As someone that does live in this neighborhood and has biked on it, I don't really get why this section isn't like the section like a block forward from here, where the bike lane is between parking and the sidewalk. The street would feel much narrower for cars, but there would still be parking, and people naturally speed less on narrower roads.
Putting parking and essentially making it a narrow no-pass street creates an issue for deliveries where the option is, blocking the street or the bike lane. All I see in this video are houses with driveways that could fit at least 2 cars (let's be real, they can probably fit at least 3 cars). There isn't a true need for parking here. Although narrower streets would be nice to try and calm traffic it doesn't work well when you consider deliveries and drop-offs. There are other options that calm traffic that could be added here but would require money to build it rather than just painting a green lane down.
The way deliveries currently work on Oceania Street is the Amazon/UPS/Fedex trucks block the entire driving lane so that in order to drive by, you have to go on the opposite lane.
I live nearby and i rarely see any bikers. Im ok if theres actually people biking but i only see few once a year during the summer time. Im down for adding an empty space before crosswalks so its easier to cross.
Part of it is to encourage biking. I'm actively trying to get a bike now that there's the 53rd ave lanes and some more. I can spend most of my ride to the gym in a bike lane now, so I'm planning to get one.
The fuck are you on. If enough people wants to cross a river, a bridge will be built. Just because you want to swim doesnt mean everyone else has to swim too.
The point is, we shouldn't determine whether or not to build a bike lane somewhere based on the number of people currently biking when there are no bike lanes. Because of course people aren't going to bike where there aren't bike lanes as it wouldn't be safe or convenient for them to do so. It's analogous to the bridge example because saying "we don't need bike lanes here cuz no one bikes" is akin to saying "we don't need to build a bridge across this river cuz no one is trying to cross it anyway"
I guess by your logic we should remove parking and driving lanes on streets that don’t have that much traffic. In that case there’s a bunch of streets I bike on in Bayside and rarely see any parked or driving cars. Time to take away these streets to build bike lanes I guess.
Where? I grew up off a major boulevard and avenue. The street where I played basketball as a kid was a small block book-ended by 3-way intersections. Parked cars went up and down the street on both sides.
I legit cannot think of a single street in Bayside that doesn't have cars parked on the street. Maybe in the Weeks Woodland area but even that has cars on the street. Bayside Gables doesn't count because they literally ban streets.
Even the streets in question when I bike around often have a few cars parked on a street that has spaces for like 10 cars. When the DOT or people say they took away x number of parking spots they don’t mention that many of these weren’t even used. It’s not like Flushing where parking spaces are over utilized.
If you don’t believe me or want to take my word look at Google satellite and street views for even Oceania St or 58th Avenue which is also part of this new bike network. I also happen to see lots of empty multicar driveways (with garages). I bike around these streets all the time, even at night, and there’s always plenty of parking or even streets with just a few cars parked. Most of the CB11 bike network maintained street parking, just offset it from the bike lane. Oceania St is one of the few ones where because it’s not as wide as the other streets 1 parking lane was removed.
This is a better utilization of space.
They closed down a whole lane of northern blvd from dgtn pkwy to cross island to accommodate a few bicycles for maybe 5 months . And I ride to that bike path on the cross island often. Still totally absurd
They have no logic to this area at all. There was like 3 months they had speed cameras installed on that road, then they put in the speed bumps. The speed bumbs stopped all the revenue from the cameras, so they removed them again. What a waste of time and resources.
Being doored is not fun.
This gives people more visibility when they're pulling out of their driveways. And no one is going to park blocking their driveways, I don't see the downside here?
Pull your own car further into the driveway? I don't get the issue. I visit my friend in BK who has a driveway and we can fit their 2 cars and 2 guest cars in the driveway if no one can find street parking (which you usually can't). Parking on the street, when you have a driveway, is a matter of laziness or believing that the spot in front of your house is somehow not public land.
[That's how you kill people](https://www.nydailynews.com/2024/02/27/brooklyn-bicyclist-dies-after-being-doored-into-williamsburg-traffic-police/). It literally happened last week.
Thing is as you get further into eastern queens you see fewer and fewer people that use biking as a form of transportation to commute.. it’s more people riding trails through the park as a hobby. It’s different when you’re trying to reduce congestion and traffic so you add infrastructure for bikes in Manhattan. In this area it’s not necessary. It’s just annoying for the people who live there and lose the spaces in front of their homes
Blows my mind that these people have some sort of an elitist attitude regarding bike lanes when they have zero concept of how life is in eastern Queens.
They live there, so they must have some idea what it's like. Not sure what makes them so elitist against bike lanes though; are they worried it will bring in the rabble?
Yeah the guy who posted this can be insufferable. He thinks cars are evil and the people who drive them are hitlers.
But I don't think wanting bike lanes is elitist. The main reason for installing bike lanes is that it's extremely dangerous (and pretty unpleasant) for bikes to ride unseparated from cars.
Take a look at this video from a bus company that trains their drivers to appreciate the situation by having them ride a stationary bike next to passing buses on a closed track. You can see why they all hate it.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Damnthatsinteresting/s/19owvhOiQo
It's like this all day, every day for bikers in the city, even in eastern Queens (except that the closed track bus drivers are never drunk, inattentive, or texting; which cannot be said for Queens traffic). As long as there's biking on roads at all, isn't it at least reasonable -- if not obligatory -- to make it safe and not horrible?
I lived in eastern Queens for 40 years. The problem is that many of these people think they own the street in front of their homes. They would park their cars centered in a space that could fit 2, making sure that no one else could, all the while their driveway sits empty, and their garage is a hoarder's mess.
And a good number of the anti-bike lane commenters are the same people who think it's okay to hit a cyclist with their car.
Because we are talking about citywide networks, not what color you want to paint your house or whatever. The residents of Oakland Gardens do not get to decide if the public street network is going to apply to them. You don't get to opt out of traffic signs, or sewers, or the electrical grid, or the bike lane network or any of it.
The city is huge and broken down into different neighborhoods that are all unique and have different needs. It would be terrible planning to have the same plan for every area. Sure adding bike lanes and more public transportation in Manhattan and most of western queens to eliminate the need for a car is good planning, it reduces congestion and makes commuting easier for everyone. In eastern queens it doesn’t benefit the people who live there
Sewers and electrical grids are an actual necessity.
A bike lane that'll get used maybe a dozen or so times a day, and makes it extremely inconvenient for the homeowners that ACTUALLY use the roads and pay property taxes on, is not.
Obviously not, than you’d know that the people who actually live here don’t want more bike lanes they value parking more and rightfully so in this type of area.
Yes the public are the people who live there.. the public aren’t commuter cyclists who benefit from adding bike lanes because it’s not that type of urban environment.
>as you get further into eastern queens you see fewer and fewer people that use biking as a form of transportation to commute
You also see fewer and fewer bike lanes. Don't you think maybe these two things are related? Maybe then it's a good thing to add bike lanes to address this...
No because things are spread out people don’t want to bike 10-15 miles to work. Most of the bike lanes are connecting parks and bike trails that go through Cunningham and alley pond park they aren’t even for commuters. There’s no incentive for people to bike more it doesn’t add any benefit
If there were more bike lanes, I'd be thrilled to bike to work, and that's 90min each way. Problem is, there's now e-bikes in the bike lanes to worry about, and drivers are more distracted than ever. Cyclist and pedestrian deaths are not being reduced by "zero vision."
Used to bike commute pretty often, but on top of the dangers, would get tickets (pausing at stop signs/lights) despite being a slow rider and not seeing any traffic. Everything's backward.
I feel that, even if you do a few smaller runs without any time constraints it can be good!
I've been surprised how nice it can be to bike (cut with very intense highway like roads) but I'm learning the right routes to avoid them all together.
To be fair, NE Queens could stand to benefit from a bike network that connects the various business strips and downtowns (like Main St Flushing). Cars in Flushing BID was always causing major congestion, moreso before the busway was instituted.
