Will Sandy Turn New Yorkers Into Bike Commuters?

(first time I ever embedded a tweet before - woo-hoo)

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Permalink Reply by Mike Zumwalt on November 3, 2012 at 11:26am

 Manhattan is so dense and unaffordable that most people who live there don't bike or use mass transit they cab it or have a chauffeur.

If you live outside of the city you have to take a train or carpool with a minimum of 3 people+ no way to get in by bike from Jersey or Connecticut.

Over 22 million people live  in the metro area and if you don't want to bike I don't see any change happening soon, beside lower Manhattan is below sea level anyway and built on a literal garbage dump so any future storms will affect it the same way and biking through 4 feet of water is not something most people will do.

Permalink Reply by Mike Schwab on November 3, 2012 at 11:52am

Remember the guy who got a ticket for riding outside the bicycle lane, so he filmed himself staying in the bicycle lane until he hit obstacles?  Well, he went for a ride in post-hurricane Sandy.

http://bicycling.com/blogs/thehub/2012/11/02/video-hurricane-sandy-on-bike...


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abawK4JRT2w

And an article and video on people riding a bicycle because the subway was out and long lines for buses.

http://www.nytimes.com/video/2012/11/02/nyregion/100000001880180/after-san...

Permalink Reply by chixieonfixie on November 3, 2012 at 12:40pm

Nuts.  Guy  is totally nuts.  Personally I would have been canoeing or white water rafting.  Looked like there were some pretty good currents past some of those restaurants.

Mike Schwab said:

Remember the guy who got a ticket for riding outside the bicycle lane, so he filmed himself staying in the bicycle lane until he hit obstacles?  Well, he went for a ride in post-hurricane Sandy.

http://bicycling.com/blogs/thehub/2012/11/02/video-hurricane-sandy-on-bike...


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abawK4JRT2w

And an article and video on people riding a bicycle because the subway was out and long lines for buses.

http://www.nytimes.com/video/2012/11/02/nyregion/100000001880180/after-san...

Permalink Reply by Kevin C Dormant on November 3, 2012 at 1:40pm

No.

Permalink Reply by Tank-Ridin' Ryan on November 3, 2012 at 5:58pm

Will Sandy be exploited by some people to push their own ideals/agendas?  Yes.

Permalink Reply by Duppie on November 4, 2012 at 8:23am

I take it your glass is half empty?

Clint H said:

I think it's more that Sandy shows just how resistant some--perhaps most--people are to bicycle commuting. Here, you had vast stretches of the city completely inaccessible by car, and yet people were willing to wait in gas lines 12 hours long. People were waiting two hours to get onto a bus that took an hour to cross a bridge you can walk across in five minutes. Bicycling wasn't even a last resort for most people in this storm. What I think we saw more than anything is that people will fight to their very last breath for their cars, and that true, sizable change won't come until it's proven the car is no longer possible.

Permalink Reply by S on November 4, 2012 at 9:23am



Clint H said:

I think it's more that Sandy shows just how resistant some--perhaps most--people are to bicycle commuting. Here, you had vast stretches of the city completely inaccessible by car, and yet people were willing to wait in gas lines 12 hours long. People were waiting two hours to get onto a bus that took an hour to cross a bridge you can walk across in five minutes. Bicycling wasn't even a last resort for most people in this storm. What I think we saw more than anything is that people will fight to their very last breath for their cars, and that true, sizable change won't come until it's proven the car is no longer possible.

Those people may not have had the option of bike commuting.  Given the conditions in NYC, going out and getting a bike that fits you and which acts as a serviceable commuter might be a little difficult.  If people are having trouble just getting around and getting power/internet service then they probably don't have the time to research and figure out which bike to get and they may not have the money to spend on a bike.  

Permalink Reply by Zoetrope on November 4, 2012 at 9:47am

PWN.  Nice job.  

Clint H said:

I'm not looking at it as a means of assessing the volume of water in any container. I'm simply stating what I've observed while following this story, and I've not observed anything in the response of the city to Sandy to indicate a consequential uptick in bicycle commuting. Very much the opposite, in fact. I'm sorry if this makes you sad. But feel free to continue contributing commentary as enlightening as your view of the state of my beverage.


Duppie said:

I take it your glass is half empty?

Permalink Reply by Zoetrope on November 4, 2012 at 10:04am

LOL.  Maybe it' the upcoming election... I first remember this word ('agenda') infecting the collective conscious everywhere from message boards to tv anchors to any random guy on the street during the Bush years.  It's a sad remnant of the Fox News political dialogue that now infects every discussion about anything where someone makes a statement...about anything.  "The liberal agenda this, etc etc", "You've got an agenda..."  There is no agenda!  The question from the article was pretty clearly apolitical, but some feel the need to politicize everything.  This is about riding bikes, and you are on a bike website.  Just stop it.

I look forward to Tuesday after everyone is done voting and feels like they've actually done something important, we can banish this word from being used at least for another 4 years.  

Tank-Ridin' Ryan said:

Will Sandy be exploited by some people to push their own ideals/agendas?  Yes.

Permalink Reply by Duppie on November 4, 2012 at 12:08pm

My apologies. I did not expect you to take my inquiry into your beverage situation seriously. It was a mere attempt at summarizing your post in a humorous way (Note to self: use more emoticons when replying in a humorous way)

Or in a more serious way: How did you get from not seeing "a consequential uptick in bicycle commuting" to concluding "that people will fight to their very last breath for their cars"? Did you ask people as to why they prefer to stand in line over riding a bike?

Is it not possible that these people have no alternatives to driving due to the decisions we as a society have made over the last 50 years or so? Did you ask them about the alternatives they may or may not have?

Clint H said:

I'm not looking at it as a means of assessing the volume of water in any container. I'm simply stating what I've observed while following this story, and I've not observed anything in the response of the city to Sandy to indicate a consequential uptick in bicycle commuting. Very much the opposite, in fact. I'm sorry if this makes you sad. But feel free to continue contributing commentary as enlightening as your view of the state of my beverage.


Duppie said:

I take it your glass is half empty?

Permalink Reply by Mike Schwab on November 4, 2012 at 5:48pm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transportation_in_New_York_City

Of all people who commute to work in New York City, 41% use the subway, 24% drive alone, 12% take the bus, 10% walk to work, 2% travel by commuter rail, 5% carpool, 1% use a taxi, 0.6% ride their bicycle to work, and 0.2% travel by ferry.[11] 54% of households in New York City do not own a car, and rely on public transportation.

Permalink Reply by Julie Aberman (Hochstadter) on November 18, 2012 at 4:48pm

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