You have to love the Neistat brothers.
The Scaly Scales of Justice
Sure, cyclists should ride intelligently, but having respect for the power of a car is the driver’s job. If they lack that respect then the car should be taken from them.
Being only as interested in the taxonomy of American cycling subcultures as I am in baseball statistics, I have never been a Bike Snob reader. (And sorry, mom in law, I haven’t read that book you gave me.) But as Brooklyn Spoke pointed out, this is a righteous post.
The “power” that Snob is talking about is at the crux of everything that happens on our streets, from the subculture of masochistic cycling to the grateful nod that pedestrians give to motorists for being allowed to enjoy their lawful right of way.
In our society’s submission to this power, we’ve even corrupted the principle of responsibility such that it is far more often critically applied to pedestrian and cyclist victims than the people controlling the powerful vehicles that killed them. In the not-so-old days this social norm meant the very opposite: an obligation of those with power to use it with honor, respect, and care.
But anti-collective, anti-social, mechanized America has almost privatized responsibility out of existence. That noble ideal was rebranded as “self-responsibility”, an obligation not to be maimed or killed (so that no one else has to endure the unpleasantness). But we already have a lower, truer apprecation of that in our bones: it’s called survival. Survival is what’s left, when laws and social conventions are brushed aside.
Is this how we want to live?
Wise words.
No Compassion
I got doored today by a woman getting out of a cab. I was about 1 block away from my apartment, and my concentration was wandering to the tasks for the rest of my day (Hadoop World, etc.) Letting up for 1 second means danger. NYC is a terrible place to ride a bike. I was riding along at about 10 mph and passing cars on the right hand side. Boom! Woman opens door right into me. My left shoulder takes the brunt of the impact. My new iPhone ejects onto the street, but miraculously only the tiniest scratch results. I pick up my phone and try to regain my composure. I could only utter, “It’s your responsibility.” Naturally, the woman tries to blame me! She says there was nothing she could have done. She claims since there was a red light (there wasn’t) that my smashing into the door SHE OPENED was my fault. I sarcastically say, “Thank you very much,” and ride home.
Now I have a large contusion on my left shoulder muscle, and my right elbow hurts when I extend it.
Known for their technical experimentation with popular visual culture, sound, and sculpture, British artists Ed Atkins, James Richards and Haroon Mirza will present the site-specific An Echo Button in Times Square that responds to the history and the spectacle of the area. See more imagery of the conceptual “echo chamber” installation on Dazed and Confused here. On view starting tomorrow at 9 pm.
I’m going to this.
CB 8 Committee Warms to Bike-Share, Sets Aside Bike Licenses
On bike-share, a CB8 member who adamantly opposed the proposal for cross-park shared bike/ped paths four months ago expressed no hostility, asking if the bikes would have enough cargo room for all her things, and if DOT would consider including three-wheelers in the bike-share program to better accommodate seniors.
Empathy: it’s a myth.
The way forward in ethical transportation is helping people see themselves as participating in it. Only then do they care if cyclists suffer, or die. It’s a sad reflection of our selfish psychology, but a wonderful omen for cycling’s future. Thanks to bike share, bike lanes, and more and more cyclists who are indistinguishable from pedestrians on wheels (because that’s what we are), the portion of city residents who can’t see themselves ever using a bicycle is shrinking every day.
Agreed. Drivers must be converted to cyclists. Otherwise they will never understand.
Jim Jarmusch, Klaus Nomi, and Christopher Parker, The Bowery photographed by Godlis, 1978
via Godlis
Meet Me at the Plaza
A 50-year-old bargain between the city and private developers gave New York hundreds of potentially useful spaces, but it clearly needs revising.
Read this!
