That is the question because after having experienced two so-called Summer Streets in my neighborhood where NYC commissioned tens of thousands (hundreds?) of dollars of planning, enforcing, signage creating and posting (and repairing), reconstituting traffic flow, remapping and rescheduling Bus routes, police overtime, DOT overtime, Dept of Sanitation overtime I could witness only a few pedestrians and a lot of aggressive bike riders down the middle of my neighborhood streets. In fact, many pedestrians preferred to stay on the sidewalks rather than the empty streets that bikers were emboldened to assert as their own. I know I did.
There were no musicians or street performers. Not even a vendor (See pics). Nothing special at all except for those unrepentant bike riders who only observe the rules of the road when it suits them. I don’t judge too harshly. I also ride a bike on city streets and have been known to skirt a law or two when it made practical sense, but never speeding through red lights, cruising sidewalks and cutting corners where pedestrians cross which I see almost every day. Walking in the road during Summer Streets was unsafe as the bikers, who easily outnumbered those of us on foot, often veered into pedestrian pathways like they were passing lanes.
On the Summer Streets celebration, the few times I tried to cross the street it felt like a crossing a highway. The Walk signs and Red lights were ignored as there were numerous overtime Police and Traffic Coordinators specifically holding Stop and Go Signs on every corner, only they weren’t being followed or one direction of bicyclists would respect the Stop Sign being held up but the opposite flow wouldn’t. A friendly NYPD officer bid me “Hello” and asked “How are you doing?” as I was trying to cross and I replied that I was fine but I was just trying to cross this intense bike race. She nodded and agreed it was a little difficult.
Possibly the greatest injustice from the Summer Streets is to the car owners, delivery workers and drivers in NYC. Negotiating all the detours and bikers and pedestrians who suddenly felt like all the streets were their sidewalk was only the half of it. The city thoughtfully posted well in advance clear bright red laminated signs announcing Summer Streets and the warning that all cars left on the street will be towed. Only thing is, at the last minute they changed the start time for clearing all cars off the streets from 5PM Friday to 12AM Friday, which for those of us who have to think about it, actually meant midnight Thursday. They scotch taped little white amendments that read 12AM on top of the red signs that had read 5PM all week to mark the change. To workers like construction or repair men, door men etc. who rely on street parking it was a Thank God It’s Friday nightmare. To those of us who had been spotting and preparing for the original signs rule changes all week long, it was chaos. They were towing cars all night.
But maybe that was the point. I didn’t see many people participating. Certainly, not enough to justify all the effort and expense. At some point the city has to do a cost-benefit analysis, don’t they? But maybe it wasn’t about costs and benefits or people taking to the streets. It was more about people taking the streets away from cars. After all, who benefited the most? The bicyclists who have for many years now dug into the right of New Yorkers to own and drive cars in the city. The bicyclists who have garnered thousands of miles of designated bike lanes that have gobbled up driving lanes and parking spaces in every neighborhood. The same bike lanes that seem never to be full and can only be used by the most athletic, coordinated and fearless citizens. Who suffered the most? The drivers and car owners who have been under attack for years for their traffic congestion, air pollution and their audacity of mere presence in a city whose leaders aspire more and more to be European.
Maybe it was just about striking another blow against cars and car owners. Tempting everyday New Yorkers to imagine more and more a city without cars. Severely penalizing, fining and forcefully removing cars of unfortunate owners who normally need to park along the vast Summer Streets route that runs from Brooklyn Bridge to Washington Heights. All those tickets and tows are like fishing in a barrel. When you consider those unlucky registered owners who had to suddenly find almost 15 miles of suddenly available new parking spaces or who didn’t get the last-minute memo about the time change, it’s more like clubbing seals. Blow after blow after blow. But when the city no longer has that auto economy of parking tickets, registration, inspection, insurance, servicing, auto part purchasing, garage and lot parking, congestion pricing, not to mention the grotesque windfall of Summer Streets towing and ticketing revenue, will the bicyclists take up the slack?
