bike lane versus car lanes study paper

Automobile, Car, Urban Sociology, Transportation

Excerpt from Study Paper:

Bike Lane vs . Car Lanes

The objective of this study is to analyze the issue of bike lanes or car lane in Nyc through the lens of downtown sociology.

There is an ongoing struggle in Nyc between those who use bi-cycle lanes and people who travel cars. Part 1 of the job entitled “NYC Cycling” about integration of NYC’s bike policy highlights the need for “integrated, rather than piecemeal, transportation planning. ” (Transportation Alternatives, 2009) Stated too is the dependence on agencies to “work together” along with the bicycling community to bring about an improvement in circumstances so that bicycling in Nyc will increase. (Transportation Alternatives, 2009)

The work of Forester (1994) entitled “Bicycle Transportation: A Handbook intended for Cycling Travel Engineers” information that the 1st trouble taking place with bike lanes in New York City is definitely the congestion that was brought on and the with regard to on-street car parking, in combination to real estate costs and the expenses associated with conversion of older buildings that are really at high level that the curbside truck and taxi and off street loading and unloading took place in traffic lane and bike lanes had been placed in the “conventional location between the parked cars and the motor lanes. ” (Forester, 1994)

My spouse and i. The First Troublesome Happening in NEW YORK CITY over Bicycle Lanes

An ordinance was enacted in New York City that made a requirement that vehicles with authorization to double park for packing and unloading purposes “continue to do so in the motor traffic lane but not in the bicycle lane. inch (Forester, 1994) This developed an unsafe side of the road for the bikes since approximately 50 percent of the typical bike lane in Manhattan was not workable due to double-parking. The whole affairs resulted in a transit hit and a great deal of anger between cyclists, people, and autos. The result was support simply by activists as well as the police division in Nyc and the advantage of bike lanes being announced by the Transportation Alternatives and American Children Hostels.

Sociologists analyze cycle lanes throughout the lens of what is termed the ‘critical mass’ and how the formation of the critical mass at some point in time serves to create “new permutations of social space through group mobility” as well as to “open new opportunities that are the two affective and political” and since stated by Jeff Ferrel to put:

“ourselves and our bicycles on the line, confronting automobile dominance, through direct actions, we create the extremely hard: an isle of security, calm, and conversation during a busy streets. And in reflexive fashion, we all inhabit this kind of island with talk of Critical Mass voyages in other cities, strategies for surviving encounters with motorists, sabotage in the workplace, radical history and other subversions. inches (Furness, 1994)

II. Bicycling Issues in NYC

It can be reported that a bike isle that is “ambitious” in combination with a “greenway program” will in order to expand the interest and embrace cycling in New York City however , without safe bicycle car parking facilities that growth are not as rapid as it may potentially be with safe bike car parking facilities. Likewise needed happen to be bike lanes that are of any better design and that lead to a reduction in the number of bicycle accidents involving cyclists in New York City. These advancements are in a way that should go with “public education and enforcement of targeted traffic laws. inches (Transportation Alternatives, 2009) Additionally required is an agreement by New York City agencies such as the Division of Transport in New York City to restructure transportation when it comes to both its priorities and its particular practices. (Transportation Alternatives, 2009) The Bike Blueprint is usually stated to get much more when compared to a set of plans geared toward causing an increase in riding a bicycle in New York City, also presented in the formula is a “vision of New York City that is certainly people-oriented and refuses to agree to the cynical trade-off of short-term economical values to get sustained human being livability. inch (Transportation Alternatives, 2009) Likewise needed is a “substantial