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Shoutout to the cyclist who yelled at me about the Prospect Park West lane, I finally get it
I avoided the Prospect Park West lane for 8 months because a guy in a van told me it was slower than just taking 9th Street and I never checked for myself. Two Tuesdays ago I got stuck behind a garbage truck on 9th for 20 minutes, so I tried the lane out of spite and got to Grand Army Plaza in 12 minutes flat. I spent 8 months trusting a guy who does not even ride, and now I feel like a jerk for every time I rolled my eyes at people asking for more protected lanes. The thing that convinced me was not an argument, it was just standing at the light watching 30 people on wheels go by while I sat in traffic. Anyone else change their mind about a route after one bad day somewhere else?
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drew_thomas912d ago
Did you ever stop and wonder how many people in cars are making their route choices based on stuff they heard from one guy one time? That is the part that gets me about your story. The van guy was not lying on purpose, he probably just had one bad ride and turned it into a rule for life, and then you got that rule handed to you for free. So now I keep thinking about how many streets in this city are written off by thousands of people who never once tried them, and how that shapes what gets built and what gets ignored. The people who count bikes at lights and do those traffic studies, they are basically measuring decisions people already made, not what people would do if they tried it. Maybe the real fix is not just more lanes, it is getting people to actually test a route once instead of trusting whoever talks loudest.
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