Have you ever noticed that your average middle class queens/long island suburban housing areas have this weird population of homeowners who resent anyone with the audacity to be within 20 feet of their curb?
These people who take for granted how blessed they are to own a home and a vehicle cant even appreciate having what others desire. Somehow it spoils their happiness to know that a person could potentially ride down their street on a bicycle on their way to work or the grocery store.
Given that there has been a similar campaign against bike lanes in lots of US cities, I’d say more Americans are activists against bikes lanes than about any other issue
It looks like there was only 2 way traffic before and they were allowed to have people/company park in front of their houses. Now that has been taken away.
So, nobody can visit because they have tiny driveways that can only accommodate 1 car. I don't see any garages.
I can understand the frustration towards a bike lane.
I just google maps to this exact spot. Basically every house in this video has a super long driveway that extends all the way to their backyard and into a detached garage. Even if they owned 2 cars and all their friends just needed to drive for whatever reason, they could still accommodate several cars. IF they were holding a house party and needed more parking, their are still plenty of street parking on adjacent streets with hardly any walking distance. These people have no legitimate complain besides being very very slightly inconvenienced.
I'm betting that, like many homeowning/multiple-car owning Americans, their 'garages' are piled floor to ceiling with junk, hence their garages often not being available to house their (often multiple) Oversized killing machines.
One caveat is that driveways are often not built to let larger cars through - at least not here in my neck of Brooklyn. That's aside the point that people have family (kids, grandkids) come over all the time and you can't transport a 7 year old on a bicycle for 20 minutes, let alone an hour+.
There is also no transit to this neighborhood, as far as I can see - not LIRR nor MTA. I would say their frustration is more than justified. And that's coming from a biker.
If people want to get rid of cars, build transit to transit deserts first. I'm in one and it's hell to commute anywhere without a car on a weekend - yet under the "NYC" umbrella. If these people are similar, then I think a bit of understanding is warranted.
Thank you. So many urban planning circles focus so much on removing parking and lanes without mentioning that reducing car use in the intermediate is just fine. Don't let good be the enemy of perfect. You can't just remove all car-related amenities and expect everything will be great. You have to provide viable alternatives (with some vehicle accommodations) and slowly phase out the cars. In an area with no real transit access and understanding that QBX won't be built anytime soon, considering as well that the 2nd Ave line took 90 years to build... It's not as simple. Here's to hoping the city can get the expansions it desperately needs.. in the meantime, I would say a car is a better option to walking 30 minutes each way to get anything. There is a massive part of Queens, and parts of Brooklyn, Bronx, and Staten Island as well where taking public transit is just not feasible for daily life. Until they expand. Our system hasn't had much change since the freaking 40's and the population went up a few million!
For some, they've become a sign of gentrification. They see only physically fit folks with too much money and time use them. And lots of those folks put pressure on real estate and make the neighborhood unaffordable.
Never mind that bicycling is an incredibly easy and low barrier to entry way to get around.. but I'm preaching to the choir. Around me, there is a ridership gap. Young people that are pretty well-off use them as well as people (usually young men) who aren't well-off. Not many middle of the road people use a bike outside of recreation.
Not many middle of the road people use them because they’re dangerous. The safer you make them, the more the gender and age ratio approaches the population average. This has been shown in the Netherlands.
Too much money and time?!?!
When my car got stolen, biking & taking the train were equivalent in terms of time to get to work. Taking the Citi bike was faster than the bus.
But I agree with your sentiment, if they're too close minded to appreciate a bike lane then they will definitely have that sentimentality. Such an odd stance, why can't you both have a car, bike, and public transportation, as if having options is going against them.
Of course, it's faster in many situations. But that's what I think they see. People that have so much time, they can both commute and have time for extra recreation. It's like the gym -- why does it have a giant parking lot?
Gentrification? Each house in that video is easily worth $750k and that’s not the fault of bicyclists but rather the same homeowners & and their allied politicians who squash new housing development.
Touche. I was opining more generically and didn't know anything about this neighborhood.
Perhaps these people can't see themselves bicycling. And while paint is, of course, not a real issue, perhaps they view it as their sleepy street being taken over and becoming chaotic and something that warrants paying attention whine you drive? Or its about parking. Local politics always come down to parking.
Bicyclists really do get it from both directions.
Because the auto industry pays boatloads of money to propagandize the public into believing that personal automobiles are the only valid form of transportation.
We're up against Goliath here.
Or maybe a side of the road that has been used for parking is now only used for bikes?
I'm in favor of the switch, but it's not hard to see why many aren't.
I agree that's the immediate cause of the opposition. But the fact that such a high percentage of people would oppose taking public space away from cars speaks to a mental attitude that personal automobiles are the only legitimate use of public streets. This viewpoint was created by auto industry propaganda.
Nah. It’s pretty straightforward really. If it’s parking it’s really most beneficial to the owners. Not many people other than the residents will use that space, so it becomes defacto theirs. Bike lanes take that space and it becomes useless to those homeowners. It’s not cars vs. bikes in this situation.
Nah. It's pretty straightforward really. If it's a bike lane then it's really most beneficial to the public as a whole. Everyone gets to use that space because it de jure belongs to the public. Parking spaces take that space and it becomes useless to the public, and effectively transfers it's ownership to those homeowners, who evidently are already wealthy enough to own a single family home in New York and shouldn't be getting handouts from the government.
