‘I’m Worried’ About Staying Safe When I Ride My Bike – Streetsblog New York City

New York Metropolis’s backup mayor is as afraid of visitors as you’re when he will get on his bike — for good motive.

After getting hit by a automotive driver final week, Public Advocate Jumaane Williams instructed Streetsblog that he’s anxious about his security when he will get on a motorbike within the metropolis, placing him within the ranks of numerous cyclists throughout New York Metropolis.

“I’m not within the streets that always with my biking, however when I’m I’m anxious about it,” Williams stated after a press convention in Brooklyn on gun violence.

Williams, who would take over if Mayor de Blasio resigned (as de Blasio’s a whole bunch of Twitter critics demand day by day), tweeted final week that he was concerned in a crash with a driver in Brooklyn however got here out with simply minor accidents.

“I’ve been biking virtually day by day — this morning I acquired hit by a automotive. Fortunately, everybody’s okay, I acquired checked out for minor accidents simply in case,” Williams tweeted final Thursday.

I’ve been biking virtually day by day – this morning I acquired hit by a automotive. Fortunately, everybody’s okay, I acquired checked out for minor accidents simply in case.

I need to thank everybody who checked in to verify I used to be all proper & the motive force for staying on the scene.

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— Jumaane Williams (@JumaaneWilliams) September 4, 2020

The crash reveals that the dearth of safe-cycling infrastructure can have an effect on anybody and everybody. Williams was not the one metropolis official hit by a driver within the final a number of days. Early Monday morning, a Brooklyn prosecutor, Sarah Pitts, died after being struck by a charter bus in Williamsburg.

Though the tweet didn’t have a ton of particulars concerning the crash, and Williams was preserving mum on assigning blame whereas the police examine it, he was prepared to say that he was hit by a driver making a left flip via an intersection, that means he fell sufferer to the infamous “left hook.”

Williams stated that he was struck close to Shore Highway and Fourth Avenue, an intersection in Bay Ridge the place you may enter or exit from the Shore Parkway bike path, which the general public advocate stated he rides steadily.

“I used to be coming again [from the path] and within the crosswalk, however there’s no good solution to cross the road as a result of there’s highways and stuff. So any individual was making a left, and I smacked into the primary quarter panel and I fell off my bike,” Williams stated describing the crash, which he stated broken his handlebars to the purpose the place his bike was unrideable and left him sore sufficient in his neck and shoulder to go for an MRI this week.

“Somebody misplaced her life within the DA’s workplace simply yesterday so I thank God mine ended the way in which it did,” Williams stated. “It simply reveals, it’s scary.”

An NYPD spokesperson stated that Williams’ crash passed off at about 8:30 a.m. that morning, and occurred when the motive force of the automotive was making a left flip throughout Fourth Avenue on to Shore Highway whereas Williams was within the intersection. Officers who responded to the crash gave the motive force a failure to yield summons.

Even if 4th Avenue and Shore Highway each result in a motorbike path that’s central to the Brooklyn-Queens Greenway, the one solution to entry it from the intersection of the 2 roads is to cope with a chaotic intersection the place drivers try to get on or off the Belt Parkway from a number of intersections, and the one bike lane is an unprotected bike lane on Shore. Extremely, there have been only eight crashes injuring nine motorists on the intersection between 2017 and 2019, though 66-year-old pedestrian Frank Decolvenaere was killed by a driver one block north at a hundred and first Avenue and 4th Avenue in March this 12 months.

Williams stated that the world might use extra safe-cycling infrastructure, however stated the crash introduced up different coverage points for him.

“I used to be considering, God forbid if I didn’t have any insurance coverage and I wanted that bike for work, what would I’ve carried out? If I didn’t have insurance coverage I might have had to consider whether or not I ought to go to the emergency room, and if I used to be a messenger, that’s my livelihood, however I can’t use this bike now,” stated Williams.

The general public advocate, who has taken some brickbats from Streetsblog for racking up 27 tickets from school-zone speed cameras from 2013 to 2018 (and one speeding ticket since then), stated that his view on preserving cyclists and pedestrians started to alter when he took a driver-accountability course just like the one which’s required for recidivist speeders under the Dangerous Vehicle Abatement Law. Williams, a person who some have pinned their 2021 mayoral hopes on regardless of his pledges to not run, additionally stated that he got here to grasp that the streets have been “scary” after a motorbike experience via Brooklyn final summer time and used his crash to once more say that car drivers were the most privileged road users in the city.

“In case you’re driving on the street behind a bunch of metallic and tons of security, it’s a must to be essentially the most cautious. Normally the individuals with essentially the most privilege have essentially the most work to do to verify everybody else is protected, and on this case it’s the drivers. There’s much more work to do,” stated Williams.

Transportation Alternate options echoed Williams’ name for extra work in a tweet thread following the general public advocate’s crash, which ended with “We urge Mayor de Blasio to recommit to Imaginative and prescient Zero and direct his Division of Transportation to use, directly, their full toolbox of confirmed lifesaving measures.”

We additionally urge Mayor de Blasio to recommit to Imaginative and prescient Zero and direct his Division of Transportation to use, directly, their full toolbox of confirmed lifesaving measures.”

— Transportation Alternate options (@TransAlt) September 4, 2020