“I take my kids to school in the morning, and pick them up in the afternoon, and the traffic congestion on Seventh and Eighth avenues during school rush hours is as bad as mid-town Manhattan. You can't park anywhere between Ninth Street and Union Street and there are cops and meter people skulking around to catch you daring to double-park for 30 seconds to go to an ATM machine. Did we really need a two-way bike lane on Prospect Park West?”

Oh, wow. Wow! Peter Loffredo, your comment is stunning.

1. You complain about traffic congestion but also seem to think you should have the right to double-park your car while visiting the ATM machine. Dude: What do you think causes the traffic congestion?

2. You complain about traffic congestion but then complain about the city's efforts to make it safer and more convenient to commute and run errands by bike. Would you rather have those bike riders driving around in cars clogging up the street even more?

Stuff like this is just truly mind-boggling. These are apparently smart, educated, sensitive people who just can't think straight when it comes to transportation, traffic, parking and public space in Brooklyn.

Does Mr. Loffredo really need to drive his kids to and from school? You can't really complain about traffic if you're driving: you're part of the problem. ...but maybe he has a good reason.

I can't really blame Mr. Loffredo if he needs to drive his kids to school. Who knows why he does and it's not really for any of us to judge. Maybe it's far away, maybe there's no good bus service, maybe his kids can't walk there. Totally fine.

But, wow, don't complain about the traffic if you're double-parking just to run to the ATM. You are the traffic! Your cash run inconveniences dozens and dozens of drivers who want to get around you on both sides as you check your balance in the bank. In fact, you doing that multiplied by tons of other people doing that for their own important 30-second errand means a lot of cars blocking other cars and a lot of traffic.

I fail to see what a bike lane has to do with your choice to not, say, get cash when you're walking through the neighborhood later or to combine your cash-getting with other errands after you've found a parking space.

The traffic on 8th Avenue has been terrible during rush hour for as long as anyone can remember. That probably has more to do with a history of congestion at Union Street and further down at Flatbush that predates even the most basic bike lane. Cars have double-parked in front of the schools on 7th Avenue and in elsewhere in Park Slope. It takes a real selective memory to recall that Brooklyn traffic only started to get really bad once they put in a bike lane.

Eric McClure, bike lane supporter, lists affordable housing and education as top priorities.

Peter Loffredo, holistic psychotherapist and bike lane opponent, lists the ability to double park as a top priority.

Tells you a lot, doesn't it?

Jeez, Louise, do you keep on quoting the same 5-6 people that you quoted incessantly in Gersh's paper? How original and crative, but I guess the junior journalists running this Patch don't know that; they just have to fill space. Aren't there other people in PS that count, who don't have titles and scramble to make a life and living in the People's Republic?

Well Susan I guess that shows the moral superiority of bike lane supporters.

I will admit I am not a supporter of a two-lane bike lane. But when people like Peter Loffredo support the same views as I do on that certain topic but then double-park, it frustrates me. It makes all those that appose the two-lane bike lane look like car mongers, gas guzzling, road-rage maniacs. And we're not. Some people need cars. I need a car because my job is 37 miles from home. However, that is not the topic of this story. BTW, Ms. Crawford, I would have liked to see more quotes from regular people who are not affiliated with Park Slope politics and neighborhood watch groups.

Kevin, of course bike lane supporters aren't morally superior. I only meant that Peter Loffredo, a holistic psychotherapist, seems a heck of a lot more selfish than McClure. Ironic that someone who works in a healing profession would put something out there that makes him look so self-centered.

Anyway, I know a lot of bikers who are jerks and a lot of drivers who are saints and vice versa. I wasn't trying to imply otherwise.

And I agree with Anthony. Argue the bike lane on the facts and data, but don't blame the fact that you have simply no choice but to double-park at your ATM one or two avenues away on the bike lane. Loffredo just comes off as a selfish boor and isn't doing the whole NBBL crowd any favors.

I drive a lot, don't bike, and I tend to park my car and run all my errands at once or leave the car where it is and walk from my house to the bank. Sorry, Peter, if you can't be inconvenienced!