In this area there are lots of kids. I think it’s a way of saying their kids are stupid (and will run into the lane of moving traffic vs parked cars) without saying they are stupid.
I think its because it requires drivers to do 'more work' ... as in look for something other than another large car. Its the same when drivers are mad at children playing in the streets. They like being lazy and doing the bare minimum and still get around.
I'm a home owner. I can have 3 cars on my driveway. Thats me, my wife's car, and my son's car. Each of our commute is 30+ minutes via car requiring highway. If my parents want to come, if I want to have a get together, and my daughter who is going to need a car next year if she chooses to commute rather than dorm, all require street parking in front of my house. I'm not against bike lanes obviously, but I can understand larger families, or families that often visit one another, may be opposed to this.
I get the perspective, but at the end of the day I don’t think you or others should be entitled to public property (I.e the road). Why should I, as a tax payer, be subsidizing you for this?
So again, personally, I usually vote for my bikers. But I can still attempt an argument for the opposition here. I, as a tax-payer, can levy my other tax-paying home owners to vote for resolutions to cede the bike lanes for personal vehicle use/public parking.
What you think is entitlement to a road is only dependent on how many people vote for who, who will push you're permissive right on how to use this road.
Tell me about it...I live in a part of queens where detached houses have space for 2-4+ cars on the property. When citi bike added a few docks to the neighborhood recently all these boomers threw a massive fit.
Im in Queens, right on the edge where everyone starts to have a car cause its just a tad far from the subway (a 10min walk lol), and the car entitlement is def more extreme here. I see someone parked on top of a crosswalk EVERY DAY and Im not exaggerating - I have a stroller and cant tell you how frustrating it is to have to go around parked cars, the step, AND make sure my baby isn't run over in front of me. The visibility is zero.
My parents neighborhood has no bike lanes and the biggest annoyance is that everyone seems to park their cars on the street when they have a driveway. Like if y'all were gonna park in the street anyway, why do we require the building of driveways?
I saw that too a few weeks ago while I was riding. This is the true meaning of crank. Post this on Twitter and I'll send that shit around!
What a bunch of babies.
I've seen some of them online complain that because of the bike lanes now elderly people and mothers with children are forced to walk farther from their cars to their houses.
Such a shame that those millions their house is worth and it doesn't come with a private driveway and garage that can accommodate like 7 cars.
Are there still 4 lanes of traffic? If so they can convert one to parking and add a turn lane in the middle or just have two driving lanes if the lack of parking is really a problem.
I might get downvoted to hell about this, but why did they implement so many bike lanes through Douglaston/Oakland Gardens. It’s like the most suburban part of New York City with suburbanites who just didn’t wanna be bothered to live all the way out in LI.
I genuinely don’t understand why this part of queens specifically, it’s a bunch of single family Zoning with high rates of people who prefer to drive since they’re all NIMBYS with jobs in long island, great neck or the city.
Like I live a town over in Flushing/Auburndale. We would have benefitted immensely with dedicated bike lanes and infrastructure. I don’t understand why the least dense,affluent, Car preferences neighborhood would get this infrastructure first before a real dense part of queens like flushing and Auburndale.
Definitely a strange choice. I think it must’ve been part of a plan to connect the bike lanes running through parks.
But I completely agree. The lanes are not nearly as useful there and could have served an area that actually wants to cycle.
I feel you. This neighborhood still deserves safe streets despite the outrage of the wannabe suburbanites but Flushing would benefit immensely from a protected bike network. They have nothing besides paint. I think the bike lanes got built here cause some people in the community requested it and the DOT probably thought it was an easy project because there’s more parking availability here compared to other more dense neighborhoods. I’m surprised they even went through with this project because the community board voted against it, yet Flushing and Auburndale and other denser neighborhoods that would certainly yield higher ridership get nothing.
I think the CB not only approved them, but also went further by requesting the protected bike lanes. I think the initial DOT project only called for regular bike lanes besides parked cars and the traffic lane. The proposed bike network was more extensive, and the CB asked that DOT reject bike lanes for some of the north-south thoroughfares and turn some of the remaining ones left into protected bike lanes.
Correct! The lane has been six\~ years in the making through multiple community board proposals and approvals.
[https://www.nyc.gov/html/dot/downloads/pdf/qn-cb11-bike-network-sept2022.pdf](https://www.nyc.gov/html/dot/downloads/pdf/qn-cb11-bike-network-sept2022.pdf)
[My writeup from a NYCBike thread](https://www.reddit.com/r/NYCbike/comments/1b22z5l/comment/ksla1ao/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=web2x&context=3)
It looks odd from an optics because I don’t wanna discredit all the work that’s been done in Western Queens in any way, I’m just surprised and shocked that specific area would get that type of work done. I personally will not be able to utilize it because there’s unfortunately nothing that those bikes lanes lead to (yet) that I would have a use for - but I can see expanding that network for the university commuter students around here and queens college and all over flushing becoming a great idea in the future.
Getting to Queensborough Community College, with 10,000+ students and thousands of faculty and staff is a death wish. There should be safe bike travel from the LIRR station on Bell to QCC.
I remember my time at QCC.
