78 (year) for a pass + usage fees, I’d have to agree. I mean would you use it at that price?
It was still nice to see, as NYC is proposing to roll out their own system for sustainable transportation improvement.
Only about 1% of commuter trips in New York City are made by bicycle, so as part of its strategic plan, Sustainable Streets, DOT intends to double that number by 2015 and triple it by 2020.
For more photos check out Flickr. For info on the proposed NYC bike share, check out Streetsblog.
We are feeling a little bummed about staying in Brooklyn for the big discobama…I mean inauguration. CNN is calling it “The Moment” and wants you to send pictures of Obama raising his hand to themoment@cnn.com WTF!? Bombard those fools with dirty photos would you?
Anyways, there is good news for the cyclists out there! The Washington Area Bicyclist Association will perform a valet service with fully uniformed valets.
As an added bonus, commemorative spoke cards and valet claim check tickets will be available free of charge to everyone who uses the bike valet. While supplies last. [via WABA]
That alone makes us regret not biking into town.
The Washcycle suggest going early or biking around as the volunteers are preparing to check 1000 bikes for 1.5 to 3 million people and they “might” be overrun. Click the map below to check out the valet sites and bike paths. [via Washcycle]
When I read the news, I thought the blogosphere was lying to me but it turns out NPR posted something so it must be true, right? Well it is official! According to a new federal law enacted as part of the $700 billion financial bailout entitled the “Bicycle Commuter Act” companies can receive a $20/month tax credit per commuting employee. The money can be passed down to the employees or used in some other bike friendly way…one hopes. It sounds great for bike friendly business owners, but I have my doubts about larger companies.
[Hear more via Minnesota Public radio 
