Where Do Bikes Fit In?

To understand the dynamics of bicycling on New York City streets, it helps to first examine — from a cyclist's-eye view — the climate in which cyclists ride. The city looks different to a cyclist than it does to a motorist, and with good reason: bikes are fundamentally unlike cars. Yet both the law and agencies that set traffic policy lump cyclists together with motor vehicles, the result being that the special qualities and needs (and vulnerabilities) of cyclists are either ignored or misunderstood.

Meanwhile, people who drive motor vehicles are all too aware that bicycles differ from cars. Bikes are both slower and more nimble than cars; they take up less space, yet can seem “in the way” to unacculturated drivers. Many motorists regard cyclists as interlopers on their streets, begrudging cyclists even the fraction of a lane they use. Either way, cyclists — and the city — lose. Cyclists have to ride on streets where they are not made welcome, and are expected to obey traffic laws that were not designed for them and frequently don't make sense. The city as a whole pays the myriad costs of attempting to manage a traffic situation made unmanageable by too many motor vehicles, while missing out on the civic benefits large-scale cycling could offer.