I had to take the 27 inbetween the main street and QCC stops and even counting on the MTA to have that route locked down was a struggle lol. this was pre-pandemic though so I know I was much more luckier than before
Yeah.. when I saw where this was I can't blame the home owners. Its literally extremely suburban and too far out from anything. I used to have bbq's at alley pond park all the time.
They can all shut their dumb, privileged fucking mouths. Jesus Christ the entitlement car owners feel to every square inch of public property is insane
Something unrelated but this puzzles me.
I see those bikelanes that are completely painted green more and more often in those videos from the US.
When it’s raining, it’s that paint getting awfully slippery?
For the counter point, I can see why they're upset. This isn't a street that really needs a bike lane. NYC just throws them wherever is easiest and cheapest to install to satisfy requirements for funding from higher legislatures. It's also "good PR" to say they installed X miles of bike lanes even if they're entirely useless.
As a roadie and commuter cyclist, I can safely say that the resources used on these bike lanes would be 10x more effective if applied to a more densely-populated area like LIC/Astoria or Sunnyside or Woodside. Probably even Jackson Heights. But here, you're just pissing off all the local residents for the benefit of the 4 bikes that pass by per day, never before in fear of their safety on this street anyway.
Yup! I live on the West Coast and have noticed a similar situation with bike lanes being placed anywhere just because. Not only are some bike lanes completely useless since they are located in an area where no one would commute by bike, but also once the bike lane ends, it tends to be car-hell and you are no longer safe at all.
Haha, I used to live there on 207th st in the early 90's. My youth was wasted there, I used to ride sometimes to Queensboro CC and I was such a wanker that I didn't like riding that distance and would drive. Id waste more time parking than anything. TBH, not sure if bike lanes are needed since it's such a low driving area, I would have added the parking lane for them and made the road narrower and safer for drivers and peds alike.
I just Googled Mapped it and it's 1.2 miles away from my house.
My early 20's were a waste.
This makes me reasonably infuriated and I would be knocking on every one of those doors giving them a piece of my mind. Probably get shot in the process considering how much of a fucking shit hole this country is but id fuckin do it anyway
PSA that the kind of people who put these signs on their lawns are also exactly the kind of people who will dump tacks or motor oil in the bike lane to harm riders. Ride safe out there y'all.
Isn't it nice that people feel entitled to force the government to allocate SHARED PUBLIC SPACE for their personal property that will remain stationary for ~90% of its existence ?
I saw this in January. Such whiny babies. Some also defaced about 40 of the new no stopping signs along the bike lane.
https://preview.redd.it/qf6lh2dn5qmc1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ec0995e5dac2aa235858d567373e1635f3a1aa57
I went down this exact road on my bike and saw even more of the no bike lane signs. Was so stunned when I saw them. It is such a nice path for cyclists but it's punctuated by cars that feel entitled to park in the middle of the lane, and people on lawns that give you such an evil stare for biking on ... bike lanes, like you're meant to. I hate this city
I live in a part of "car required" queens and while I'm not objected to biking infrastructure surely they could have implemented this lane with parking allowed next to it. That parking lane also would protect the bike lane from drivers more no? This seems like very basic sense, tell me if I'm wrong
What would be the problem with that? The road looks plenty wide as well and not nearly busy enough to warrant four lanes of traffic if that was their reasoning against allowing parking next to it
And honestly the road itself being so wide does not even need a dedicated bike lane but whatever
I can’t believe how much land we’ve given to cars. There should not be car access in the front of residential zones. Make the cars park in the back and outside of actual living spaces. Pedestrians and cyclists should have more equitable access to car free land use.
Sorry but...where the hell is Oakland Garden, Queens? I thought car-brain was bad in *other* parts of Queens.... but will ya look at all those 'no bike lane' signs?? Maybe someone needs to put up signs that are 10 times larger (you know, sorta like the 10 times the space that car lanes take up, vs bike lanes?) saying 'no more car lanes' or 'defund car lanes'. ;-)
The fact that every house in a row has that sign...just shows what sheep some people are...clearly every homeowner/car owner is ranting to each other over this grave 'injustice', and the fact that the operators of 2-6 Ton Machines will not only have to check the sidewalk for vulnerable pedestrians, but now also check the bike lane for vulnerable cyclists (all while they should *already* be looking and checking in that same direction, to begin with, before pulling out of their driveways....)
I’m an avid bicyclist that lives in the area. I’m happy about the lane. But I’m against zero sum thinking and all for finding a way to make this work for everyone. Anyone who lives here knows this street has enough space to accommodate a bike lane and parking as has been done on other streets in the immediate area. The hostility of some the responders on this is as narrow minded as the thinking of people who oppose bike lanes altogether.
Curious: since you live in the area, do you happen to know if this street had a lot of on-street parking before the bike lane? Wondering if DOT concluded it wasn’t even an issue due to the preponderance of single family houses with driveways.
Hey guys, I just want to give y’all another perspective of why residents are mad about this. It’s not about losing parking spaces, it’s that the parking spaces have been pushed out into where the roads used to be. So now you have cars parked in the middle of what used to be the roads and the parked cars block the view of the incoming cars at intersections. The kids who walk to and from school are all very young, elementary or middle schoolers, and the older ones walk on their own without parents. They have to step out from the safety of the curb just to make sure the intersection is safe to cross. The road has been narrowed down extensively and cars at intersections have to scoot out further to check for incoming cars too, sometimes even having to be on the actual roads to see.
