One step away from Baghdad Bike Lanes

Iraq: France's Alstom signs high-speed rail line deal The baby of the empire always gets the nice toys.

Update: Tangent About those bike lanes.

Now, City Councilman Eric Ulrich, R-Ozone Park, has had enough, saying the agency has forgotten its core mission — fixing the roads.

“Why can’t we just we get back to basics and worry more about paving the roads and the streets than we are about installing bike lanes and putting in pedestrian plazas where communities don’t want them?” Ulrich told CBS 2’s Marcia Kramer.

“The roads in Baghdad look better than the roads in Queens. I think I have a right to be upset.”

The harsh words came at a City Council hearing on the pedestrian plazas installed by the DOT. Ulrich wasn’t alone as several others talked about a belief there is an anti-driver bias.

I'm not so sure what's going on in New York City and elsewhere is best described as an "anti-driver bias" though. I've made this point before but I tend to skew pro bicycle and anti-bike lane. Bike lanes not only make getting around less convenient and more dangerous for cyclists but they're more importantly a means of policing and ticketing a heretofore unharassed pool of vehicles, which seems to be the fashion these days.

While I like living where I can bike or walk to most day-to-day destinations, I'm not an evangelist about this lifestyle. I recognize that most adults either need or prefer to drive most of the time and that's okay. I also sympathize with their perception that their lives are being made more difficult. While urban cores in older cities may be re-engineered to become more bike or pedestrian friendly, this is far less true of the suburbs. I also happen to think we're living in a time when suburban living is becoming less and less desirable for those who can afford to move back to into the gentrifying cities. So, in addition to everything else, the bike lane is itself a gentrification tool as well.