NYC bike lanes removed because they attract “scantily clad hipster cyclists”
puzzling December 10th, 2009
Lauren sent this in, from the NY Post:
Groups of bicycle-riding vigilantes have been repainting 14 blocks of Williamsburg roadways ever since the city sandblasted their bike lanes away last week at the request of the Hasidic community.
The Hasids, who have long had a huge enclave in the now-artist-haven neighborhood, had complained that the Bedford Avenue bike paths posed both a safety and religious hazard.
Scantily clad hipster cyclists attracted to the Brooklyn neighborhood made it difficult, the Hasids said, to obey religious laws forbidding them from staring at members of the opposite sex in various states of undress.
Lauren also recommends Bike Snob NYC’s snarky take on it.
And here’s video!
–Erik Ryberg
December 10th, 2009 at 1:03 pm
This is a timely entry and more
than semi-related to a request
recently made to the BAC concerning
BMX riding and facilities in the city.
Briefly, it seems skateboarders have
several facilities in the city to
practice their craft and BMXers have
none. They want to share and the city
so far has said no. Requests have been
made at two separate BAC meetings to
support the BMX faction of the cycling
community.
I truly admire (and envy a bit) BMXer’s
skill, inventiveness, style, balance and
fearless grace. It’s a truly artistic form
of two-wheel riding as well as a demanding
form of athleticism. I expect the BAC will
lend its support to this group.
It would be nice, however, if the BMX group
would acknowledge their relationship to the
cycling community at times other than when
asking for something. All forms of cycling
contribute to the image. It makes the BAC’s
fight for rights and facilities harder when
one group so stands out as disregarding of
street rules and social courtesy.
I know…it’s their outlaw image.
But to paraphrase the Bike snob’s synopsis
of the NYC situation, I’m put in mind of a
psychology professor’s tenet:
“I will comform in ways that don’t really matter,
so that I may deviate in ways that do.”
December 10th, 2009 at 3:58 pm
Hey – no fair! How come Tucson bike lanes don’t attract “scantily clad hipster cyclists”? (“Speedo Bob” – god rest his soul – excepted; I don’t think he counted as a hipster.)
December 12th, 2009 at 6:53 pm
Scott, you need to spend more time riding up and down 4th Ave. and around downtown.
December 14th, 2009 at 6:50 am
I don’t think shirtless homeless guys count either.
December 15th, 2009 at 12:18 am
hey that guy is my friend, scott. besides hipsters haven’t appropriated the culture of recumbent riding yet. when they go “bent,” you will know that the final frontier of hipster bike culture has been reached.