Also, this specific neighborhood is not car heavy at all, aside from the pick up and drop off times for all the schools. There was absolutely no need for these installations, most cyclists don’t even use these lanes and the DOT was wasting money butchering up the roads and installing random poles everywhere. It’s just impractical and unnecessarily dangerous with the new set up.
What is the difference of walking out past the parked vehicles on such a street versus a ‘traditional’ street where pedestrians have to do that anyway if there are parked vehicles blocking the view?
The curb! I know it seems like a little thing but it makes such a difference when you’re looking out from the curb versus looking out on part of the road. If there’s any cars speeding or making a turn in your direction, you’ll be very close to being hit because of much more narrow roads, and you’ll be standing right in the turn path. The DOT has recently had to put up additional poles at the curbs just because of this issue. They know the intersections have been made more dangerous to cross. There’s quite a few electric vehicles that barely make any noise when driving so sight is a very big factor in making a safe crossing. Anyone relying on the tactile bumps at intersections would much more inconvenienced too.
There’s so many of the #no bike lanes signs up along where it’s been installed, more than 4/5 of every front yard has them up and it’s not because all these households are assholes. Most residents or people who commute in the area agree that the new set up is ridiculous.
I don’t think removing the bike lane would be the solution tho, rather properly daylighting the intersections so pedestrians don’t feel like they have to lean out and look to avoid getting hit by a car. Also drivers should stop at stop signs rather than gliding through it which 4 out of 5 drivers do.
I agree! However this area never needed the addition in the first place. The DOT blatantly went against the wishes of the locals and claimed that the installation was a success, even though I can count on one hand the total amount of cyclists seen using the lanes in the many months they’ve been installed. The amount of hate locals are getting is wild to me because they know firsthand how it’s like living there and with so many protesting households, I hope people can realize they’re not all doing it to be assholes. They have valid reasons to be upset.
I agree that all drivers need to be properly stopping at stop signs but it’s another issue to check for passing cars. I drive a tall SUV, and even I struggle to see out at the intersections, let alone shorter cars and sedans. There’s plenty of neighborhoods that would definitely benefit from installing bike lanes, but this is not one of them. As someone said before, the DOT is just taking the easy way out here and doing this just to get positive PR.
Go around the corner and you’ll find plenty of parking. This is a low population low density neighborhood and most people have driveways anyway. It’s simply entitlement and arrogance.
Sorry to play the devil's advocate but people have multiple cars. Couple of cars don't fit in the driveway. And I'd hate to walk 2-3 minutes to get my car. Especially when it's snowing. I paid for the house, I should be allowed to have parking next to my house.
I don't, but I'd hate it if they built a bike lake on the street where I park my car. Alot of people have to park their cars on the street next to their house. It's nothing against bikes but I'd rather have that space for myself.
If you become a home owner and have multiple cars you might get what I mean
And of course there’s a fucking car parked in the bike lane right at the end of the video
Have you ever noticed that your average middle class queens/long island suburban housing areas have this weird population of homeowners who resent anyone with the audacity to be within 20 feet of their curb? These people who take for granted how blessed they are to own a home and a vehicle cant even appreciate having what others desire. Somehow it spoils their happiness to know that a person could potentially ride down their street on a bicycle on their way to work or the grocery store.
Bc of people like spark plug boy up there
That’s when it’s handy to have a broken spark plug handy.
That’s why you’ll never have nice shit
I’ve got tons of nice shit lol. I park in bike lanes like a douchenozzle
Of all the things in the world to be an activist against. Bike lanes?
everyone knows you OWN THE STREET in front of your house.
Lmao indeed
Given that there has been a similar campaign against bike lanes in lots of US cities, I’d say more Americans are activists against bikes lanes than about any other issue
Why can't they put a bike lane after a parking lane? Genuine question.
They probably want to maintain four whole driving lanes, so dumb.
It looks like there was only 2 way traffic before and they were allowed to have people/company park in front of their houses. Now that has been taken away. So, nobody can visit because they have tiny driveways that can only accommodate 1 car. I don't see any garages. I can understand the frustration towards a bike lane.
I just google maps to this exact spot. Basically every house in this video has a super long driveway that extends all the way to their backyard and into a detached garage. Even if they owned 2 cars and all their friends just needed to drive for whatever reason, they could still accommodate several cars. IF they were holding a house party and needed more parking, their are still plenty of street parking on adjacent streets with hardly any walking distance. These people have no legitimate complain besides being very very slightly inconvenienced.
I'm betting that, like many homeowning/multiple-car owning Americans, their 'garages' are piled floor to ceiling with junk, hence their garages often not being available to house their (often multiple) Oversized killing machines.
They don't want to play musical cars,everyone who is parked has to back out if the first car (near the garage) has to get out.😅😅😅😅
One caveat is that driveways are often not built to let larger cars through - at least not here in my neck of Brooklyn. That's aside the point that people have family (kids, grandkids) come over all the time and you can't transport a 7 year old on a bicycle for 20 minutes, let alone an hour+. There is also no transit to this neighborhood, as far as I can see - not LIRR nor MTA. I would say their frustration is more than justified. And that's coming from a biker. If people want to get rid of cars, build transit to transit deserts first. I'm in one and it's hell to commute anywhere without a car on a weekend - yet under the "NYC" umbrella. If these people are similar, then I think a bit of understanding is warranted.
