Insane MTA Bus Drivers

I've seen MTA busses do all kind of weird and crazy stuff. driving through a red signal is probably most common. Bicyclists all over town have long been complaining about being "invisible" on the road, and to MTA busses in particular. Well, now I know why, as I got to experience it first hand. Around 12:30 PM today, I was purposefully driven of the road by a New York City MTA bus. Thank goodness I am OK, but it could have gone very wrong. Very, very wrong. Here's what happened:

As I approached the traffic light at the intersection of 5th Avenue and Flatbush Avenue in Park Slope, the light was red. First "in line" were two cars, followed by a van in he left lane and a bus in the right lane. I made my way to the front, and when the light changed I was crossing Flatbush toward Atlantic Avenue, where the Atlantic mall is. This block has a bus stop in the middle of it, just before the U-Haul parking lot. As I approached the bus stop, I heard the bus behind me honking its horn, then pulling up alongside of me, to my left, and veering into the bus stop aera that we were approaching. The driver knew I was there, absolutely saw me, but chose to cut me off to pull into his stop. I had to hit the brakes abruptly, and was squeezed into the sidewalk. I was fine, because of a quick reaction. I pulled up around the bus to talk to the bus driver (although I felt like doing something other than talking), trying to remain calm. "Why did you do that?" I asked. "You were in my way, I couldn't get to my stop. You should have gone onto the sidewalk!" he replied. "I can't go on the sidewalk, that's illegal!" I said, flabbergasted. "Yeah well, I wanted to show you you were in the bus stop. You know you can't ride in a bus stop, what was I supposed to do?" was his reply. "But the bus stop is on the road!" I went on. "You are supposed to wait untitil I pass it, then you pull in! That's the rule!" I said. "Oh you know the rules, huh?" he scuffed. Yes, I do know the rules. I'm a friggin' rule maniac. I wrote down the bus number and went on my way, trembling with anger. Where do these guys learn to drive? On the Internet?

High School Cell Phone Ban

As you may know, mayor Bloomberg has instituted a ban on cell phones (and video game-boys and mp3 players of all kinds) in NYC high schools. I substitute teach at the Secondary School for Journalism @ John Jay in Park Slope, where a few weeks ago about 200 students walked out to protest the measure. I support this walk out and believe students should be allowed to keep their phones (but they should also be restricted from using them during class hours. Here's a good article on it: http://www.amsterdamnews.org/News/article/article.asp?NewsID=68563&sID=4

"Bike Culture" and Brooklyn Industries

I know I'm a bit late with this post, but I wanted to share it anyway.

A few weeks ago, The windows of all 4 Brooklyn Industries stores were vandalized using acid etch with graffiti slogans saying "Bike culture not for sale."




A week earlier, B.I. had started a new window display, featuring some colorful "frankenbikes" (home-made, welded together choppers). The company was donating $2 from the sale of every messenger bag to the Recycle-a-Bicycle charity, and though it would be cool to advertise this by putting these bikes in their shops.
Regardless of the intention of B.I. or the vandal(s), here's how it felt to me:

When I walked my 6 year-old daughter to school one morning, I noticed the displays and pointed them out to her. We admired the cool looking, crazy bikes, and I told her the story of the important place of bicycles in our car-saturated, polluted society, and I told her that when I grew up (in Belgium) it was a favorite pass time to fool around with bikes, making new ones out of old ones, racing in cyclo-cross races etc. She was really into it, and I felt happy to be part of teaching a new generation about bicycles and their place in a greener world.

Imagine our surprise when we saw what had happened a few days later. First, I felt bad for having to explain to a 6 year-old what vandalism is. Then I felt worse for having to explain why someone "didn't like the bike display." The more I thought about it, the more pissed-off I got. I personally couldn't care less about Brooklyn Industries and their GAP-like fake indie stores that are (in my opinion) defacing our neighborhoods, but I did think they were doing a good thing: promoting bicycles to children. Who were these people who were so offended by it, and why were they so offended? [Some answers might be found on this blog Also see: Brooklyn Industries Press Release on the event.]

In recent years, we've all witnessed an incline in hipster "bike culture" around Brooklyn. Young people on single gear or fixed gear track bikes are everywhere. It's a fad. It's a really cool fad, I've been thinking about getting one of those bikes, for old time's sake. And the more bikes, the better. Now I'm the first to complain against commercialization, but I do oppose the slogan "bike culture not for sale." What bike culture are they talking about? Whose bike culture? I'm sorry, but a bunch of hipster youth on track bikes is not a bike culture, not by a long shot. It's a hipster sub-culture, that will probably sadly disappear over time to make way for the next big hipster fad. The United States, no matter how many Tour de Frances Lance Armstrong wins, does not have a bike culture. I wish it did. INstead, it has a car culture. Holland, Belgium, France, Italy, heck, China, have bike cultures. And bike cultures don't happen overnight, they happen by teaching generation after generation about the importance of bicycles. And putting a bike in a shop window helps.

Anyway, I'm not mad anymore, and I think the hipsters color the 'hood. As a last laugh, here's a picture of myself and 3 friends, after our stunning victory in a local cyclo-cross, featuring our home-built single speed, tied-together-with-string orange mean machine in 1981 (Shorts in December, baby, yeah!!)

Brooklyn C.R.A.P.

A month or two ago I started a blog called Brooklyn CRAP (Coalition of Residents Against Pollution), which I am going to cancel (the blog, not the action group!) and the posts of which I am going to integrate in this here brand new blog. Here is the mission statement:

3/24/06
Welcome to Brooklyn C.R.A.P.!
I created this blog to start a movement against the pollution of our neighborhoods, and to foster awareness for a better, cleaner, more pleasant living environment.

The two initial issues I want to create awareness for are:

1. The intolerable practice of unwanted advertising, flyering and leafletting on the stoops of Brooklyn.

2. Uncollected dog poop on the sidewalks.

The goals of Brooklyn C.R.A.P. are:

- to get rid of all unwanted advertising

- to rid the sidewalks of dog poop

The following are initiatives that are in the works to accomplish the goals:

- to create a mailing list of other concerned residents who feel strongly about these issues, to be presented to Marty Markowitz, Newsday's Marketeer and other offenders of unwanted advertising campaigns.

- to create a sticker and/or small placquard that residents can visibly place on their houses, doors, gates, etc. to make leafletters and litterers aware their advertising material is unwanted. Here's the prototype: Let me know if you'd be interested in putting one up.


- to flag dog poop with little flags, in an attempt to shame polluters into cleaning up after their pets.

- to devise more strategies to accomplish our goals

Please get in touch if you'd like to be involved!!

Bob van Pelt, Founder of BKLYN C.R.A.P.