July - August 2005

According to recent NYPD data, nine cyclists have died in crashes in the first half of 2005, a 50% increase over the same period in 2004. 201 other bicyclists have been killed riding in NYC since 1995.

As I write this, the NYC cycling community is mourning the deaths of bicyclists Jerome Allen, Brandie Bailey, and Elizabeth Padilla, all fatally struck by motorists: Jerome, 59, banking administrator and onetime 5BBCer, was hit from behind by an SUV on Hylan Boulevard in Staten Island; Brandie, 21, a waitress, was struck by a private sanitation truck on Avenue A in Manhattan; Elizabeth, 28, an attorney, was crushed by a large delivery truck on 5th Ave. and Warren St. in Park Slope. More luckily, Noah Budnick of Transportation Alternatives (TA) is recovering from injuries he sustained on the Manhattan Bridge in March, as he was – ironically – surveying what needed to be done to make the bridges less hazardous to cyclists.

In response to the recent awfulness, TA’s executive director Paul Steely White organized a June 16 vigil ride from the site of Elizabeth Padilla’s accident to City Hall that included an alliance of New York City bicycle groups, including 5BBC representatives. Following the rally, TA (www.transalt.org) unveiled an action plan to improve conditions. White has said that the sheer volume of vehicles and the heedlessness of some drivers leave no room for error on streets that carry increasing loads of cyclists.

He’s right. Every one of us who rides these streets has just seconds to make a constant series of judgment calls that increasingly skate a fine line between safe riding and the ER room, or worse. Just the other day, riding past the Home Depot on 23rd Street, I managed to get “doored” when I took my eyes away from the road in front of me for 3 seconds and slammed into a just-opened rear door of a Town Car. I threw myself sideways into a parked car and there was no damage to me, or the bike.

So I’m lucky. And nothing you or I can say offers much consolation to the family of friends of the 204. The only advice worth offering is this – in the absence of others looking out for us, we have to do it ourselves. Remember the great warning given by the wise police sergeant on the classic TV series Hill Street Blues, “hey, let’s be careful out there!”

Peter Engel
Newsletter Editor, 2005
newsletter@5BBC.org