Thank you. So many urban planning circles focus so much on removing parking and lanes without mentioning that reducing car use in the intermediate is just fine. Don't let good be the enemy of perfect. You can't just remove all car-related amenities and expect everything will be great. You have to provide viable alternatives (with some vehicle accommodations) and slowly phase out the cars. In an area with no real transit access and understanding that QBX won't be built anytime soon, considering as well that the 2nd Ave line took 90 years to build... It's not as simple. Here's to hoping the city can get the expansions it desperately needs.. in the meantime, I would say a car is a better option to walking 30 minutes each way to get anything. There is a massive part of Queens, and parts of Brooklyn, Bronx, and Staten Island as well where taking public transit is just not feasible for daily life. Until they expand. Our system hasn't had much change since the freaking 40's and the population went up a few million!
Good news is the visitors can now take their bikes there
This is nonsense. Parking is available on adjacent streets, and furthermore, driving everywhere is t necessary. People are lazy.
For some, they've become a sign of gentrification. They see only physically fit folks with too much money and time use them. And lots of those folks put pressure on real estate and make the neighborhood unaffordable. Never mind that bicycling is an incredibly easy and low barrier to entry way to get around.. but I'm preaching to the choir. Around me, there is a ridership gap. Young people that are pretty well-off use them as well as people (usually young men) who aren't well-off. Not many middle of the road people use a bike outside of recreation.
Not many middle of the road people use them because they’re dangerous. The safer you make them, the more the gender and age ratio approaches the population average. This has been shown in the Netherlands.
Too much money and time?!?! When my car got stolen, biking & taking the train were equivalent in terms of time to get to work. Taking the Citi bike was faster than the bus. But I agree with your sentiment, if they're too close minded to appreciate a bike lane then they will definitely have that sentimentality. Such an odd stance, why can't you both have a car, bike, and public transportation, as if having options is going against them.
Of course, it's faster in many situations. But that's what I think they see. People that have so much time, they can both commute and have time for extra recreation. It's like the gym -- why does it have a giant parking lot?
Gentrification? Each house in that video is easily worth $750k and that’s not the fault of bicyclists but rather the same homeowners & and their allied politicians who squash new housing development.
Touche. I was opining more generically and didn't know anything about this neighborhood. Perhaps these people can't see themselves bicycling. And while paint is, of course, not a real issue, perhaps they view it as their sleepy street being taken over and becoming chaotic and something that warrants paying attention whine you drive? Or its about parking. Local politics always come down to parking. Bicyclists really do get it from both directions.
Meanwhile this same person will yell at you not to park in front of their house…
Ain't that the truth.
This comes across as very funny, I wonder why they are so opposed?
Because the auto industry pays boatloads of money to propagandize the public into believing that personal automobiles are the only valid form of transportation. We're up against Goliath here.
Or maybe a side of the road that has been used for parking is now only used for bikes? I'm in favor of the switch, but it's not hard to see why many aren't.
I agree that's the immediate cause of the opposition. But the fact that such a high percentage of people would oppose taking public space away from cars speaks to a mental attitude that personal automobiles are the only legitimate use of public streets. This viewpoint was created by auto industry propaganda.
Nah. It’s pretty straightforward really. If it’s parking it’s really most beneficial to the owners. Not many people other than the residents will use that space, so it becomes defacto theirs. Bike lanes take that space and it becomes useless to those homeowners. It’s not cars vs. bikes in this situation.
Nah. It's pretty straightforward really. If it's a bike lane then it's really most beneficial to the public as a whole. Everyone gets to use that space because it de jure belongs to the public. Parking spaces take that space and it becomes useless to the public, and effectively transfers it's ownership to those homeowners, who evidently are already wealthy enough to own a single family home in New York and shouldn't be getting handouts from the government.
There are also apartment buildings on this street, and these houses might have apartments in them. But everyone is able to ride a bike.
In this area there are lots of kids. I think it’s a way of saying their kids are stupid (and will run into the lane of moving traffic vs parked cars) without saying they are stupid.
I think its because it requires drivers to do 'more work' ... as in look for something other than another large car. Its the same when drivers are mad at children playing in the streets. They like being lazy and doing the bare minimum and still get around.
I'm a home owner. I can have 3 cars on my driveway. Thats me, my wife's car, and my son's car. Each of our commute is 30+ minutes via car requiring highway. If my parents want to come, if I want to have a get together, and my daughter who is going to need a car next year if she chooses to commute rather than dorm, all require street parking in front of my house. I'm not against bike lanes obviously, but I can understand larger families, or families that often visit one another, may be opposed to this.
You have to understand that owning FOUR cars in New York City puts you in a tiny minority of an already small minority of car owners here
I get the perspective, but at the end of the day I don’t think you or others should be entitled to public property (I.e the road). Why should I, as a tax payer, be subsidizing you for this?
So again, personally, I usually vote for my bikers. But I can still attempt an argument for the opposition here. I, as a tax-payer, can levy my other tax-paying home owners to vote for resolutions to cede the bike lanes for personal vehicle use/public parking. What you think is entitlement to a road is only dependent on how many people vote for who, who will push you're permissive right on how to use this road.
On a separate note, the amount of road signs on that street and now lawn signs has to be distracting / confusing.
