Biking in Brooklyn. Dead in Brooklyn. The Last Word.

Sunday, September 4th—Another Another cyclist was killed riding in Brooklyn, the second this week. Nicolas Djandji, 24, An Egyptian-born Brooklyn artist became the 10th person in the city killed while riding a bike this year. 

August 30, 29-year-old Erica Abbott, dancer, yogi and SUNY BFA grad, was biking southbound on an unprotected bike lane (no buffer between the biker and traffic) on Bushwick Avenue in Willisamsburg when she was killed by a woman driving a Mercedes.

Witnesses said Abbott was biking "through a construction site" when she "suddenly lost her balance near a pile of loose wood after a car horn honked and she turned her head." 

I have often joked with other cyclists, “If the honking doesn’t kill you, the pot holes will.”  It seems many drivers feel compelled to blare their horns when approaching a cyclist on the road.  I wasn’t on the scene when poor Erica went down, but I am guessing the combination of horn + debris = dead on the scene.

The basic disregard or lack of awareness of how to share the road with bikers is so rampant that campaigns like the NYC Street Memorial Project keep installing ghost bikes at locations where bikers have been killed trying to get the message across.  While it is true that in many instances, some are “jerks” and need to be more considerate of pedestrians, it needs to be remembered that cars, trucks & vans kill bikers.  It is never the reverse.

In March of this year, at the forum held by Community Board 6, I tried to explain the many reasons behind ‘bad’ biking, "You cannot ride your bike with pinkies out,” meaning that aggressive riding often saves your life.  One reason cyclists often jump the red, is to create a buffer from the oncoming flow traffic, not bad manners.

When Neighbors For a Better Bike Lane lost their suit against the DOT to repeal the bike lane, responses against the ruling went viral.  Even New York One -- which has done a great job covering the PPW bike lane drama, posted this viewer’s comment:

"In the USA, bicycles are toys to be ridden by children in parks. They are not modes of transportation. Even China is getting rid of bicycles and adopting the more rational automobile mode of transportation.  Bicycles and bicycle lanes cause congestion, assuming that cyclists even use them. Many do not. They simply ride all over the street in any direction they can, never stopping for pedestrians or red lights.  New York City is not in Europe, it is in the US of A!" 

[Joe of Port Richmond, SI]

Seriously, Joe?  The "more rational" mode of transportation is the automobile? Have you seen An Inconvenient Truth or did you think that carbon emissions and their impact on global warming is just another liberal media prank like Apollo's landing on the moon.  We didn't really go to the moon, right, Joe?  Hollywood!

And the Gothamist ran, "Reasons Why The PPW Bike Lane Sucks."  Wonderful.

In Bike Wars (2010), Ben Fried, editor of Streetsblog said, “In the media, you don’t often see portrayals of the new bike infrastructure from someone who might want to use it, it’s always from the perspective that cyclists are ‘other.’ They’re like these horned beings, not people or New Yorkers, you know, they’re cyclists  -- that leads to some pretty vicious coverage.”

Even the UK Guardian noticed the “drip drip” negative press that DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan has received, especially from the NY Times.  Their guess is that more Times readers drive than bike (seems right) but they also pointed out that the negative media seemed to surge just as big-money pro-bono corporate lawyer, Jim Walden took on the case.

As the  continues to drag on, the street deaths of these two young artists in less than a week should underscore the mandate for more and better bike lanes, ideally, protected bike lanes as well as more vigorous bike-awareness education as part of the requirement to get your license.

While Bloomberg’s PLANYC began with his full support behind the DOT Commissioner’s plan to expand the bike lane infrastructure of the city, he may buckle to the anti-bike pressure, and—if you will excuse the metaphor—“back-pedal” on the issue.

In the name of Erica Jacobs and Nicolas Djandji, and thousands of others who have been injured & killed on our city’s streets, I pray he doesn’t.

In a perfect world, just one life lost should be the final word on the merit of protected bike lanes. I am guessing it won’t be.