Driving, Bicycling and Walking Is Insane on the Streets of New York
By Uncle Dave Wednesday June 8, 2011
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Agree it’s crazy but beautiful at the same time!
I’d rather live in the big city than the boring, sterile, strip mall infested, pretentious, gang riddled, thumper dominated, drive everywhere mentality, boring again, McMansion walled compounds in the suburbs.
Stop cutting down all the trees and then rename your streets after trees. Stop driving into the city to ‘watch’ people and then brag about your ‘trip to the city’ in the coffee room. You almost ran over someone.
It looked remarkably organized compared to many intersections I’ve seen in China.
Car traffic looked well behaved — compared to the cyclists who simply rode in any direction at any time they liked. The major exception was the truck doing a U-turn.
Pedestrians in NYC have always had an antagonistic relationship with traffic (Hey, I’m walking here!!). They know they could get hurt in an accident, but they also know that the driver will usually get blamed.
It’s not as bad as some 4-way stops I’ve seen where the rules are:
1. For pedestrians: walk whenever you feel like it.
2. For cyclists: don’t stop, don’t signal.
3. For vehicles: stop (or slow down), count to 3 as fast as you can, then go, no matter what.
Sorry, all I see is a bunch of idiots on bikes putting others (and themselves) in danger. Too bad some of them didn’t get flattened, clean up the obviously filthy gene pool. It would be evolution in action.
Same old design, same old problems.
One word solution.
Roundabout.
Are most of the bicyclists messengers or couriers? I’ve heard from a friend living in Manhattan that they ignore cars, stoplights and pedestrians.
What a dip, Uncle DaveStalin must not get out much. There were very few, if any real problems that weren’t caused by bicycles, in the video. Another advocate for a nanny superstate, or just the NAU. The distances look closer from the video than they would in person and no-one was going that fast. The real question is when are pedestrians and bicycles going to begin getting tickets for breaking the law, or have you forgotten that the bicycles were running red lights and the pedestrians were walking against the ‘walk signals’.
Whatever……………………………….
Traaxx
Dallas, have you ever lived in a small city (100,000 or so) where the countryside is less than 10 minutes away in any direction? I’ve lived in both large and small, and small has it hands down in every way possible.
I agree with number 2. The cyclists and pedestrians many imes don’t follow the signs and that is a huge problem in a big city. Jay walking, disobeying walk signals are not the fault of motorists. We are a society increasingly thinking rules do not apply to them because they are either wrong or they are in someone restrictive.
Bicyclists, mobile organ donors.
Reminds me of the other thread stating that it is insanity to use a 3000 pound machine to haul 1-2 people around. “Cities” do need people movers with commercial vehicles limited to after hours.
I am also reminded of “the Rule” that applies in many foreign countries: go where you want to, just don’t hit anything in front of you. Its remarkable how that system will work but it is almost impossible for anyone used to defensive driving.
#7 Actually, I have and agree small countryside cities are a great place to live and raise families. I don’t call these suburbs.
BTW, I was raised in a small town in northern Massachusetts near Lowell and tomorrow I fly to visit family in Jamestown, Pa.
Jamestown has one working stop light and 40min from it’s largest urban area of Pittsburgh (which isn’t that big). I’m familiar with small towns and love them. Gonna do some fish’n and build fires with my small town family kiddos ages 3-15!
1) The worst was the bikes riding the wrong way. I don’t see what the big deal was with bikes otherwise as long as they don’t surprise and scare pedestrians and motorists.
2) The truck u-turn was rude but not dangerous. They have to assert themselves sometime, otherwise they would never be able to move… The question is, where is the limit?
3) I don’t like the aggressive yielding from the cars. I’m sure those drivers wouldn’t like that done to them if they were a pedestrian.
Using public streets is a publicly accepted risk. People know it’s dangerous but use streets anyhow because the gain outweighs perceived cost. Except when an emotionally tragic event happens like a kid getting killed by a car. Then the public overreacts with outcry and laws when all the while many still die on the interstate in high speed collisions because no one wants to have slow interstates.
Best rules of the road (I think):
-Don’t do anything that negatively impacts another citizen for your benefit.
-Treat others as you’d expect to be treated.
-Avoid creating dangerous situations for others.
(Gee sounds like what we’re supposed to learn as kids doesn’t it?)
I wish traffic was this good where I live, Mexicans believe if they have a car they know how to drive!!! They don’t use signals, they backup on hiways, make U turns in the middle of a street in rush hour, and women are the worst, because they know nobody will say anything to them! It’s very impolite! After living in Mexico 6 years nothing surprises me!
Bicyclists are elite. They don’t have to obey any vehicle laws. They don’t use gasoline, so their lives are more valuable than yours.
Dallas, right on! We have a fire pit out back as well. Enjoy you time with the kids tomorrow.
I’m about 100 Km from Toronto, and their busiest intersections stop 4 ways while pedestrians are allowed to walk in any direction… diagonally or whatever while both lights are red. Seems like a good idea, but there are drivers who can’t stand the waiting and drive away aggressively when the lights change.