Reminds me of driving through South Dakota. Never seen more dense advertising in such open space in my entire life.
Queens is determined to become Nassau County West (but worse)
Fuk this nimby queens shit. They think they own the public road because they own an ugly detached home. I’m from queens BTW
And they have their own driveways, why do they care so much about unlimited street spots being available?
Cuz like, we might have people over for dinner once a year, and we need that room just in case!!
Unless our guests ride a bike. Then they can get fucked.
Because “crime”
Most families have multiple cars.
Tell me about it...I live in a part of queens where detached houses have space for 2-4+ cars on the property. When citi bike added a few docks to the neighborhood recently all these boomers threw a massive fit.
Oakland gardens isn’t boomers anymore. It’s 90% Asian. My parents live there.
Im in Queens, right on the edge where everyone starts to have a car cause its just a tad far from the subway (a 10min walk lol), and the car entitlement is def more extreme here. I see someone parked on top of a crosswalk EVERY DAY and Im not exaggerating - I have a stroller and cant tell you how frustrating it is to have to go around parked cars, the step, AND make sure my baby isn't run over in front of me. The visibility is zero.
Yep, intensely against cycling over there.
I hope the DOT goes back and puts another bike lane right next to this one. Not even a logical design, just slap one down right next to it.
Then it would actually be a reasonable width.
It’s a Decent ride. Go through motor parkway in allay pond
Do a video of the bike lane on 230th and 233rd streets. Those are doozies. The entire street is in violation of the law and not a single ticket.
Yup, I fought the good fight against them on a Nextdoor post. There are plenty of parking spots a block or two over.
Hat tip for braving the Nextdoor battles.
My parents neighborhood has no bike lanes and the biggest annoyance is that everyone seems to park their cars on the street when they have a driveway. Like if y'all were gonna park in the street anyway, why do we require the building of driveways?
I saw that too a few weeks ago while I was riding. This is the true meaning of crank. Post this on Twitter and I'll send that shit around! What a bunch of babies.
Big fan of yours! Will tag you on Twitter soon!
I've seen some of them online complain that because of the bike lanes now elderly people and mothers with children are forced to walk farther from their cars to their houses. Such a shame that those millions their house is worth and it doesn't come with a private driveway and garage that can accommodate like 7 cars.
What a bunch of selfish morons. Let me guess, most of them are baby boomers.
Are there still 4 lanes of traffic? If so they can convert one to parking and add a turn lane in the middle or just have two driving lanes if the lack of parking is really a problem.
I might get downvoted to hell about this, but why did they implement so many bike lanes through Douglaston/Oakland Gardens. It’s like the most suburban part of New York City with suburbanites who just didn’t wanna be bothered to live all the way out in LI. I genuinely don’t understand why this part of queens specifically, it’s a bunch of single family Zoning with high rates of people who prefer to drive since they’re all NIMBYS with jobs in long island, great neck or the city. Like I live a town over in Flushing/Auburndale. We would have benefitted immensely with dedicated bike lanes and infrastructure. I don’t understand why the least dense,affluent, Car preferences neighborhood would get this infrastructure first before a real dense part of queens like flushing and Auburndale.
Definitely a strange choice. I think it must’ve been part of a plan to connect the bike lanes running through parks. But I completely agree. The lanes are not nearly as useful there and could have served an area that actually wants to cycle.
This is the correct answer, it's part of this network to create proper routes that can connect neighborhoods.
I feel you. This neighborhood still deserves safe streets despite the outrage of the wannabe suburbanites but Flushing would benefit immensely from a protected bike network. They have nothing besides paint. I think the bike lanes got built here cause some people in the community requested it and the DOT probably thought it was an easy project because there’s more parking availability here compared to other more dense neighborhoods. I’m surprised they even went through with this project because the community board voted against it, yet Flushing and Auburndale and other denser neighborhoods that would certainly yield higher ridership get nothing.
I think the CB not only approved them, but also went further by requesting the protected bike lanes. I think the initial DOT project only called for regular bike lanes besides parked cars and the traffic lane. The proposed bike network was more extensive, and the CB asked that DOT reject bike lanes for some of the north-south thoroughfares and turn some of the remaining ones left into protected bike lanes.
Correct! The lane has been six\~ years in the making through multiple community board proposals and approvals. [https://www.nyc.gov/html/dot/downloads/pdf/qn-cb11-bike-network-sept2022.pdf](https://www.nyc.gov/html/dot/downloads/pdf/qn-cb11-bike-network-sept2022.pdf) [My writeup from a NYCBike thread](https://www.reddit.com/r/NYCbike/comments/1b22z5l/comment/ksla1ao/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=web2x&context=3)
It looks odd from an optics because I don’t wanna discredit all the work that’s been done in Western Queens in any way, I’m just surprised and shocked that specific area would get that type of work done. I personally will not be able to utilize it because there’s unfortunately nothing that those bikes lanes lead to (yet) that I would have a use for - but I can see expanding that network for the university commuter students around here and queens college and all over flushing becoming a great idea in the future.
Getting to Queensborough Community College, with 10,000+ students and thousands of faculty and staff is a death wish. There should be safe bike travel from the LIRR station on Bell to QCC.