Loffredo come off as a selfish boor? Sometimes it may be necessary to double park. Parking is hard around here. And harder lately. From what I hear. I don't have a car. I guess bikes will give us a better world though. Might still want to work on that superior thing.

Susan: It appears that Loffredo's particular therapeutic philosophy is based largely on giving yourself "full permission" to do whatever you want to do at a given moment. Is driving three blocks more convenient to you than walking? Then do it! Will double-parking bring you bliss? Then do it! Full Permission Living.

http://fullpermissionliving.blogspot.com/

Selfish boors would describe the pro bike lane crowd. Screwing up traffic and parking for a few bike riders is ridiculous.

Less than 1% of NYC residents use bikes to get to work.

For me the big thing is how dirty the streets are. It is gross. It makes me feel that people who live in this neighborhood have no pride in where they live. They brag that they live in PS 321 district but when you get here it looks like a landfill. The attitude of entitlement here is ridiculous.
We are Brooklyn-ites, We complain about everything...EVERY.THING. Take the snow problem this winter.
Mayor Bloomberg had himself and the Sanitation Commissioner plowed out first so they could get to work...and we complained. BUT...if they had not been dug out first so they could get to work, we would have complained about the fact that they are the Mayor and Commissioner and they couldn't get their asses dug out and get to fucking work
The whole thing was handled very poorly and it sucked but they were damned if they did and damned if they didnt

I am now a bike commuter because of the PPW bike lane. One less car getting in the way of th entitled Loffredo's.

My god there is such a display of moral superiority among those of you defending the bike lane. Yes we get it-Loffredo is a selfish and evil person and you on the other hand are giving us a greener and better tomorrow. Well to me it's not an issue of cars and bikes it's an issue of bikes and pedestrians and I think that we pedestrians are just as noble and green as you are. And the problem that I have is that the same self righteousness and lack of respect doe those who are not members of your club is displayed by your biking behavior. Do you ever see bikers stop at red lights? They didn't even install red lights on the bike lane because they know it would be pointless since no one obeys them. I have seen plenty of debates like this one where bikers explain how they don't stop because they need to get ahead of the traffic etc etc. My girlfriend and I walked the Brooyn Bridge Columbus Day weekend to enjoy a beautiful sunset. We weren't alone. There were hundreds of sightseers there enjoying it too. People were teynig very hard

OOPs I accidentally sent that before I was done. A problem typing on my phone. There were hundreds of sightseers there trying diligently to stay out of the bike lane but with the crowd it was inevitable that some spilled into the lane. And the bikers who rushed through without slowing down just yelled at them to get out of the bike lane. It is the same sense of superiority and to use your word MJD entitlement that I see among bikers and that I see in all the discussions online. I see on the Brooklyn Paper site that bike supporters refer to those who disagree as trolls and want to in their own words "shut them down". Is it a coincidence that you see the same sense of superiority on these pages and on the bike lanes? I don't think so.

Kevin:

There is no one in this article saying, "Hey, I think cyclists should be allowed to blow through red lights."

There is, however, this supposedly "holistic" therapist guy whining about traffic congestion and bike lanes while suggesting that the most pressing issue in Park Slope today is his inability to double-park conveniently.

As for your complaint about the cyclists and the tourists on the Brooklyn Bridge -- sounds like the tourists were blocking the bike lane. It's a bike lane. It's the place that commuters use to get from point A to point B. I fail to see how these cyclists were exhibiting "superiority" by calling to the tourists to get out of their way. If the tourists were blocking a car lane and the cars were honking at them to get out of the way would you call out the drivers for their sense of superiority and entitlement? I suspect you would not.

Bike lanes don't actually congest the streets that they are on. People recognize that bike lanes interfere with driving and reflexively change their routes, leaving streets about as trafficked as they were in the first place; Any bike lanes in park slope are essentially pushing traffic out of the slope, not accumulating it. The problem here is that areas like 4th ave get completely screwed, and serve as drive-ways rather than as commercial/residential areas.

