SF Klein
Senior Retro Guru
Okay....This is an interesting one. I agree with the reporter - I'm all for religious freedom but can't these folks just look the other way? What do they do when they're in other parts of NYC with people wearing the same sort of clothes? :? :?: Read on...
NYC HASIDS USE RELIGION TO REMOVE BIKE LANES, CYCLISTS PAINT THEM BACK
Back in January, a bike lane brouhaha broke out between cyclists and the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community. At that time, the Hasids simply blocked bicycle lanes with the school buses and put up illegal detour signs.
This time, they’ve managed to get the city to sandblast the bike lanes on Bedford Avenue into oblivion. Why? Seems their religious laws prohibit them viewing members of the opposite sex in various states of undress, and you know how we cyclists like to wear tight clothes (whether it’s hipster skinny jeans or spandex) and *gasp* shorts and tanks/t-shirts in the summer!
Coincidentally *laugh* the bike lane removal came just before elections, apparently an effort to appease the community.
Shortly after the DOT removed the lanes, cyclists rolled in and started repainting them, and in our opinion they should. While I’m all for religion, it shouldn’t be allowed to alter the landscape or govern political action simply because its members can’t avert their gaze from a public street. And the NYPD should be enforcing the parking laws, which would prevent the opposers from routinely and completely blocking the bike lanes by parking diagonally across them.
The Bedford Ave. bike lanes and streets provide a direct route to the Williamsburg Bridge, and the 14 blocks of now-missing bike lanes between Flushing and Division avenues are something cyclists want back.
So, like the antics carried out over the Kent lanes late last year, local cyclists are performing a mock funeral procession this Sunday, December 13. The event is put together by Times Up! and starts at 2pm at the Brooklyn side entrance of the Williamsburg Bridge. And oh yes, there will be clowns.
Video of the cyclists painting the lanes back:
http://gothamist.com/2009/12/08/video_c ... inting.php
NYC HASIDS USE RELIGION TO REMOVE BIKE LANES, CYCLISTS PAINT THEM BACK
Back in January, a bike lane brouhaha broke out between cyclists and the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community. At that time, the Hasids simply blocked bicycle lanes with the school buses and put up illegal detour signs.
This time, they’ve managed to get the city to sandblast the bike lanes on Bedford Avenue into oblivion. Why? Seems their religious laws prohibit them viewing members of the opposite sex in various states of undress, and you know how we cyclists like to wear tight clothes (whether it’s hipster skinny jeans or spandex) and *gasp* shorts and tanks/t-shirts in the summer!
Coincidentally *laugh* the bike lane removal came just before elections, apparently an effort to appease the community.
Shortly after the DOT removed the lanes, cyclists rolled in and started repainting them, and in our opinion they should. While I’m all for religion, it shouldn’t be allowed to alter the landscape or govern political action simply because its members can’t avert their gaze from a public street. And the NYPD should be enforcing the parking laws, which would prevent the opposers from routinely and completely blocking the bike lanes by parking diagonally across them.
The Bedford Ave. bike lanes and streets provide a direct route to the Williamsburg Bridge, and the 14 blocks of now-missing bike lanes between Flushing and Division avenues are something cyclists want back.
So, like the antics carried out over the Kent lanes late last year, local cyclists are performing a mock funeral procession this Sunday, December 13. The event is put together by Times Up! and starts at 2pm at the Brooklyn side entrance of the Williamsburg Bridge. And oh yes, there will be clowns.
Video of the cyclists painting the lanes back:
http://gothamist.com/2009/12/08/video_c ... inting.php