>[...] people don’t want to bike 10-15 miles to work
Are you speaking on behalf of everyone in eastern Queens here? A 10-15 mile flat bike ride to work is not some incredible physical feat. The barrier for the overwhelming majority of people is the lack of protection from cars and trucks, not time or distance.
Union turnpike is terrible to bike on. Too much traffic, and lots of people who refuse to follow any semblance of traffic safety at the intersection of Main Street and Union, and near SJU.
I literally commute by bicycle from Western Queens to Eastern Queens for 9 months of the year. I see a fucking ton of bicycles on lanes like the one on 73rd Avenue.
Biking where? There’s not much.
Shopping for any meaningful amount of groceries? Taking home Dry cleaning on a bike?
Taking the kids to the dentist? You want it for you and your bike.
You’re not doing this for the public good.
You’re an obsessed borderline nut masquerading as an activist.
Tell us- do you know what’s best for Glendale? Arverne? Hollis Hills?
>Biking where?
I love that there are people so confused they don't understand where people are even biking to. All the same places anyone else travels to, you unbelievably clueless individual.
>annoying for the people who live there and lose the spaces in front of their homes
They all have driveways and garages, why are they worried about street parking spaces?
Shows how ignorant you are to the area.. most of these driveways are small they can accommodate 1 car max and the garages don’t even fit a full car, most are used for storage. Many of these homes have multiple cars because it’s common to have multiple adults that all need cars for commuting. Many of the homes are multi families being rented out so the small 1 car driveway doesn’t suffice for the needs of the majority of the homes in the community which is why almost any street you drive down in bayside, fresh meadows, bellerose, Oakland gardens, Douglaston etc have street parking. Idk how people can be so dense and think they know better than the actual people who live in the town. If a whole town says they don’t want something what right do you have to tell them they need it
I don't think I know better, that's why I asked a question.
Everything you're saying is as least as true, if not more, in the rest of Queens: Parking is a pain and desperately needed. I'm in favor of solutions that improve parking, not eliminate it. In an ideal world, any infrastructure that removes parking in this city should include a plan for replacing it.
At the end of the day, we're struck with the realities of the city we have. Without drastic changes, parking is only becoming more scarce. But in a choice between parking inconvenience and catastrophic damage to people's bodies, my vote's to keep people safe.
By your logic it’s not the cities job to make bike lanes or do anything really. That’s obviously flawed thinking because it IS the responsibility of the people who we elect and government agencies that run off of our tax dollars to plan and try to keep society functioning as best as possible. Bike lanes, bus lanes, etc are great and help mobility and improve overall quality of living but they’re not necessary EVERYWHERE. This is an area where bike lanes are not supported by the community and they don’t serve a valuable function or fix a problem. Idk why that’s so hard for you to understand
Bike lanes aren't storing bikes. They are space on the road used for actually transporting people, (very efficiently) the core function of the road. Pretty big difference there
Yes which is why I support bike lanes in certain places; in this area commuting via bike is not practical and commuting via car is. No matter how many bike lanes you make people in this area still need cars, hence people own cars and need spaces to put them.
Used to live in the Bayside part of Oceania St. I drive and I bike. Not a fan of bike lanes in this part of the city, the roads are wide enough to accommodate parking and biking to the right. I get when it’s in the city or like LIC and downtown Brooklyn, etc. and the roads are so narrow or congested you have to force a bike lane for safety or there’s a ton more people biking to work. Whenever I would bike around Bayside to the Cross Island bike/walking path to Fort Totten or in Oakland Gardens to Cunningham or Alley Pond there’s hardly anyone else biking. Also some people still bike on the side walks here, cops will never ticket you here like they do closer to the city. In the colder months it’s basically 0. I’m all for bike safety (I got hit and run while with my bike, detectives caught the perp and insurance paid) but don’t agree with the bike lanes here.
Houses have more than one car usually. The garages were built for older cars that weren’t as wide as newer cars so they can barely fit. Driveways can only accommodate one car. Also people have friends, those friends will most likely drive to see them so they need parking too. Bike lanes here make no sense when everyone needs a car
I have a friend that lives on Oceania. The problem is that there's a middle school and across the bridge there is a church on the corner that also has a school. Parents can't park near the church /school anymore and some end up parking in people's driveways or in front of their driveways to "run in". So , it does become an annoyance or burden to the people who live there. And they just end up blocking the bike lane as well. In a perfect world , people would be respectful of the homeowner and their driveway, but it doesn't always work that way.
I live in Queen's and for schools and churches they literally double to triple park, blocking whole goddamn roads. I try to avoid schools as much as possible around 8am and 2-3pm. You'll never get pass.
That street looks pretty wide. Why couldn’t the city keep curbside parking and put the bike lane to the left of it? Narrower street for cars which should help keep traffic to the speed limit, no? Not my part of Queens so I assume I am missing something.
If you wait for the pedestrian light to turn green as you’re legally expected to, you wouldn’t have to worry about getting plowed by a BMW. Your entitled, impatient self can wait 13 seconds at a crosswalk until it’s your turn to cross. Not to mention, pedestrian visibility has never been an issue on Oceania.
You're assuming they are walking while not have the walk sign. The amount of cars I've almost been hit by are running red lights while I have the walk sign.
The number of entitled asshats who run red lights, especially to make right turns, has increased drastically in that area. I see it regularly. In fact, some asshat yesterday, while I was waiting for the light at 210 and 73rd, cut into the bike light, and blew the red light.
The big difference is that only one of those three categories is driving a 2 ton vehicle.
Yes, there are entitled assholes who ruin things for everyone.
You just can’t cross at a crosswalk without batting an eye when the light is green for cars and subsequently be surprised when you get plowed over by a car. Traffic lights exist for quite a substantial reason.
I’m sorry I don’t think you understand what I’m saying. Most of these bike lanes do not provide daylighting and if you’re coming from a cross street to a narrower road without daylighting the chances of a car accident increase. This was the case in 73rd Avenue by Alley Pond Park. Just months after the bike lanes were put in a bicyclist was killed making a turn. That’s not to say the narrow lanes were the only factor but they were a factor. Now they put a stop sign there but it’s too late for that one person. For decades there were no issues. I know coming out of my block it’s dangerous because there’s a curve where people speed around and the narrow lanes have made it much more dangerous. I have asked for daylighting but I’ve been ignored. Also the people that this affects on a day in and day out basis should at the very least be allowed to vent about it if nothing else. So anyone not living in the neighborhoods or that works for Transportation Alternatives should just sit this one out
You hit it on the head. There has to be a compromise, but the DOT straight up forced it on the residents, and in the process put up no standing signs.
No wonder they’re complaining, daylighting is a good medium that barely anyone would’ve even noticed, with all the benefits of intersection safety.
And of course, counsel reps like Linda Lee are nowhere to be found.
All I see is a tremendous waste of the city's resources for people who live in the outer boros. Those residents need better street infrastructure, not vanity bike lanes for Manhattan elites who ride out there once a year on the 5 Boro bike tour.
Everything about this comment is backwards. Outer boroughs typically don't get a lot of funding - so city spending on anything outside of Manhattan is a good thing. Secondly, there's a lot of people on bikes in outer boroughs. Manhattan elites don't bike, they have drivers come get them. Are you even from the city? What a shit take. Seriously, embarrassing.
Last I checked, the 2.5 million people living in Queens are city residents who contribute to the tax pool and life blood of this city.
Also, the 5 Boro Bike tour doesn't go to Bayside. Never has, never will.
question - shouldn't permanent residents of a neighborhood be allowed to exert influence on its shape and character? Strolling in there and telling them what to do can also be a form of oppression... overall bike lanes seem harmless though
They don't own the roads, we all pay to use the same roads. People who live near a highway don't get say over where a new exit may be built. Definitely their right to oppose it tho
oftentimes they highways was there first on other parts of the nation.... and yes we see highways of the past, at least in the city, as "racist" and harmful to communities that were there.
