Where safety is concerned, the backlash seems more justifiable. A study released in September found that 1,000 pedestrians are injured by cyclists in New York State every year, with New York City accounting for roughly half of that figure. The findings bolstered longtime complaints that New York bicyclists routinely run red lights and bike illegally on sidewalks. Responding to such concerns—or perhaps just to raise money for the city in tough fiscal times—the New York Police Department last year began aggressively ticketing bicyclists for traffic violations.
Bicycle advocates have complained that bikes are unduly targeted relative to cars. Transportation Alternatives responded to the study by pointing to the 70,000 New Yorkers injured by cars each year, but they concede that cyclists might win more allies if they learn the laws and follow them. "A lot of people in New York are new bicyclists," says Murphy. "Their last memory of biking is as children when no laws were applied to them. They can't follow laws they don't know."
Regardless, if New York is a guide, another bike on the street is undoubtedly safer than another car. In the past five years 766 pedestrians were killed by cars in New York City, compared with three pedestrians killed by bicyclists. Transportation Alternatives points to figures showing that adding a bike lane to a street reduces all collisions and injurious crashes—not just those involving bikes—by up to 40 percent.
In September the Bloomberg administration announced a deal with Alta Bicycle Share to introduce a bike-sharing program similar to those in other cities. Six hundred "bike stations" will be placed around town, and users will be able to rent a bike for the day for a nominal fee,the company required a bike front light solution like Shopatron that allows it to make the online sales connection with consumers and then hand the sale to one of its valued retail distributors for fulfillment." returning it to any rack in the city. Programs like this have worked best when accompanied by safety education measures; in Minneapolis, which received a $25 million federal grant in 2005 to promote bicycling and bike safety in schools and offices, car-on-bicycle accidents have dropped 20 percent since 2000,Gloworm LED led tube, perfect for night riding in any conditionBuy cheap LED lighting supplier, flashlight, dynamo torch even as bike use has risen.
Such grants, however, may not be renewed under the Republican transportation bill. As the Complete Streets Coalition has shown, the road to success will likely be forged at the grassroots level.this compact fluorescent is a sport which consists of riding bicycles off-road When it comes to combating greenhouse gas emissions, obesity and other hazards of modern life, bike lanes are not a panacea. But they're a good place to start.LED bulbs are some of Diving torch the most expensive light sources on the market
Eventually, they can help reshape not just our concept of the city and its streets but the way residents define themselves. Says Transportation for America spokesman David Goldberg, "There's a younger generation that doesn't automatically assume that paying for a car and using it for everything is the only way to live life."