A new front has opened up in the never-ending war to decide how much road space should be allotted for cyclists. After tearing South Williamsburg and Soho apart--pitting brother against brother, Hasid against Goy, Councilman against...DOT--the conflict has spilled over to Windsor Terrace, where a community is bitterly divided over recent changes to the traffic circle at the southwest corner. And in this latest skirmish, a new combatant has entered the fray: horse riders!

There are still the same number of traffic lanes (four) filtering motorists toward such thoroughfares as Coney Island Avenue and Ocean Parkway. But the lanes have been narrowed to make room for a green bike lane, which is shared with horses making their way to Prospect Park. And now some poor drivers are confused! "I hate it," said Alphonso Martin, a 39-year-old private-duty nurse, to the Times. "It sends you off on detours and makes no sense. I can't figure out for the life of me why they came up with such ideas. It's probably someone who doesn't live in the neighborhood. And these bike lanes are only used in summer, so why inconvenience everyone the year round?"

Setting aside the dubious notion that people only ride bikes four months a year, Wiley Norvell at Transportation Alternatives tells us, "Most of these traffic circles were laid down before the car was even invented, and they were never intended to be massive rotaries that cut residents off from their park. The changes are a solid improvement all-around; they slow cars down and give a bit more priority to the thousands of cyclists and pedestrians in the area. No one should have to play Frogger to access Prospect Park, especially with children in tow."

But not all cyclists are happy, either! According to the Times, some have "complained that the design forces horses that are leaving the park's bridle path to move into the bike lane, leaving it open to deposits of manure." When will the DOT start installing horse lanes on NYC streets? And why not add some skateboard lanes while you're at it?