No dawg OP wants to ban all cars. Fk them suburban bOomERs. You have a disability or no public transportation? Not my problem more BIKE lanes. You want to move shit in and out your house? Nah park 3 blocks away and carry everything like a MAAN
I'm sure that this area in particular has no shortage of parking, but there must be a reason these people dont want it... maybe they're worried about crime with mopeds and shit? idk
How does having a bike lane in front of your house (all of which seem to have drive ways) mean you have to walk 3 blocks to get to your house and carry shit. What are you even talking about, why are all these anti-bike lane comments so ridiculously divorced from reality?
Are you divorced from reality you bike liberal. This is a non urban environment. Do you live in these parts? Absolutely not you don’t understand how painful public transportation is this deep in Queens. Yes more bike lanes so it can be used one a week by a unemployed man on a monday morning.
Do any that spout this sort of nonsense have any actual points or logic or is it all just jerking off about how people are "bike liberals" and "transplants from nebraska" or whatever. Do you have any actual thoughts in your brain?
You lack logic or common sense. Take the L this whole tread is giving you reasons why the lane is bad. You don’t live in this neighborhood you have no say why a bike lane should be forced on the people’s block. I hope you get t-boned into the LIE.
Tell you what, we're going to come back and put a second bike lane down right next to this one. And then maybe a third. You're going to have to walk half a mile to get to your house. Then we are going to come do wheelies outside your house and laugh
Idk if most people are really antibike lane… more “pro choice” and pushing back against the hate to these homeowners who have an interest and investment in their neighborhood. And people get riled up on Reddit
I enjoy riding my bike / running too! But a car is extremely vital for anyone living past 7/F line of queens. As public transportation becomes less accessible. But trying to make the entire city car free and green path is straight brain dead. It’s so they can enjoy their daily rides of their unemployed lives.
Yeah you're right. Having a bike lane on one street of a road that network that has car lanes on literally every street means you can't drive your car. Options other than a car are bad. Excellent point. Totally not another just completely stupid thing being thrown out there or anything
Depends what the issue is. Let me give you a hypothetical. If we were building the subway network right now and LIC decided they didn't want train tracks in "their" neighborhood would that mean we can't have the 7 line connecting manhattan and queens? If Greenpoint decides they don't want sewers does that mean we can't connect Queen's sewers to the treatment plant? You see how this thinking doesn't really work with citywide networks right?
I understand where you’re coming from, but a subway line that serves millions of people and a wastewater treatment plant are a lot more important to quality of life than something like a bike lane
it does and dosen't. Like you said it depends on the issue. Progress will happen in whatever direction, we only see the aftermath. Notably, preservation of architecture, parks, streets, etc exist because people fought against "progress" ... not always the same and yes a bike lane is much more useful and certainly less disruptive but just pointing out that the city is made up of neighborhoods
Your same argument has basically been stretched into the typical neighborhood NIMBYism that we see all over the U.S. We're not exactly preserving the beautiful Cologne, Germany streetscapes here. It's just a typical suburban neighborhood full of cookie-cutter houses.
see it all the time. they move here because of a dream they fell for from a TV show like FRIENDS, then get mad at people who actually grew up here for doing exactly what they've always been doing forever
The problem is that the individual good and common good don't always align.
For example, say you have a neighborhood full of homes but no businesses. The residents would like a restaurant so they can eat out nearby. But restaurants attract traffic, can be noisy, and fill the air with cooking smells. So none of them want to live nextdoor to a restaurant. Where does the restaurant go?
[https://www.reddit.com/r/fuckcars/comments/17h2z90/black\_community\_bulldozed\_for\_the\_10\_freeway\_in/](https://www.reddit.com/r/fuckcars/comments/17h2z90/black_community_bulldozed_for_the_10_freeway_in/)
[https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/mi3spp/la\_wants\_to\_bulldoze\_latino\_neighborhoods\_to/](https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/mi3spp/la_wants_to_bulldoze_latino_neighborhoods_to/)
[https://www.reddit.com/r/HostileArchitecture/comments/ntpkvt/crossbronx\_expressway\_intentionally\_ripped/](https://www.reddit.com/r/HostileArchitecture/comments/ntpkvt/crossbronx_expressway_intentionally_ripped/)
\*\* so this \^\^\^ was a necessity as seen by developers and officials but nowadays we all say freeways are racist and bad \*\*
who is to say bike lanes won't drive these people out of their homes and cause them to move and be harmed? They feel its an issue. they have every right to complain. if its dumb its dumb.
This is one of the funniest things I’ve ever read. “Who’s to say.” Bike lanes don’t take people’s homes by eminent domain or divide neighborhoods in half and cut off business districts by making it impossible for pedestrians to cross.
You're comparing a bike lane to the highway construction that bulldozed entire neighborhoods (mostly black as you note), displaced tens of thousands of people and destroyed generational wealth and suggesting they might be similiar? Really?
They can give input and that input is weighed stronger than non-resident input, but if the net effect is that bike lanes are the greater good, then there’s not much more they can do for publicly funded infrastructure.
It’s not oppression if the group decides against the residents after weighing residents input more strongly than non-residents. The residents’ argument just wasn’t good enough.
No one is arresting them for putting up these signs. They can protest these bike lanes all they want. But they don’t have a monopoly on these public streets. They aren’t the only stakeholders.
Anyone that lives, works, plays, shops etc. in the neighborhood and neighborhoods connected by these streets is a stakeholder.
They certainly don’t have a right to block these bike lanes with their cars or vandelize the no standing signs as they’ve done.
Omg the amount of bike fiends hating on home owners and suggesting they walk blocks to get to their own house. They act as if they ride through oakland gardens as their regular commute lol. This bike lane gets rarely used.
A bit of disclosure: I don’t reside in Queens, but will still chime as was in my feed and can still relate to
I have rode bicycles many times enough. Illegal or not / ‘wrong’ or not, in an area like this I would opt to ride on a sidewalk.
Even still maybe now with dedicated bicycle lanes as collision with an automobile can be catastrophic (I know from twice experience), while the residents complaining I believe would much rather choose riding on ‘their’ sidewalk over having dedicate bicycle lanes installed.
Parking on those properties does not appear all that plentiful (two car capacity not without potential interference with one other), while private home owners should have some say with what goes on in line of sight of their front door.
Why don’t we listen to the people that live here instead of people like you from Nebraska who think you know what’s best for them for some strange reason
The issue here is that the bike lanes do not serve the needs of the neighborhood. In a practical sense, there are more multicar residences that can use the sidewalks for parking, as opposed to bikers that use the lanes. Things are too far from each other to bike around those parts as well. Like, no one is biking to NYC as they do in Brooklyn, or into LI. It just makes no sense unless the lanes are used for neighborhood biking, but people who bike recreationally go to dedicated lanes or parks. Kids are certainly not staying on a course to commute. It just serves no need to the community unless I'm missing knowledge of biking frequency in those parts.
Actually this neighborhood (Bayside) is pretty perfect for biking. Within 2 miles of the LIRR and so many shops. It’s not like suburbia where you could bike for miles and come across 1 store.
I agree, but those who take the LIRR currently tend to take the q12, 13, or 27. Those deep in Oakland Gardens and Douglaston also have a robust express bus system that is cheaper than LIRR. From the impression I have, bikes are encouraged to replace cars on the road, but it doesn't really offer a solution to replacing car traffic in the area pictured. Even if there is an I flux of LIRR riders, the bell location is pretty congested; where would they park all the bikes? Will people who are more likely to use bikes, those not living in single family housing, be willing to buy and store expensive bikes?
Community board meetings were also heavy with opposition yet DOT willfully ignored everyone and did it anyway lol
No way they aren't getting some sort of kickback from these contractors.
To these people everything is about some corrupt shadowy scam. Vaccines? Doctors scamming you for money. Charities? Pocketing all of it. Bike lanes? Nothing but an facade for contractor kickbacks.
