Support the PPW Bike Lane!

Subject: Re: rediculous

BornintheSlopenotanimport wrote: Just the other day an ambulance was trying to get to Methodist Hospital via the park as i've seen for many years. Yet this time it took forever to get there with there only being 2 lanes of traffic allowed. What if that was your mother, wife or another loved one in there and didn't make it in time because pedestrians wanted their bike lane that already exists inside the ENTIRE PARK!

What if it was ME in that ambulance? Oh wait, i DID take that exact same ambulance route a few months ago after I was hit by an unlicensed livery cab driving in the bike lane on Vanderbilt. I can report that getting hit by a fast moving vehicle (and the ensuing surgery to pin my bones back together) was very unpleasant, but the ambulance ride was pleasant and essentially traffic free! So I'll take physically separated bike lanes over "potential" traffic any day.

We will loop the park when we respond to jobs in Park Slope when we are coming from the Kings County Hospital area. We enter on Parkide/Ocean and loop it to PPW/3 St. We always proceed with caution and have our lights on. This saves about five minutes of response time as opposed to taking Flatbush or Eastern PW. When the park is closed to vehicles during whatever times it is during the day, the cyclists ride freely in the car lanes, which is perfectly understandable and acceptable. You are right Aquamann: this is NYC and ambulances get stuck behind cars all the time and I'm okay with that. What I am not okay with is being stuck behind a bicyclist when going to an emergency when they are much more able to slow down, pull over, move to the side, etc. There are times when it is a group of cyclists or just ONE cyclist in Prospect Park we are driving behind and they physically do a head turn to look at us coming with emergency lights on and then proceed not to move. Unfortunately, if this first indication of our presence is ignored (the emergency lights), we now have to be fucking assholes and hit the siren a few times on a sunny day in Prospect Park when everyone is trying to enjoy themselves by walking, jogging, running, sitting, eating in the park. I don't like doing that because now we look like dickheads and it sparks the whole "there are no vehicles allowed in the park" debate. There ARE emergency vehicles allowed in the park 24 hours a day and no one would ever complain if people would just yield to us when we went by. We would never have to use the siren and no one would ever even notice us.
(Also on a side note the NYS VTL states that when an ambulance's emergency lights are on the siren has to be FULLY ENGAGED. No whoop-whoop through the intersection like a lot of us do, but fully wailing. That's the reason it appears that an ambulance has its siren wailing for no reason going down 7th Ave when there are no cars in front of it. If you think it is annoying to you for the twenty seconds we go by imagine how annoying it is for us to go from Brownsville to Park Slope on a 15 minute response with it fully wailing. That's why I don't do it all the time, but technically we can get in trouble for it.)
Back to the bicyclists in the park. I'm not saying it happens VERY often but it happens enough that it is an irritant to me. There are plenty of courteous cyclists who will hear the diesel engine coming up behind them, see that it is us, and move over immediately and then give us a smile when we go by and we always wave thank you to them because we generally appreciate when people help us out. I

swngnmonk wrote:

As a result, you're not expecting someone in a truck to be riding on your ass. Especially if you're trying to ride up the hill on the north side, when your focus is on "OH GOD THIS HILL WILL IT EVER END".

Hahaha...that's how I feel on that hill. Oh, and not sure if it's just my bad hearing (part of why I love bike lanes over shared lanes), but I usually can't hear cars behind me without a horn blow, especially on a windy day.

People should move aside for a commercial vehicle with lights flashing. If necessary a few bursts of the siren when driving in the park.

Perhaps they should put cow catchers on the front of ambulances to clear indignant cyclists out of the way.

^^^^like^^^^

There is something wrong with people who feel the need to emphasize that they were born in Park Slope or have lived here for a million years. Guess what? No one gives a crap! These people sound like the inbred rednecks of the deep South who have “America, love it or leave” bumper stickers on their pickups or the border patrol militia idiots in Arizona. I’ve been in the Slope for over a decade, but I could have moved here 5 minutes ago for all it matters to anyone. The second I moved into Park Slope this was MY neighborhood.

So whine, whine, whine about the imports and the new blood in the Slope who are ruining it and turning it into a cesspool of consideration, cooperation, innovation and education. This neighborhood is infinitely better than it was 11 years ago when I moved in. No question about it whatsoever. And if we’re running the Neanderthal’s out of MY neighborhood, then I say good riddance you won’t be missed.

It's just life in a crowded place, and if you hyperventilate every time your drive or your walk or your ride is less than ideal, it WILL take a toll on your health.

Good point, if the issue is rudeness or sub-ideal commutes. However sometimes cars get run over by bikes and that's the real issue here.

swngnmonk wrote: [quote=EMTNYC]Back to the bicyclists in the park. I'm not saying it happens VERY often but it happens enough that it is an irritant to me. There are plenty of courteous cyclists who will hear the diesel engine coming up behind them, see that it is us, and move over immediately and then give us a smile when we go by and we always wave thank you to them because we generally appreciate when people help us out. I

So what's the difference between rude bicyclists and rude drivers in this case? Why are you singling out bicyclists?