What we need is MORE bike lanes, and a non-residential, non-commercial avenue reserved for automobiles. Improving the MTA bus system with designated bus lanes would be nice too.

P.S. I am sorry about Stanley.

Marty your response perfectly demonstrates my argument that bikers feel a sense of entiement. As I said a out my exoerience on the Brooklyn Bridge, it was mobbed with pedestrians and they were very consciously trying to stay out of the bike lane. In fact i'd say it distracted them from enjoying the sight they had come there to enjoy. But the bikers wouldn't accommodate the crowd. It wS their bike lane and they were going to use it come he'll or high water. Incredibly indignant. That sense of entitlement that they displayed is exactly what you display here. Thanks for so perfectly proving my point. And S for blowing through red lights,you don't deny it you just say no one wS talking about it. Well I wS and I am. It is what bikers do. You don't offer a defense or denial. And I reiterate what I said, Khan apparently acknowledges that reality since rather than installing red lights she installed yellow flashing lights. So pedestrians who take advantage of red lights to cross PPW are on left in the lurch when it comes to crossing the bike lane. And as I previously said this argument is always framed as a conflict between bikes and cars and to me it is a fight between bikes and pedestrians and the pedestrians are getting ignored in the debate because it's easier to demonize cars. I was always td that pedestrians always have the right of way. But not in bike world. Thank you again for demonstrating exactly my point in regard to the bridge incident.

PS: sorry about all the typos I have been trying to type on my phone.

oy vey, the bike lane is there, deal with it, it's not like the city is going to come and remove it now that it's there. The debate over bikes vs cars is pointless, each has their merits. However, cars are regulated and bikes are not, and as the bike lanes increase (and presumably the number of riders in said lanes), there needs to be regulation.

I've been in an auto accident, and I've been hit by a speeding bicyclist. Guess which accident caused me more harm? The bike! There's no airbag when a bike hits you at top speed, and many bike commuters ride very fast.

I am a leisure bike rider, and speeding/racing/in-training cyclists in the park yell at you like they own it, and it's not their private racing course. IMHO, they should not be allowed to use the park that way. If they are going to ride in the streets of NYC, or the lanes in the park, they should adhere to the same rules of the street. Issue licenses and license plates for ID purposes (the person who hit me had no ID and took off, as I was loaded into an ambulance), and ticket them if they don't obey the traffic rules.

If you're interested in the bike lane and traffic, among other things, have a look at this: http://www.xoxosoma.com/ppw/

Ah Janice, the group in the park are pretty much thugs. I heard a pack of them yelling at a mother and her young son (maybe 4 years old) to get out of their lane as they were innocently crossing the road. "Get that kid out of here!" they shouted over and over. The mom and her toddler had started their very slow advance before the gang barreled by. Beyond that it's kinda creepy that they all wear matching ensembles. My girlfriend refers to them as The Spandex Ballet.

Spandex Ballet is too sweet a term for these people. They think they own the road and are all Lance Armstrong wannabe's. They never slow down for people to cross the roads and it's terrifying for people, young and old.

Why dont we begin to sell JATO bottles to local bike types....I bike for exercise after my exposure tothe WTC mess.
I see bike people endangering the public and ESPECIALLY the elderly. I've seen amazing incidents of really bad
behavior.

What's the answer. Perhaps what happened in Los Angeles in the early 1950's when the city council wanted to
ban any kind of hot rods. A strong national association of car modifiers was formed and began to cooperate
with police and send out clear signals what was NOT acceptable road behavior. Anyone who was there even as a small child knows what happened; there was a great reduction in dangerious behavior and a great boost in public attitude
for kids who worked on thier cars.

Trying to be constructive here...why cant bike people sign up and REALLY help in some kind of major public service program? How would it be if a large group of bike people signed up to be block watchers with the police dept and severl stopped or significantly assisted in a serious crime or emergency incident? Almost every bike person I know has a
DHS people tracker/cell phone with then. If even one or two bikers a month rendered some kind of critical pubic service,
general public attitudes would begin to change.
clear sgnals