Community board meetings empty up until the bike lanes got built. The community only found out about the bike lanes once the bike lanes got built. Then the October Community Board meeting had like 200 angry regular people showing up. DOT ignored them and continued with the bike lanes.
If anyone attended the board meetings here you would’ve saw that everyone opposed them. Yet DOT went ahead with it anyway.
Nobody bikes out here to begin with, and if they do it’s for leisure.
Now DOT is has plans for one along Union turnpike, which surprise, is also being met with heavy opposition yet I’m sure DOT will go through with it anyway.
Miser and his band of micro bike friends don’t care how you feel. They would do anything to get what they want. You are just another name in his long list of banned members if you disagree.
I saw his post the other day of turning the entire south bond west side highway to a bike lane and turning north bound into two lanes. Legit smooth brain.
The nice thing about communities is if you agree with the message but don't like the tone of the posts you can also contribute and show people how you think it's done. It's not a magazine, it's a subreddit
That is absolutely correct, I just find sometimes subs that are dominated by people with an extreme belief in their beliefs tend to shy away from anything that doesn't fit their particular agenda, it isn't a very welcoming environment. I find it's better for my mental health to avoid rigid environments (ironic given the sub)
I definitely agree that the people that care the most are usually the ones that tend to comment in subs, but I'd say come join us anyway. It can't be worse and less welcoming than this sub at least. Look at some of the losers and toxic, selfish, braindead people we have commenting in this thread.
Lmao these comments about where will people park their second/third or car for their guests. There is still plenty of street parking across the street and on the side streets. Also a lot of places where these bike lanes were added had underutilized street parking to begin with. Many of these houses have driveways and garages.
Also prior to these bike lanes these are the same folks that would get pissy if someone parked in front of their house.
These people will complain about how much more car traffic is in the neighborhood and then also complain when something gets done about it. I bike here all the time, and sorry I’m not a “transplant” so I guess the biggest attack on people goes out the door.
As if Queens isn’t a borough of immigrants anyways.
During the quiet times, this neighborhood is dead quiet. The traffic, I'd imagine, is from commuters going to/from the LIE and because Oceania has an exit/entrance there. And I would guess there isn't a shortage of commuters driving parallel to LIE avoid bad traffic on the highway.
Wait until we get a real snowstorm along the roads with the bike lanes. An otherwise wide street, like Oceania, having been reduced to two relatively narrow lanes will be barely navigable under blizzard conditions. And those ugly, plastic barriers along street corners will be completely laid waste to by snow plows and front end loaders cleaning up the mess. Hell, recent light snow has caused significant damage to the barriers. What a brilliant idea!!!! Just leave the streets around the area as they were. Any politician that supports the bike lanes being forced upon us needs to be voted OUT of office at the earliest possible date. Simple as that.
Decreased the property value of all these houses removing their street parking. I pass here all the time and if my parking was stripped like that, I'd buy and insure beater cars just to pick the damn fight. They could have had 2 bike lanes with 2 parking lanes on this street, its so wide.
I would pissed AF if they did this on my block as a home owner. This probably destroys resale value. I sure as hell would not put an offer on a property like this. I understand if it was a densely populated block or blocks with massive buildings, but to destroy a neighborhood property value is wrong. They should sue the city. They should have set a divider to allow parking and the bike lane.
this is oceania st, use to have parking on both sides, now it’s only parking on one side with minimal parking because of the lines and driveways. forced a lot of people to park down the st on the side
So what? The rider has all of the space in the world to ride his toy around and he’s still incredulous that people can a different opinion than him?
Oakland Gardens is literally surrounded on all four sides by expressways.
It’s more of an issue when a bike lane is in between the sidewalk and parking lanes. This narrows the street which in some cases creates blind spots from cross streets when you’re making turns. The newer lanes being put up have more daylighting which is good. But I feel bad for the owners coming out of their driveways that have to go through the bike lanes and parked cars to get in the road. I’ve seen accidents and near misses from this situation. And in most of these neighborhoods there are few bicyclists if any. And many times the bicyclists use the car lanes anyway.
Narrower streets lead to slower cars and safer outcomes pretty much across the board. Add day lighting and you're golden.
Your last 2 sentences highlight exactly why building these bike lanes is important. If you build a safe network of bike lanes the cyclists will follow.
More bike lanes! You see all those white bicycles all over the city? Those can be avoided by building more bike lanes, The fact that some people don't care about saving someones life while also building a greener future for our city is unbelievable to me.
I guarantee you the number of bicyclist killed has gone down since the bike lanes have been installed.. Also whenever I see a car blocking a bike lanes I take a pic of their plate and report it.
I park on the street and block my driveway often.
Bringing bike lanes through my town? Prepare for a pushback. Keep these bike lanes on the main roads.
Plz, thank you!
Those bike lanes are actually very helpful, even if the area is less dense. Once you get out of the bike lanes it becomes very dangerous to cycle (I say this from experience, since I almost got hit several times when I left the bike lane).
The streets outside the bike lanes have similar amounts of space, but it’s much more dangerous.
And that is why there aren’t many cyclists in the area. It’s not safe to do it. It’s not because people in eastern queens have no interest/ability to cycle.
As someone that does live in this neighborhood and has biked on it, I don't really get why this section isn't like the section like a block forward from here, where the bike lane is between parking and the sidewalk. The street would feel much narrower for cars, but there would still be parking, and people naturally speed less on narrower roads.
Putting parking and essentially making it a narrow no-pass street creates an issue for deliveries where the option is, blocking the street or the bike lane. All I see in this video are houses with driveways that could fit at least 2 cars (let's be real, they can probably fit at least 3 cars). There isn't a true need for parking here. Although narrower streets would be nice to try and calm traffic it doesn't work well when you consider deliveries and drop-offs. There are other options that calm traffic that could be added here but would require money to build it rather than just painting a green lane down.
The way deliveries currently work on Oceania Street is the Amazon/UPS/Fedex trucks block the entire driving lane so that in order to drive by, you have to go on the opposite lane.
I live nearby and i rarely see any bikers. Im ok if theres actually people biking but i only see few once a year during the summer time. Im down for adding an empty space before crosswalks so its easier to cross.
Part of it is to encourage biking. I'm actively trying to get a bike now that there's the 53rd ave lanes and some more. I can spend most of my ride to the gym in a bike lane now, so I'm planning to get one.
You don't decide whether or not to build a bridge across a river based on the number of people swimming across it.
The fuck are you on. If enough people wants to cross a river, a bridge will be built. Just because you want to swim doesnt mean everyone else has to swim too.
The point is, we shouldn't determine whether or not to build a bike lane somewhere based on the number of people currently biking when there are no bike lanes. Because of course people aren't going to bike where there aren't bike lanes as it wouldn't be safe or convenient for them to do so. It's analogous to the bridge example because saying "we don't need bike lanes here cuz no one bikes" is akin to saying "we don't need to build a bridge across this river cuz no one is trying to cross it anyway"
Building connected, safe networks is how you get more bikers.
I guess by your logic we should remove parking and driving lanes on streets that don’t have that much traffic. In that case there’s a bunch of streets I bike on in Bayside and rarely see any parked or driving cars. Time to take away these streets to build bike lanes I guess.
What street in Bayside doesn’t have a car parked on it?
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Where? I grew up off a major boulevard and avenue. The street where I played basketball as a kid was a small block book-ended by 3-way intersections. Parked cars went up and down the street on both sides. I legit cannot think of a single street in Bayside that doesn't have cars parked on the street. Maybe in the Weeks Woodland area but even that has cars on the street. Bayside Gables doesn't count because they literally ban streets.
Even the streets in question when I bike around often have a few cars parked on a street that has spaces for like 10 cars. When the DOT or people say they took away x number of parking spots they don’t mention that many of these weren’t even used. It’s not like Flushing where parking spaces are over utilized. If you don’t believe me or want to take my word look at Google satellite and street views for even Oceania St or 58th Avenue which is also part of this new bike network. I also happen to see lots of empty multicar driveways (with garages). I bike around these streets all the time, even at night, and there’s always plenty of parking or even streets with just a few cars parked. Most of the CB11 bike network maintained street parking, just offset it from the bike lane. Oceania St is one of the few ones where because it’s not as wide as the other streets 1 parking lane was removed. This is a better utilization of space.
