Bike Traffic Update
An occasional report from the street and beyond

Is the city trying to save electricity or something? Complaints from all corners of Gotham flood the phone lines about no lights in public places Prospect Park, the Williamsburg Bridge, the Queensboro Bridge have all resembled a cup of black-no-sugar the last few months.

Speaking of shortchanging cyclists, it seems the city is also skimping on paint. Rider J.R. asks why they haven't painted any bike logos in the recently extended Lafayette Street bike lane, more recognizable now as the double parking/taxi hailing lane...

Dunno which is worse, though: dark-as-a-dungcon bridges or $100 Fines for riding through a red. Now, we're not advocating lawless behavior (and if you run a red with a cop standing there you're a ninny anyway), but let the punishment fit the crime! Fining a car driver the same as a cyclist for running a red is like having the same punishment for sidewalk spitting as for toxic waste dumping. Keep your eyes peeled for news of a T.A. effort to change the state law for illegal cycling.

Pavement scout D.T. says upper Riverside Drive (to 165th) is smooth like a baby's behind...Boston Road north of Burke Ave. is likewise a much better ride since repaving, according to Bronx man-on-the-street R.G.

How do you plow through a pack of pedestrians on the Upper East Side and not get vilified as a marauding Hun? If you're JFK Jr. and the peds are a gaggle of paparazzi blocking the way to your wedding reception, that's how... Although it happened too late for us to include in this issue, we don't imagine the costumed bike messengers who raced in the "Necropolis '96 Halloween courier race would've gotten away with it...A decidedly friendlier bike ride was, and is, "The Wedge," the rolling bike party that meets the first Thursday of every month at the Cube, Astor Place and Lafayette. Check it out on Nov. 7 and Dec. 5, 6:30 pm for a mellow tour of downtown hipster-land.

Here's hoping the City Council has gotten the message about mandatory helmet laws. A dozen cycling and skating advocates crowded Council Chambers in September to oppose the proposed law, which would have been another in a series of punitive ordinances against cyclists and skaters. The council only seems able to restrict, regulate and harass cyclists without making it any safer out here.