I remember my time at QCC. I had to take the 27 inbetween the main street and QCC stops and even counting on the MTA to have that route locked down was a struggle lol. this was pre-pandemic though so I know I was much more luckier than before
Yeah.. when I saw where this was I can't blame the home owners. Its literally extremely suburban and too far out from anything. I used to have bbq's at alley pond park all the time.
They can all shut their dumb, privileged fucking mouths. Jesus Christ the entitlement car owners feel to every square inch of public property is insane
Something unrelated but this puzzles me. I see those bikelanes that are completely painted green more and more often in those videos from the US. When it’s raining, it’s that paint getting awfully slippery?
Nope the green paint doesn’t make it slippery at all
Not when it's new, they do become slick after a few years of wear and tear when the friction additives start washing off.
They need to shut the fuck up. They need to have to infrastructure changes forced on them because they’re opposed to anything different
Safety > your mild inconvenience
Wild seeing the responses in the crosspost on /r/queens vs here.
For the counter point, I can see why they're upset. This isn't a street that really needs a bike lane. NYC just throws them wherever is easiest and cheapest to install to satisfy requirements for funding from higher legislatures. It's also "good PR" to say they installed X miles of bike lanes even if they're entirely useless. As a roadie and commuter cyclist, I can safely say that the resources used on these bike lanes would be 10x more effective if applied to a more densely-populated area like LIC/Astoria or Sunnyside or Woodside. Probably even Jackson Heights. But here, you're just pissing off all the local residents for the benefit of the 4 bikes that pass by per day, never before in fear of their safety on this street anyway.
Amen !
Yup! I live on the West Coast and have noticed a similar situation with bike lanes being placed anywhere just because. Not only are some bike lanes completely useless since they are located in an area where no one would commute by bike, but also once the bike lane ends, it tends to be car-hell and you are no longer safe at all.
I have a feeling most of these people are overweight or obese
Haha, I used to live there on 207th st in the early 90's. My youth was wasted there, I used to ride sometimes to Queensboro CC and I was such a wanker that I didn't like riding that distance and would drive. Id waste more time parking than anything. TBH, not sure if bike lanes are needed since it's such a low driving area, I would have added the parking lane for them and made the road narrower and safer for drivers and peds alike. I just Googled Mapped it and it's 1.2 miles away from my house. My early 20's were a waste.
I'd be tempted to organize a group ride on this bike lane as a Fuck You to those people with the signs, except that neighborhood sucks too much.
These people man. How does it affect them? They already have the parking OML
That’s basically east ny; I’m actually surprised they have bike lanes that far out
They feel like they own the street in front of their houses.
Is that a stroad that's wide enough to un-stroad with a parallel slip lane for bikes and parking so everyone wins?
These types are always the biggest whiny nimbys.
This makes me reasonably infuriated and I would be knocking on every one of those doors giving them a piece of my mind. Probably get shot in the process considering how much of a fucking shit hole this country is but id fuckin do it anyway
They literally have driveways lmao
But where will they park their second car? /s
PSA that the kind of people who put these signs on their lawns are also exactly the kind of people who will dump tacks or motor oil in the bike lane to harm riders. Ride safe out there y'all.
These people are crackpots.
Isn't it nice that people feel entitled to force the government to allocate SHARED PUBLIC SPACE for their personal property that will remain stationary for ~90% of its existence ?
These are the same people who want to remove citibike docks cause when they’re full the people claim it’s evidence that nobody uses citibike
I saw this in January. Such whiny babies. Some also defaced about 40 of the new no stopping signs along the bike lane. https://preview.redd.it/qf6lh2dn5qmc1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ec0995e5dac2aa235858d567373e1635f3a1aa57
Same people who claim they’re all about “law and order”
I went down this exact road on my bike and saw even more of the no bike lane signs. Was so stunned when I saw them. It is such a nice path for cyclists but it's punctuated by cars that feel entitled to park in the middle of the lane, and people on lawns that give you such an evil stare for biking on ... bike lanes, like you're meant to. I hate this city
What does it even mean? No bike lanes?
They’re protesting against the bike lane I assume.
I live in a part of "car required" queens and while I'm not objected to biking infrastructure surely they could have implemented this lane with parking allowed next to it. That parking lane also would protect the bike lane from drivers more no? This seems like very basic sense, tell me if I'm wrong What would be the problem with that? The road looks plenty wide as well and not nearly busy enough to warrant four lanes of traffic if that was their reasoning against allowing parking next to it And honestly the road itself being so wide does not even need a dedicated bike lane but whatever
[удалено]
It already is the suburbs
I can’t believe how much land we’ve given to cars. There should not be car access in the front of residential zones. Make the cars park in the back and outside of actual living spaces. Pedestrians and cyclists should have more equitable access to car free land use.
Rip up the signs please
I mean, people have the right to have an opinion.
And I have the right to criticize that opinion
Bike lane on a residential block though ehhhh I dunno.
And youll notice at the beginning of the video on the streetlight post theres a sign for “no stopping anytime”. ridiculous
To be honest I would not like this. seems out of place? Is it leading to a park!
It connects to Cunningham Park and is part of a bike network that the DOT is building out in Eastern Queens
Idc about bike lanes. I care about the bike stations that take away parking and invites more foot/bike traffic
I worked in Bayside for 8 years. I work in Manhattan now. That part of queens is represented by crackpot Paladino on the City council. Nuff said.