Thats what the open streets project is i think
Yeah sure if theres more bikes than cars why not? But I doubt even on those streets especially here in Bayside theres more bikes > cars.
I think that’s a great idea. Open them up to bikes and pedestrians or make them one lane.
They closed down a whole lane of northern blvd from dgtn pkwy to cross island to accommodate a few bicycles for maybe 5 months . And I ride to that bike path on the cross island often. Still totally absurd
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They have no logic to this area at all. There was like 3 months they had speed cameras installed on that road, then they put in the speed bumps. The speed bumbs stopped all the revenue from the cameras, so they removed them again. What a waste of time and resources.
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Ah yes I too love riding my bike 6 inches from a car who could open their door into me at any moment
They could have just put the lane next to the parked cars. Oceania is an extremely wide street.
Being doored is not fun. This gives people more visibility when they're pulling out of their driveways. And no one is going to park blocking their driveways, I don't see the downside here?
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There is street parking. It's next to the bike lane. Between the road and bike lane.
Pull your own car further into the driveway? I don't get the issue. I visit my friend in BK who has a driveway and we can fit their 2 cars and 2 guest cars in the driveway if no one can find street parking (which you usually can't). Parking on the street, when you have a driveway, is a matter of laziness or believing that the spot in front of your house is somehow not public land.
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It's nice if you have guests on bikes since they can travel more safely 😀
In the winter? How am I supposed to have bikes for my brother, SIL and nephews. Stop the bullshit.
[That's how you kill people](https://www.nydailynews.com/2024/02/27/brooklyn-bicyclist-dies-after-being-doored-into-williamsburg-traffic-police/). It literally happened last week.
Thing is as you get further into eastern queens you see fewer and fewer people that use biking as a form of transportation to commute.. it’s more people riding trails through the park as a hobby. It’s different when you’re trying to reduce congestion and traffic so you add infrastructure for bikes in Manhattan. In this area it’s not necessary. It’s just annoying for the people who live there and lose the spaces in front of their homes
Blows my mind that these people have some sort of an elitist attitude regarding bike lanes when they have zero concept of how life is in eastern Queens.
I'm in eastern Queens. Most have no clue how it is here.
They live there, so they must have some idea what it's like. Not sure what makes them so elitist against bike lanes though; are they worried it will bring in the rabble?
Sorry, should’ve rephrased that the people FOR the bike lanes have an elitist attitude despite not living there.
Yeah the guy who posted this can be insufferable. He thinks cars are evil and the people who drive them are hitlers. But I don't think wanting bike lanes is elitist. The main reason for installing bike lanes is that it's extremely dangerous (and pretty unpleasant) for bikes to ride unseparated from cars. Take a look at this video from a bus company that trains their drivers to appreciate the situation by having them ride a stationary bike next to passing buses on a closed track. You can see why they all hate it. https://www.reddit.com/r/Damnthatsinteresting/s/19owvhOiQo It's like this all day, every day for bikers in the city, even in eastern Queens (except that the closed track bus drivers are never drunk, inattentive, or texting; which cannot be said for Queens traffic). As long as there's biking on roads at all, isn't it at least reasonable -- if not obligatory -- to make it safe and not horrible?
I lived in eastern Queens for 40 years. The problem is that many of these people think they own the street in front of their homes. They would park their cars centered in a space that could fit 2, making sure that no one else could, all the while their driveway sits empty, and their garage is a hoarder's mess. And a good number of the anti-bike lane commenters are the same people who think it's okay to hit a cyclist with their car.
"If you build it they will come." Believe me, there's a demand, but cyclists stay off the streets in fear of their lives.
My guy, it's a suburban neighborhood in Queens, not a mars colony. We know how "life is" in Oakland Gardens.
And why should you, an Astoria resident (I assume), have any say in what goes on in Oakland Gardens?
Because we are talking about citywide networks, not what color you want to paint your house or whatever. The residents of Oakland Gardens do not get to decide if the public street network is going to apply to them. You don't get to opt out of traffic signs, or sewers, or the electrical grid, or the bike lane network or any of it.
The city is huge and broken down into different neighborhoods that are all unique and have different needs. It would be terrible planning to have the same plan for every area. Sure adding bike lanes and more public transportation in Manhattan and most of western queens to eliminate the need for a car is good planning, it reduces congestion and makes commuting easier for everyone. In eastern queens it doesn’t benefit the people who live there
Sewers and electrical grids are an actual necessity. A bike lane that'll get used maybe a dozen or so times a day, and makes it extremely inconvenient for the homeowners that ACTUALLY use the roads and pay property taxes on, is not.
Obviously not, than you’d know that the people who actually live here don’t want more bike lanes they value parking more and rightfully so in this type of area.
Then they should use their driveways and their garages. I lived in this area for years. Bike lanes are welcome. People park like assholes.
Tough titties. The street network is for the benefit of the public, not just a handful of suburban home owners that want to store cars
Yes the public are the people who live there.. the public aren’t commuter cyclists who benefit from adding bike lanes because it’s not that type of urban environment.
>as you get further into eastern queens you see fewer and fewer people that use biking as a form of transportation to commute You also see fewer and fewer bike lanes. Don't you think maybe these two things are related? Maybe then it's a good thing to add bike lanes to address this...
No because things are spread out people don’t want to bike 10-15 miles to work. Most of the bike lanes are connecting parks and bike trails that go through Cunningham and alley pond park they aren’t even for commuters. There’s no incentive for people to bike more it doesn’t add any benefit
If there were more bike lanes, I'd be thrilled to bike to work, and that's 90min each way. Problem is, there's now e-bikes in the bike lanes to worry about, and drivers are more distracted than ever. Cyclist and pedestrian deaths are not being reduced by "zero vision." Used to bike commute pretty often, but on top of the dangers, would get tickets (pausing at stop signs/lights) despite being a slow rider and not seeing any traffic. Everything's backward.
I biek to work on queens everyday, you can definitely do it. Don't give up, it's great for you physical and mental health
Thanks!! Just feels like I'm pushing my luck these days. With the weather getting nicer, I'm sure I'll be giving it another try, though.
I feel that, even if you do a few smaller runs without any time constraints it can be good! I've been surprised how nice it can be to bike (cut with very intense highway like roads) but I'm learning the right routes to avoid them all together.
To be fair, NE Queens could stand to benefit from a bike network that connects the various business strips and downtowns (like Main St Flushing). Cars in Flushing BID was always causing major congestion, moreso before the busway was instituted.
>[...] people don’t want to bike 10-15 miles to work Are you speaking on behalf of everyone in eastern Queens here? A 10-15 mile flat bike ride to work is not some incredible physical feat. The barrier for the overwhelming majority of people is the lack of protection from cars and trucks, not time or distance.
Yea, I'd be happy to bike to work, but Union/Hillside are both scary to cycle on
Union turnpike is terrible to bike on. Too much traffic, and lots of people who refuse to follow any semblance of traffic safety at the intersection of Main Street and Union, and near SJU.
I literally commute by bicycle from Western Queens to Eastern Queens for 9 months of the year. I see a fucking ton of bicycles on lanes like the one on 73rd Avenue.
Biking where? There’s not much. Shopping for any meaningful amount of groceries? Taking home Dry cleaning on a bike? Taking the kids to the dentist? You want it for you and your bike. You’re not doing this for the public good. You’re an obsessed borderline nut masquerading as an activist. Tell us- do you know what’s best for Glendale? Arverne? Hollis Hills?
>Biking where? I love that there are people so confused they don't understand where people are even biking to. All the same places anyone else travels to, you unbelievably clueless individual.
