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Comment by fnfjfk | Hacker News Reader

At this point it’s the e-bikes and the mopeds that are the worst. Drivers will behave like oblivious idiots, but they are predictable idiots. We need an NYPD crackdown on e-bikes/mopeds (mostly delivery riders) to get them off the road, so that drivers can reclaim their rightful first place (EDIT: 1st place at being idiots!!).

The mopeds and e-bikes will fly out around a corner and start riding the wrong way (“salmoning”) in a protected bike lane.

Gothamist has an article today covering the recent Manhattan Bridge crash caused by two mopeds illegally riding in the bike lane: https://gothamist.com/news/cyclists-say-e-bikes-scooters-are...

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I'm not going to defend insane moped drivers because they're awful but you know why they're in the bike lanes in the first place? Because the roads are too dangerous.

> Drivers will behave like oblivious idiots, but they are predictable idiots.

I wish I shared that optimism (if you can even call it that). NYC drivers are, in my experience, a deeply unpredictable bunch. Running red lights, wild U turns, excessive speeding, it's all a flip of a coin whether someone is going to do any of it right in front or behind you.

Let me give an example of the “predicable idiocy”: mixing zones on 1st Ave bike lane.

Drivers are supposed to yield to cyclists, as they are left turning across a lane of straight moving traffic. It is extremely predicable that they never do, so I can prepare by instead cutting a bit outwards and going around them on the right.

OTOH mopeds/e-bikes will simply come flying out the wrong way from a cross street and start riding head-on downtown. This isn’t something that you can see well in advance, and need to suddenly react to.

It’s particularly bad on 1st because if they are salmoning out of a cross street they could have just gone the right way and ended up on 2nd, which goes downtown…

I also disagree with the safety angle for them riding in bike lanes, because very few of them are even close to wearing proper motorcycle gear (ATGATT). If they cared about their safety they wouldn’t be wearing shorts and flipflops. They’re using bike lanes because it’s faster.

The irony in this thread is hilarious. You know what the correct solution in Manhattan is? Kill the cars. They do absolutely nothing good for the city unless they are delivery vehicles. The city was built without them and basically nobody local uses them. Then just crack down on the bad bike riders on the now much-larger bike lanes.

NYC can walk and chew gum at the same time. We can reduce car traffic (I'm for the midtown congestion pricing) and crack down on ebike/scooter violators.

I'm tired as a pedestrian dodging motorized vehicles on the sidewalk. I'm also tired having to look both ways when crossing a one way street because of a salmon-ing bike. Plus, when I'm crossing with the light, many times bikes have come up between the cars and ran the light, just barely dodging me in the crosswalk.

Ebikes and scooters are a real problem in NYC. If they'd just follow some of the basic road safety rules, everything would be peachy.

> NYC can walk and chew gum at the same time. We can reduce car traffic (I'm for the midtown congestion pricing) and crack down on ebike/scooter violators.

Well, I wish, but we can’t even get the obviously good Mcguinness blvd redesign done, the 59th street bridge south pathway conversion has been not happening for years, heck they can’t even trim back the weeds that have been overgrowing the bike path on Kent by the navy yard. Not sure nyc can walk or chew gum at separate times.

Why should drivers have first place?

NYC is a city. It has 8 million people. There is no room for private cars.

Where is the moped lane? Why is there only one bike lane? Every avenue should have two full-sized bike lanes (the same size as car lanes), one for each direction. Then a bus lane, and no car lanes.

If that doesn't happen, you can't blame bikers for riding on sidewalks or the wrong way in a one-way bike lane. You can't expect someone on a bike to cross to a different avenue just because they want to go the other way. It's the city's fault for failing to provide proper infrastructure.

I meant first place in the “idiot crown” :)

However, I do not understand people advocating for two way bike lanes on avenues. It defeats the point of green waves. It would still be faster to go over to 2nd to go downtown rather than (legally) salmoning down 1st and quickly hitting a red light.

With a green wave a cyclist can make 20-30 blocks easily if they are decently trained and riding a road bike. I’ve made it from Houston to the 59th St bridge without hitting a red light (1st Ave tunnel helps!!)

> However, I do not understand people advocating for two way bike lanes on avenues.

The person who said that clearly doesn’t understand that Manhattan is mainly 1-way streets.

Yes, and then it takes about a minute to cross one block on a street and reach an avenue going the correct direction, as they (mostly!) alternate.

Cars cause the vast majority of traffic injuries and deaths, so when you say “it’s the e-bikes and mopeds that are the worst” I have to assume you just mean that you personally dislike them.

If you commute by bike over an east river bridge, ride the correct way in a bike lane, or use the sidewalk ever, you should definitely start disliking them too.

While unlicensed delivery riders are definitely a menace in NYC, the article is discussing e-bike safety in a different and much broader context. I think the core of your complaint is valid, but this probably isn't the place to voice it.

> We need an NYPD crackdown on e-bikes/mopeds (mostly delivery riders) to get them off the road, so that drivers can reclaim their rightful first place.

Ah yes, the good old "natural" order of things, where cars come first, just as god intended.

Cars reclaiming 1st place at being idiots to watch out for while cycling the streets of NYC :)

Sorry, I misunderstood. Thank you for clarifying.

No problem, it was phrasing that would have been picked up clearly on a place like /r/nycbike but not as well on a general forum like this

Mopeds are fine, every moped rider treats their moped like a motorcycle. I've never seen a moped driven on a sidewalk, nor a motorcycle. E-bikes are another story, it seems like every other e-bike rider treats their ebike like a 10 year old child with a bicycle, e.g. thinking it reasonable to ride on the sidewalk. Adults on bicycles shouldn't be on the sidewalk, much less adults on e-bikes. It's fine for children to do this because they're small and slow but when you have a 200lb adult male going 25mph down the sidewalk with a motorized vehicle, there's obviously a problem.

do you live in NYC? Mopeds and e-bikes are all over the sidewalk, and they just caused a major crash on the Manhattan Bridge bike (not moped!!) path.

I give your comment the upvote

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