The Issue: How longer bike lanes along Columbus Avenue will affect traffic flow and safety of residents.
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Kudos to Steve Cuozzo (“The Bike-Lane Cancer,” PostOpinion, Dec. 13).
Mayor Bloomberg and Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan do not realize that we live in New Amsterdam, not Amsterdam.
Here in Chelsea, at least one third of the bikers ride on the opposite side of the street from the bike lane.
I have yet to see one of them receive a summons. Henry Malakoff
Manhattan
I disagree with the facts and the tone of Cuozzo’s opinion piece on bike lanes.
It is wrong for him to assert that bike lanes along Columbus Avenue are “mad,” “baffling,” “ugly” or a “cancer.”
In fact, the bike lanes in my district are highly popular and strongly supported by the wider community, including many students who now bicycle to school because they feel safe.
An additional positive aspect to the lanes is that most commercial bicyclists use the protected lane and stay off of the sidewalks.
Expanding these benefits is the right thing to do. Gale A. Brewer
City Council, 6th District
Manhattan
We have been fortunate to have had Bloomberg with his business experience, management ability and problem-solving skills.
One only has to view the gaggle of pointy-headed liberals and incompetent bureaucrats who wish to succeed him to realize this.
Sadly, he will be remembered as an anti-smoking zealot, a blockage creator on the world’s most famous street and an inane enabler of kamikaze cyclists.Vern Trotter
Manhattan
As someone who owns an apartment and a bike on 79th just off of Columbus Avenue, you are right-on about the efficacy of the Columbus bike lanes.
There was very little traffic, at least in the ’70s and ’80s. What congestion there is now includes a number of delivery bikes.
Aesthetically, the lanes are a big zero, screwing up the mixture of bikes, cars and pedestrians.
It’s just an awful concept and incredibly poorly implemented.
The bike-share program is an expensive way for tourists to kill themselves riding helmetless in Midtown.
It’s like a death sentence.Alan Schorr
Juneau, Alaska
New York City is not Beijing, where bicycles are ridden out of economic necessity.
New Yorkers need to move quickly and efficiently.
But as city dwellers have experienced, the bicycle lanes have not only increased traffic congestion, they have also brought new danger to pedestrians.
Bloomberg and Sadik-Khan’s idea of turning New York City into a park is a complete failure.
In the next mayoral election, the candidate who promises to get rid of the bike lanes will get my vote.
Christine De Lisle
Manhattan
Cuozzo has articulated my feelings and those of many New Yorkers.
I live by First Avenue in the 60s where there is a bike lane.
Because there is no southbound bike lane on Second Avenue — just subway construction for years to come — and no southbound lane on York Avenue — nor will there ever be, because it’s a two-way avenue — the bike lane on First is used as a two-way lane.
Good luck crossing.
Yesterday, I counted just two lanes available for car use out of six.
There’s the bike lane, the parking lane, the double-parking lane, the bus lane — you get the picture.
Thirteen more months of tyranny? Can’t wait.
Yvonne Conde
Manhattan