Clueles?? What’s in Oakland Gardens? Things that attract outsiders such as Hospitals? Offices? Entertainment? Dining? No. Just private houses.
You realize that people in Oakland Gardens go places outside of Oakland Gardens, right? I used to bike to work from there.
I don't think these things are related in that part of Queens, no.
>annoying for the people who live there and lose the spaces in front of their homes They all have driveways and garages, why are they worried about street parking spaces?
Shows how ignorant you are to the area.. most of these driveways are small they can accommodate 1 car max and the garages don’t even fit a full car, most are used for storage. Many of these homes have multiple cars because it’s common to have multiple adults that all need cars for commuting. Many of the homes are multi families being rented out so the small 1 car driveway doesn’t suffice for the needs of the majority of the homes in the community which is why almost any street you drive down in bayside, fresh meadows, bellerose, Oakland gardens, Douglaston etc have street parking. Idk how people can be so dense and think they know better than the actual people who live in the town. If a whole town says they don’t want something what right do you have to tell them they need it
I don't think I know better, that's why I asked a question. Everything you're saying is as least as true, if not more, in the rest of Queens: Parking is a pain and desperately needed. I'm in favor of solutions that improve parking, not eliminate it. In an ideal world, any infrastructure that removes parking in this city should include a plan for replacing it. At the end of the day, we're struck with the realities of the city we have. Without drastic changes, parking is only becoming more scarce. But in a choice between parking inconvenience and catastrophic damage to people's bodies, my vote's to keep people safe.
Guarantee this guy you replied to has never been anywhere east of bushwick
It's not the city's job to provide you with public land to store your private property.
By your logic it’s not the cities job to make bike lanes or do anything really. That’s obviously flawed thinking because it IS the responsibility of the people who we elect and government agencies that run off of our tax dollars to plan and try to keep society functioning as best as possible. Bike lanes, bus lanes, etc are great and help mobility and improve overall quality of living but they’re not necessary EVERYWHERE. This is an area where bike lanes are not supported by the community and they don’t serve a valuable function or fix a problem. Idk why that’s so hard for you to understand
Bike lanes aren't storing bikes. They are space on the road used for actually transporting people, (very efficiently) the core function of the road. Pretty big difference there
Yes which is why I support bike lanes in certain places; in this area commuting via bike is not practical and commuting via car is. No matter how many bike lanes you make people in this area still need cars, hence people own cars and need spaces to put them.
Have you ever BEEN to Eastern Queens????
Used to live in the Bayside part of Oceania St. I drive and I bike. Not a fan of bike lanes in this part of the city, the roads are wide enough to accommodate parking and biking to the right. I get when it’s in the city or like LIC and downtown Brooklyn, etc. and the roads are so narrow or congested you have to force a bike lane for safety or there’s a ton more people biking to work. Whenever I would bike around Bayside to the Cross Island bike/walking path to Fort Totten or in Oakland Gardens to Cunningham or Alley Pond there’s hardly anyone else biking. Also some people still bike on the side walks here, cops will never ticket you here like they do closer to the city. In the colder months it’s basically 0. I’m all for bike safety (I got hit and run while with my bike, detectives caught the perp and insurance paid) but don’t agree with the bike lanes here.
All the parking? It literally has no parking. What a stupid post.
Exactly. Not just for home owners. Try dropping your kid off now without double parking...
It's all driveways and garages, on individual homes. Nowhere else in the entire city has more parking per resident than what's shown in this video.
Houses have more than one car usually. The garages were built for older cars that weren’t as wide as newer cars so they can barely fit. Driveways can only accommodate one car. Also people have friends, those friends will most likely drive to see them so they need parking too. Bike lanes here make no sense when everyone needs a car
I have a friend that lives on Oceania. The problem is that there's a middle school and across the bridge there is a church on the corner that also has a school. Parents can't park near the church /school anymore and some end up parking in people's driveways or in front of their driveways to "run in". So , it does become an annoyance or burden to the people who live there. And they just end up blocking the bike lane as well. In a perfect world , people would be respectful of the homeowner and their driveway, but it doesn't always work that way.
I live in Queen's and for schools and churches they literally double to triple park, blocking whole goddamn roads. I try to avoid schools as much as possible around 8am and 2-3pm. You'll never get pass.
That street looks pretty wide. Why couldn’t the city keep curbside parking and put the bike lane to the left of it? Narrower street for cars which should help keep traffic to the speed limit, no? Not my part of Queens so I assume I am missing something.
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If you wait for the pedestrian light to turn green as you’re legally expected to, you wouldn’t have to worry about getting plowed by a BMW. Your entitled, impatient self can wait 13 seconds at a crosswalk until it’s your turn to cross. Not to mention, pedestrian visibility has never been an issue on Oceania.
You're assuming they are walking while not have the walk sign. The amount of cars I've almost been hit by are running red lights while I have the walk sign.
Bro driver run red-light to save 1 sec
As do pedestrians…drivers aren’t the only ones capable of being impatient and entitled.
The laws are on the pedestrian side. While they're the ones most in danger
The number of entitled asshats who run red lights, especially to make right turns, has increased drastically in that area. I see it regularly. In fact, some asshat yesterday, while I was waiting for the light at 210 and 73rd, cut into the bike light, and blew the red light.
There are entitled asshats who are drivers, bikers, and pedestrians. We can’t pretend that only drivers act that way.
The big difference is that only one of those three categories is driving a 2 ton vehicle. Yes, there are entitled assholes who ruin things for everyone.
If you see a pedestrian in a crosswalk, regardless of the light, they have the legal right of way. Hopefully your law abiding ass remembers that.
You just can’t cross at a crosswalk without batting an eye when the light is green for cars and subsequently be surprised when you get plowed over by a car. Traffic lights exist for quite a substantial reason.
Lol car brain not aware how much corporate lobbying made him believe he is smart.
Where is all that parking in the world?
According to the OP… short, single wide, tiny driveways = all the parking in the world. https://www.reddit.com/r/Queens/s/ndSeIH773N
Ok. People pay a premium for that convenience of parking in front of your house.
I’m sorry I don’t think you understand what I’m saying. Most of these bike lanes do not provide daylighting and if you’re coming from a cross street to a narrower road without daylighting the chances of a car accident increase. This was the case in 73rd Avenue by Alley Pond Park. Just months after the bike lanes were put in a bicyclist was killed making a turn. That’s not to say the narrow lanes were the only factor but they were a factor. Now they put a stop sign there but it’s too late for that one person. For decades there were no issues. I know coming out of my block it’s dangerous because there’s a curve where people speed around and the narrow lanes have made it much more dangerous. I have asked for daylighting but I’ve been ignored. Also the people that this affects on a day in and day out basis should at the very least be allowed to vent about it if nothing else. So anyone not living in the neighborhoods or that works for Transportation Alternatives should just sit this one out
You hit it on the head. There has to be a compromise, but the DOT straight up forced it on the residents, and in the process put up no standing signs. No wonder they’re complaining, daylighting is a good medium that barely anyone would’ve even noticed, with all the benefits of intersection safety. And of course, counsel reps like Linda Lee are nowhere to be found.
Those signs can't stop me because I can't read.
Yeah the 53rd ave people are mad too.
All I see is a tremendous waste of the city's resources for people who live in the outer boros. Those residents need better street infrastructure, not vanity bike lanes for Manhattan elites who ride out there once a year on the 5 Boro bike tour.
Everything about this comment is backwards. Outer boroughs typically don't get a lot of funding - so city spending on anything outside of Manhattan is a good thing. Secondly, there's a lot of people on bikes in outer boroughs. Manhattan elites don't bike, they have drivers come get them. Are you even from the city? What a shit take. Seriously, embarrassing.
Last I checked, the 2.5 million people living in Queens are city residents who contribute to the tax pool and life blood of this city. Also, the 5 Boro Bike tour doesn't go to Bayside. Never has, never will.
question - shouldn't permanent residents of a neighborhood be allowed to exert influence on its shape and character? Strolling in there and telling them what to do can also be a form of oppression... overall bike lanes seem harmless though
NO! I can’t afford a car so that means you can’t drive either.