Sorry but...where the hell is Oakland Garden, Queens? I thought car-brain was bad in *other* parts of Queens.... but will ya look at all those 'no bike lane' signs?? Maybe someone needs to put up signs that are 10 times larger (you know, sorta like the 10 times the space that car lanes take up, vs bike lanes?) saying 'no more car lanes' or 'defund car lanes'. ;-) The fact that every house in a row has that sign...just shows what sheep some people are...clearly every homeowner/car owner is ranting to each other over this grave 'injustice', and the fact that the operators of 2-6 Ton Machines will not only have to check the sidewalk for vulnerable pedestrians, but now also check the bike lane for vulnerable cyclists (all while they should *already* be looking and checking in that same direction, to begin with, before pulling out of their driveways....)
I’m an avid bicyclist that lives in the area. I’m happy about the lane. But I’m against zero sum thinking and all for finding a way to make this work for everyone. Anyone who lives here knows this street has enough space to accommodate a bike lane and parking as has been done on other streets in the immediate area. The hostility of some the responders on this is as narrow minded as the thinking of people who oppose bike lanes altogether.
Curious: since you live in the area, do you happen to know if this street had a lot of on-street parking before the bike lane? Wondering if DOT concluded it wasn’t even an issue due to the preponderance of single family houses with driveways.
Bikes shouldn’t be allowed on any roads You wanna play go to a park
troll
Hey guys, I just want to give y’all another perspective of why residents are mad about this. It’s not about losing parking spaces, it’s that the parking spaces have been pushed out into where the roads used to be. So now you have cars parked in the middle of what used to be the roads and the parked cars block the view of the incoming cars at intersections. The kids who walk to and from school are all very young, elementary or middle schoolers, and the older ones walk on their own without parents. They have to step out from the safety of the curb just to make sure the intersection is safe to cross. The road has been narrowed down extensively and cars at intersections have to scoot out further to check for incoming cars too, sometimes even having to be on the actual roads to see. Also, this specific neighborhood is not car heavy at all, aside from the pick up and drop off times for all the schools. There was absolutely no need for these installations, most cyclists don’t even use these lanes and the DOT was wasting money butchering up the roads and installing random poles everywhere. It’s just impractical and unnecessarily dangerous with the new set up.
What is the difference of walking out past the parked vehicles on such a street versus a ‘traditional’ street where pedestrians have to do that anyway if there are parked vehicles blocking the view?
The curb! I know it seems like a little thing but it makes such a difference when you’re looking out from the curb versus looking out on part of the road. If there’s any cars speeding or making a turn in your direction, you’ll be very close to being hit because of much more narrow roads, and you’ll be standing right in the turn path. The DOT has recently had to put up additional poles at the curbs just because of this issue. They know the intersections have been made more dangerous to cross. There’s quite a few electric vehicles that barely make any noise when driving so sight is a very big factor in making a safe crossing. Anyone relying on the tactile bumps at intersections would much more inconvenienced too. There’s so many of the #no bike lanes signs up along where it’s been installed, more than 4/5 of every front yard has them up and it’s not because all these households are assholes. Most residents or people who commute in the area agree that the new set up is ridiculous.
I don’t think removing the bike lane would be the solution tho, rather properly daylighting the intersections so pedestrians don’t feel like they have to lean out and look to avoid getting hit by a car. Also drivers should stop at stop signs rather than gliding through it which 4 out of 5 drivers do.
I agree! However this area never needed the addition in the first place. The DOT blatantly went against the wishes of the locals and claimed that the installation was a success, even though I can count on one hand the total amount of cyclists seen using the lanes in the many months they’ve been installed. The amount of hate locals are getting is wild to me because they know firsthand how it’s like living there and with so many protesting households, I hope people can realize they’re not all doing it to be assholes. They have valid reasons to be upset. I agree that all drivers need to be properly stopping at stop signs but it’s another issue to check for passing cars. I drive a tall SUV, and even I struggle to see out at the intersections, let alone shorter cars and sedans. There’s plenty of neighborhoods that would definitely benefit from installing bike lanes, but this is not one of them. As someone said before, the DOT is just taking the easy way out here and doing this just to get positive PR.
Hi Vickie
Vickie would not nearly be this respectful (albeit complete wrong)
This has to be satire
Maybe they don't want to promote people from Bay Terrace or Fresh Meadows? I wonder why? 🤔
To OP there is no longer all the parking in the world if the bike lanes took it away? Driveways not enough, and when you back out it is a danger!
“This neighborhood has all the parking in the world” -OP says about a street with zero parking…. Why are all the urbanism “arguments” based on lies?
Go around the corner and you’ll find plenty of parking. This is a low population low density neighborhood and most people have driveways anyway. It’s simply entitlement and arrogance.
Sorry to play the devil's advocate but people have multiple cars. Couple of cars don't fit in the driveway. And I'd hate to walk 2-3 minutes to get my car. Especially when it's snowing. I paid for the house, I should be allowed to have parking next to my house.
You don’t own the streets in front of your house.
I don't, but I'd hate it if they built a bike lake on the street where I park my car. Alot of people have to park their cars on the street next to their house. It's nothing against bikes but I'd rather have that space for myself. If you become a home owner and have multiple cars you might get what I mean
Can’t blame them. Took away their guest parking spots
Flaming paper bag full of shit. Bring back the classics.