This sums up the bicycling quite nicely.
http://tinyurl.com/6g2x5mh
They have a sensible approach to pedestrians in Shanghai:
The idea is: if a pedestrian wants to cross the street, they should look out for cars. Because getting hit by a car is usually worse for the pedestrian than the driver.
If a pedestrian is hit (and killed) by a car, the driver is fined $1,000 (which is a lot of money in China). But that’s it. No criminal charges. The pedestrian is assumed to be at fault.
Wow… Neat video of people violating trafffic laws… *rolls eyes*
Large cities and small towns each have their benefits. The Mrs. and I currently reside in a town that got its second traffic light a few years ago. It’s possible to walk or bike anywhere in town in a few minutes, the stars at night are big and bright (though we’re no longer in the heart of Texas), the grocery stores (not counting the Wal-Mart 16 miles away) carry lots of locally produced produce and meat. On the other hand, I doubt there’s anywhere within ten miles to buy tolerable French Roast coffee beans. Not that it was that easy even in the urban area we used to live in (approx. 1 million population spread over 7 counties in two states).
As the author of the video suggested, all pedestrians, bicyclists and motorists were at fault. I can think of some solutions:
1. $1000 fine for riding your bike the wrong way and immediate impound.
2. $1000 fine for entering the crosswalk while pedestrians are in it.
3. $5000 fine for running a red on a bike and immediate impound. Someone’s going to get killed if they don’t stop that.
4. $1000 for jaywalking during certain busy hours.
5. No turn on red for this intersection.
6. Signs indicating the fines posted near the intersection
7. A platoon of cops monitoring the intersection for a month or two after these fines go into place. Meet certain “performance goals” in terms of busting people and they get bonus.
#19
I doubt there’s anywhere within ten miles to buy tolerable French Roast coffee beans.
Three words for you: roast your own.
Nobody got hit. Everybody seems to be getting where they want to go. If it isn’t broke don’t fix it. The English or some of them have started taking down traffic control signals because they learned that people trust them and that was causing accidents.
In other words in many cases if you just leave people alone they’ll figure it and you don’t need the nanny state to tell everyone exactly what to do.
#16 (denacron )… thanks for the link to Monkey Dust. Brilliant! Love that show.
Regarding the video. That all looked normal, except for the idiots on the bicycles. And #4 is right. A roundabout is a perfect solution for confusing intersections. Too bad US drivers don’t know how to use them. We have a couple of them here in my town, and I must be the ONLY person in town who signals out. I’ve yet to see anyone else do it.
Our driver training in the US does not teach us anything about roundabouts. The rules, how to enter, and how to leave. This lack of training shows.
Also, the signage for roundabouts varies widely… sort of.. from poor to piss-poor. Often, it is only when you get into the roundabout here are the exits indicated. So going in you have no idea how many exits to pass before you get to the one you want.
The only decent signed roundabout in SoCal is the one in Long Beach on PCH. But even that one, the drivers act like morons. They just drive on in, no yielding, and even not looking. They come to halts inside of it while thinking about what to do. Arrrrrgh!
Notice that none of the people getting around were handicapped, (walking with canes, walkers, getting around on a mobie,) despite the fact that almost 15% of the population is disabled at some point from something or other.
Its just that we don’t dare go out because we’ll get run over by some [expletive deleted] idiot from the 85% whose handicaps run to ADHD caused by Ritalin addiction.
BTW: I hope that people caught the fact that the music (Peter Gunn by The Art Of Noise) was credited but that no links were given to Amazon or the iTMS for purchase. Another opportunity to spread the word (and to collect some kudos and some coin) was missed.
#21
In other words in many cases if you just leave people alone they’ll figure it and you don’t need the nanny state to tell everyone exactly what to do.
Why do you suppose they put in traffic lights in the first place? It certainly wasn’t to act like a nanny. I bet it was for one of two reasons:
1. Problems with people barreling through intersections causing accidents.
2. Gridlock. Sometimes, even with lights, you get gridlock in NY but without them, cross traffic in one direction would routinely get screwed.
I spent a summer in NYC and rode my bicycle with no brakes everywhere.
At the time I was so young I didn’t think it was a big deal, it was just fun.
#20 – as an avid bicyclist who adheres to 95% of rules of the road – probably more than the average car driver – I agree with the potential penalties.
Something needs to be done, and not anywhere near the perceived “typical” cyclists are wrong-way, red light-running anarchists.
At least in the great state of NH…
Americans are a bunch of pussies with all their rules and traffic lights. Take a cab in Rio, or even here.
In the video there were cars, cyclists and pedestrians breaking the law in potentially life threatening ways.
A survey of comments would indicate that only the cyclists were at fault.
Must be a case of selective memory.
Its like when you pass a cyclist in an unsafe manner because (you feel) cyclists are always holding up your progress, but you are selectively forgetting that all the traffic jams you have been in during your lifetime were caused by drivers not cyclists. Other cars impeded your progress more than cyclists do.
The fact is that people using all sorts of modes of transportation break the law, they all should be caught and punished. To pick out one group is just ridiculous.
I rather Drive, ride bike and walk in NYC than any other suburb. At least people in NYC knows how to drive, ride bikes and walk!
I don’t get it, why doesn’t the city just install proper traffic/walking lights on the worse intersections. Bicyclists weren’t the only problem in the video.