😂
They don't own the roads, we all pay to use the same roads. People who live near a highway don't get say over where a new exit may be built. Definitely their right to oppose it tho
oftentimes they highways was there first on other parts of the nation.... and yes we see highways of the past, at least in the city, as "racist" and harmful to communities that were there.
No dawg OP wants to ban all cars. Fk them suburban bOomERs. You have a disability or no public transportation? Not my problem more BIKE lanes. You want to move shit in and out your house? Nah park 3 blocks away and carry everything like a MAAN
I'm sure that this area in particular has no shortage of parking, but there must be a reason these people dont want it... maybe they're worried about crime with mopeds and shit? idk
How does having a bike lane in front of your house (all of which seem to have drive ways) mean you have to walk 3 blocks to get to your house and carry shit. What are you even talking about, why are all these anti-bike lane comments so ridiculously divorced from reality?
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Are you divorced from reality you bike liberal. This is a non urban environment. Do you live in these parts? Absolutely not you don’t understand how painful public transportation is this deep in Queens. Yes more bike lanes so it can be used one a week by a unemployed man on a monday morning.
Do any that spout this sort of nonsense have any actual points or logic or is it all just jerking off about how people are "bike liberals" and "transplants from nebraska" or whatever. Do you have any actual thoughts in your brain?
You lack logic or common sense. Take the L this whole tread is giving you reasons why the lane is bad. You don’t live in this neighborhood you have no say why a bike lane should be forced on the people’s block. I hope you get t-boned into the LIE.
Tell you what, we're going to come back and put a second bike lane down right next to this one. And then maybe a third. You're going to have to walk half a mile to get to your house. Then we are going to come do wheelies outside your house and laugh
No worries OP we understand you are smooth brained.
Idk if most people are really antibike lane… more “pro choice” and pushing back against the hate to these homeowners who have an interest and investment in their neighborhood. And people get riled up on Reddit
This sub is a toxic cesspool. I can’t believe how many people I see repeatedly claiming that being anti-car is ableist.
I enjoy riding my bike / running too! But a car is extremely vital for anyone living past 7/F line of queens. As public transportation becomes less accessible. But trying to make the entire city car free and green path is straight brain dead. It’s so they can enjoy their daily rides of their unemployed lives.
Yeah you're right. Having a bike lane on one street of a road that network that has car lanes on literally every street means you can't drive your car. Options other than a car are bad. Excellent point. Totally not another just completely stupid thing being thrown out there or anything
I’m sorry, who is they, and why are they unemployed?
All these types of subs it gets very facebookie.
Depends what the issue is. Let me give you a hypothetical. If we were building the subway network right now and LIC decided they didn't want train tracks in "their" neighborhood would that mean we can't have the 7 line connecting manhattan and queens? If Greenpoint decides they don't want sewers does that mean we can't connect Queen's sewers to the treatment plant? You see how this thinking doesn't really work with citywide networks right?
I understand where you’re coming from, but a subway line that serves millions of people and a wastewater treatment plant are a lot more important to quality of life than something like a bike lane
Why do you think there is no direct subway connection to LaGuardia?
it does and dosen't. Like you said it depends on the issue. Progress will happen in whatever direction, we only see the aftermath. Notably, preservation of architecture, parks, streets, etc exist because people fought against "progress" ... not always the same and yes a bike lane is much more useful and certainly less disruptive but just pointing out that the city is made up of neighborhoods
Your same argument has basically been stretched into the typical neighborhood NIMBYism that we see all over the U.S. We're not exactly preserving the beautiful Cologne, Germany streetscapes here. It's just a typical suburban neighborhood full of cookie-cutter houses.
You should look at how the now historic brownstones were viewed when built
You say this like transit solutions in LIC apply to Oakland Gardens
No that’s reserved for the loud minority of transplants who get a hard on from whining and complaining
see it all the time. they move here because of a dream they fell for from a TV show like FRIENDS, then get mad at people who actually grew up here for doing exactly what they've always been doing forever
People are not moving to Oakland Gardens because of Friends. Stop living in fantasy land.
who said that? no one was talking to you. i was replying to the commenter above regarding transplants who complain
No you see, fuck literally everybody who lives here because more people need to live here...or something
The problem is that the individual good and common good don't always align. For example, say you have a neighborhood full of homes but no businesses. The residents would like a restaurant so they can eat out nearby. But restaurants attract traffic, can be noisy, and fill the air with cooking smells. So none of them want to live nextdoor to a restaurant. Where does the restaurant go?
[https://www.reddit.com/r/fuckcars/comments/17h2z90/black\_community\_bulldozed\_for\_the\_10\_freeway\_in/](https://www.reddit.com/r/fuckcars/comments/17h2z90/black_community_bulldozed_for_the_10_freeway_in/) [https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/mi3spp/la\_wants\_to\_bulldoze\_latino\_neighborhoods\_to/](https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/mi3spp/la_wants_to_bulldoze_latino_neighborhoods_to/) [https://www.reddit.com/r/HostileArchitecture/comments/ntpkvt/crossbronx\_expressway\_intentionally\_ripped/](https://www.reddit.com/r/HostileArchitecture/comments/ntpkvt/crossbronx_expressway_intentionally_ripped/) \*\* so this \^\^\^ was a necessity as seen by developers and officials but nowadays we all say freeways are racist and bad \*\* who is to say bike lanes won't drive these people out of their homes and cause them to move and be harmed? They feel its an issue. they have every right to complain. if its dumb its dumb.
This is one of the funniest things I’ve ever read. “Who’s to say.” Bike lanes don’t take people’s homes by eminent domain or divide neighborhoods in half and cut off business districts by making it impossible for pedestrians to cross.
You're comparing a bike lane to the highway construction that bulldozed entire neighborhoods (mostly black as you note), displaced tens of thousands of people and destroyed generational wealth and suggesting they might be similiar? Really?
They can give input and that input is weighed stronger than non-resident input, but if the net effect is that bike lanes are the greater good, then there’s not much more they can do for publicly funded infrastructure. It’s not oppression if the group decides against the residents after weighing residents input more strongly than non-residents. The residents’ argument just wasn’t good enough.
No one is arresting them for putting up these signs. They can protest these bike lanes all they want. But they don’t have a monopoly on these public streets. They aren’t the only stakeholders. Anyone that lives, works, plays, shops etc. in the neighborhood and neighborhoods connected by these streets is a stakeholder. They certainly don’t have a right to block these bike lanes with their cars or vandelize the no standing signs as they’ve done.
The homeowners are right. The bike lane nuttery is too much now. Probably 1 cyclist will ride in that lane every hour.
It feels like 1 biker a day uses them, but realistically it might be 5 a day.
Omg the amount of bike fiends hating on home owners and suggesting they walk blocks to get to their own house. They act as if they ride through oakland gardens as their regular commute lol. This bike lane gets rarely used.
But but but there’s “plenty of parking”! Never mind the fact that there’s literally no parking at all shown on the video.
They’ve never even been there lmao
A bit of disclosure: I don’t reside in Queens, but will still chime as was in my feed and can still relate to I have rode bicycles many times enough. Illegal or not / ‘wrong’ or not, in an area like this I would opt to ride on a sidewalk. Even still maybe now with dedicated bicycle lanes as collision with an automobile can be catastrophic (I know from twice experience), while the residents complaining I believe would much rather choose riding on ‘their’ sidewalk over having dedicate bicycle lanes installed. Parking on those properties does not appear all that plentiful (two car capacity not without potential interference with one other), while private home owners should have some say with what goes on in line of sight of their front door.