Furthermore, you're not being very sensitive to the perspective of bicyclists IN THE PARK. When the loop is closed to traffic, you're in one of the few spots in NYC where you can ride without some jerk driver breathing down your neck.

As a result, you're not expecting someone in a truck to be riding on your ass. Especially if you're trying to ride up the hill on the north side, when your focus is on "OH GOD THIS HILL WILL IT EVER END". Noone knows you're an ambulance. You could be NYPD, Parks department, someone who ignored the signs and is breaking the law, anything else. How is a rider supposed to know it's an emergency?

You feel rude because you're blipping your siren? That's on you. I don't think anyone in their right mind would begrudge an ambulance going through the park, announcing its' presence.

I still don't understand why you have an axe to grind with bicyclists, when it's drivers and car traffic that force you to take the longer park route, and their reckless behavior that likely leads to far more of your calls on a regular basis.

I think you misunderstood me. I have absolutely no axe to grind with bicyclists and I feel that if there were more cyclists and fewer cars, the city would be a much nicer place. As I said in my previous post I also have no problem with bicyclists riding in Prospect Park on the loop. I encourage it and I don't give a shit if they are in the designated bike lane or in the two car lanes, it makes no difference to me. The issue for me is that SOME--certainly not most and not all--cyclists see us coming and intentionally don't move because maybe they feel like we are invading their territory by being in Prospect Park. Those are the cyclists I have a problem with. Guess what? Cars don't stop for us either so don't think I am some pro-vehicle person. I should also elaborate on my previous statement of feeling like a dickhead for hitting the siren in the park. The bottom line is that I shouldn't have to use the siren in the park at all. When a bicyclist has turned around and sees us with our emergency lights on (that's how they know it is an emergency, to answer that question) and fails to move just to be an asshole, it becomes necessary. You stated: "I don't think anyone in their right mind would begrudge an ambulance going through the park, announcing its' presence." You are very wrong. We are given dirty looks and literally YELLED at for using our sirens to get to an emergency. Do I "care"? Not really. Do I feel like getting yelled at by 30 different people during my eight hour shift? No. So I make a concerted effort to drive respectfully and as quietly as I possibly can to avoid being yelled at for doing my job. I hope this clears up your concerns about me having an "axe to grind" with bicyclists. Perhaps my first post was slightly ambiguous and vague and for that I apologize. Again I really have no problems with cyclists but just with the few who don't care about anyone but themselves. There are a thousand times more of those discourteous people behind the wheel of a vehicle and not holding the handle bars of a bicycle so trust me when I say you got the wrong idea from my post and perhaps that was my fault.

The cough syrup seems to have benefitted us all

anthonycm wrote: Also, the Goonies (good guys) rode bikes. The Empire (bad guys) drove Star Destroyers, which are, um, obvious metaphors for cars.

This should end any debate. You're welcome.

it's all so clear now! thank you. i guess we're done here.

I can report that the friendly counterprotesters vastly outnumbered bike lane opponents, as expected. Logic prevails.

I spoke to a few about their fear. They are just stuck on generalizations that biker are reckless and nasty.

I'll say this as Devil's Advocate: A lot of people, when reaching their senior and very senior years can get paranoid. Peripheral vision starts to deteriorate, reflexes slow down and sometimes fear of the outside world plays in. So I would say, as silly as this sounds, looking both ways at an age where all of this is happening at once, can be quite daunting.

Wrong. Retag, you are too late, I already deemed Piano a NY'r when he showed me his Metrocard.

We celebrated by going out to my favorite pizza place for lunch (its prepared by spanish guys), then he took me to his favorite taco place for dinner (its prepared by chinese guys).

.....no one owns New York. The Lower East Side is my favorite example.

Oh no! A complete stranger tells me I'm not a New Yorker. What do I do, what do I do? And the rolling eyes are out too? Oh, that means they're right and I'm wrong, doesn't it? That’s a cool New Yorker thing to do, huh? Emoticons, they nail me every time.

Ugh, I knew I could never try to fit in and be cool. I'm crushed. Devastated. My world is shaken to it's very core. I don't know if I even exist any more. Do I? Please, anonymous stranger who has obviously lived here forever and knows everything (because they say so and who would say that which is not true?) what should I do? Just please no more withering posts. My psyche is too fragile.

Wow, how fantastically cheesy can people be? Someone admits to having absolutely no opinion on the topic subject, but um, what, patrols the chat boards of New York waving a wand and determining who’s a New Yorker and who’s not? Is that what makes one a New Yorker – pettiness and massive insecurity? Then I guess I’m not a New Yorker.

But someone with moderate reading comprehension skills would have noticed I never said I was a New Yorker in the first place. In fact, I don’t ever want to be a called a New Yorker. Brooklynite maybe. Either way, this is
is still MY neighborhood so pbbbtttt! And all the emoticons and whiny posts in the world won’t change that.