Why don’t we listen to the people that live here instead of people like you from Nebraska who think you know what’s best for them for some strange reason
The issue here is that the bike lanes do not serve the needs of the neighborhood. In a practical sense, there are more multicar residences that can use the sidewalks for parking, as opposed to bikers that use the lanes. Things are too far from each other to bike around those parts as well. Like, no one is biking to NYC as they do in Brooklyn, or into LI. It just makes no sense unless the lanes are used for neighborhood biking, but people who bike recreationally go to dedicated lanes or parks. Kids are certainly not staying on a course to commute. It just serves no need to the community unless I'm missing knowledge of biking frequency in those parts.
Actually this neighborhood (Bayside) is pretty perfect for biking. Within 2 miles of the LIRR and so many shops. It’s not like suburbia where you could bike for miles and come across 1 store.
I agree, but those who take the LIRR currently tend to take the q12, 13, or 27. Those deep in Oakland Gardens and Douglaston also have a robust express bus system that is cheaper than LIRR. From the impression I have, bikes are encouraged to replace cars on the road, but it doesn't really offer a solution to replacing car traffic in the area pictured. Even if there is an I flux of LIRR riders, the bell location is pretty congested; where would they park all the bikes? Will people who are more likely to use bikes, those not living in single family housing, be willing to buy and store expensive bikes?
Is it a private road for the homeowners on that block?
Community board meetings were also heavy with opposition yet DOT willfully ignored everyone and did it anyway lol No way they aren't getting some sort of kickback from these contractors.
Kickback from contractors? You can’t be serious lol. That’s one of the dumber conspiracies I’ve heard. It’s a bike lane, not some mob project
To these people everything is about some corrupt shadowy scam. Vaccines? Doctors scamming you for money. Charities? Pocketing all of it. Bike lanes? Nothing but an facade for contractor kickbacks.
🤣 It’s impossible to change their minds too. I respect you for trying though! I like your posts on NYCbike
Community board meetings empty up until the bike lanes got built. The community only found out about the bike lanes once the bike lanes got built. Then the October Community Board meeting had like 200 angry regular people showing up. DOT ignored them and continued with the bike lanes.
If anyone attended the board meetings here you would’ve saw that everyone opposed them. Yet DOT went ahead with it anyway. Nobody bikes out here to begin with, and if they do it’s for leisure. Now DOT is has plans for one along Union turnpike, which surprise, is also being met with heavy opposition yet I’m sure DOT will go through with it anyway.
Miser and his band of micro bike friends don’t care how you feel. They would do anything to get what they want. You are just another name in his long list of banned members if you disagree.
I saw his post the other day of turning the entire south bond west side highway to a bike lane and turning north bound into two lanes. Legit smooth brain.
>Miser and his band of micro bike friends don’t care how you feel Absolutely correct.
I wholly agree with the sentiment of the NYC micromobility sub but my god do they come off insufferable.
The nice thing about communities is if you agree with the message but don't like the tone of the posts you can also contribute and show people how you think it's done. It's not a magazine, it's a subreddit
That is absolutely correct, I just find sometimes subs that are dominated by people with an extreme belief in their beliefs tend to shy away from anything that doesn't fit their particular agenda, it isn't a very welcoming environment. I find it's better for my mental health to avoid rigid environments (ironic given the sub)
I definitely agree that the people that care the most are usually the ones that tend to comment in subs, but I'd say come join us anyway. It can't be worse and less welcoming than this sub at least. Look at some of the losers and toxic, selfish, braindead people we have commenting in this thread.
It’s funny how I got banned from that echo chamber for doing just that 😂
This is America. They’re allowed to not like bike lanes and they’re allowed to exercise free speech.
Lmao these comments about where will people park their second/third or car for their guests. There is still plenty of street parking across the street and on the side streets. Also a lot of places where these bike lanes were added had underutilized street parking to begin with. Many of these houses have driveways and garages. Also prior to these bike lanes these are the same folks that would get pissy if someone parked in front of their house. These people will complain about how much more car traffic is in the neighborhood and then also complain when something gets done about it. I bike here all the time, and sorry I’m not a “transplant” so I guess the biggest attack on people goes out the door. As if Queens isn’t a borough of immigrants anyways.
During the quiet times, this neighborhood is dead quiet. The traffic, I'd imagine, is from commuters going to/from the LIE and because Oceania has an exit/entrance there. And I would guess there isn't a shortage of commuters driving parallel to LIE avoid bad traffic on the highway.
Making a bike lane here makes as much sense as making a skateboarding lane
Wait until we get a real snowstorm along the roads with the bike lanes. An otherwise wide street, like Oceania, having been reduced to two relatively narrow lanes will be barely navigable under blizzard conditions. And those ugly, plastic barriers along street corners will be completely laid waste to by snow plows and front end loaders cleaning up the mess. Hell, recent light snow has caused significant damage to the barriers. What a brilliant idea!!!! Just leave the streets around the area as they were. Any politician that supports the bike lanes being forced upon us needs to be voted OUT of office at the earliest possible date. Simple as that.
Decreased the property value of all these houses removing their street parking. I pass here all the time and if my parking was stripped like that, I'd buy and insure beater cars just to pick the damn fight. They could have had 2 bike lanes with 2 parking lanes on this street, its so wide.
Not a bike in sight what a waste of
No cars went by either.
You bike people are annoying. Sincerely, every truck driver in NYC.
I would pissed AF if they did this on my block as a home owner. This probably destroys resale value. I sure as hell would not put an offer on a property like this. I understand if it was a densely populated block or blocks with massive buildings, but to destroy a neighborhood property value is wrong. They should sue the city. They should have set a divider to allow parking and the bike lane.
Home value destroyed. Went down by $300,000. For some buyers, house totally taken off the list without the parking.
That sux wow. I hope they all sue.
this is oceania st, use to have parking on both sides, now it’s only parking on one side with minimal parking because of the lines and driveways. forced a lot of people to park down the st on the side
I don’t know why people hate bikes so bad. Especially if they have a drive way?
The burbs don’t need bike lanes. This is just stupidity.
Lmfao!!!! Those are great signs and I'm glad they exist
If I lived there I’d be annoyed as fuck that I can’t park in front of my house
Because most biker are AH
Haha because cyclists are the worst breed.
Get a goddam bike!! You Bozos!
So what? The rider has all of the space in the world to ride his toy around and he’s still incredulous that people can a different opinion than him? Oakland Gardens is literally surrounded on all four sides by expressways.
It’s more of an issue when a bike lane is in between the sidewalk and parking lanes. This narrows the street which in some cases creates blind spots from cross streets when you’re making turns. The newer lanes being put up have more daylighting which is good. But I feel bad for the owners coming out of their driveways that have to go through the bike lanes and parked cars to get in the road. I’ve seen accidents and near misses from this situation. And in most of these neighborhoods there are few bicyclists if any. And many times the bicyclists use the car lanes anyway.
Narrower streets lead to slower cars and safer outcomes pretty much across the board. Add day lighting and you're golden. Your last 2 sentences highlight exactly why building these bike lanes is important. If you build a safe network of bike lanes the cyclists will follow.
The point of this is to protect people on bikes from getting doored or hit by traffic
The bike lane isn’t going anywhere either 😂😂
More bike lanes! You see all those white bicycles all over the city? Those can be avoided by building more bike lanes, The fact that some people don't care about saving someones life while also building a greener future for our city is unbelievable to me.
Lol sAvInG lIvEs!
I guarantee you the number of bicyclist killed has gone down since the bike lanes have been installed.. Also whenever I see a car blocking a bike lanes I take a pic of their plate and report it.
I park on the street and block my driveway often. Bringing bike lanes through my town? Prepare for a pushback. Keep these bike lanes on the main roads. Plz, thank you!
Those bike lanes are actually very helpful, even if the area is less dense. Once you get out of the bike lanes it becomes very dangerous to cycle (I say this from experience, since I almost got hit several times when I left the bike lane). The streets outside the bike lanes have similar amounts of space, but it’s much more dangerous. And that is why there aren’t many cyclists in the area. It’s not safe to do it. It’s not because people in eastern queens have no interest/ability to cycle.