P.S. 87 Parents Endangering Schoolchildren

Once again we find numerous parents of kids at P.S. 87, located on West 77th Street on the Upper West Side of manhattan (NYC), double parking by the school and thereby endangering and inconveniencing bicyclists--including myself and my son on *our way* to school. As a number of my other "traffic counseling" videos demonstrate, this is a chronic problem. I sympathize with the guy in the Jeep who has blocked us, but he is breaking the law, which states that he is not allowed to drive across the bicycle lane, even if forced to by a car double-parked opposite the bicycle lane, "in such a manner as to interfere with the safety and passage of persons operating bicycles" in the bike lane. 34 Rules of New York city, Section 4-12 (p). He ought wait behind a double-parked car in the traffic lane until he is sure he can pass expeditiously across the bicycle lane without interfering with bicycle traffic. Here's an example of the "right way" on this same street: http://www.flickr.com/photos/43954081@N00/315234532/ .

One solution here would be to limit the curbside parking next to the school on the north side of West 77th Street to parents dropping off kids, so that they can drop off their kids without endangering other kids (others would include stopping these parents from breaking the law by double-parking, or getting them to stop driving altogether since presumably most of them live in the neighborhood and don't need to drive their kids to school). Did the DOT think about the traffic conditions on this street when they installed the Class II bicycle lanes here? Doesn't DOT have some responsibility to install additional traffic devices to help resolve the conflicts among all the different users of this street that it has helped to create?

Category:

Autos & Vehicles

Tags:

• Streetsblog
• Traffic_counseling
• bikelane
• bicyclelane
• bike_lane
• bicycle_lane
• NYC
• NewYorkCity
• Parents
• School
• PS87

[lfreedman500]

Mondroy, video description updated to respond to your comment.

[pumakrazy]

i went to that school

[mingrc123]

I went to that school a few years ago and never experience that because I always walked to school. People should just take the bus, the subway, or walk to school and work.

[deadman12078]

Odd he didn't bitch at the cop in the unmarked car.

Why would anyone want to live in a place like that?

[dek10157]

im went to that school and wow ............ the people there have changed im in 7th

[speeddemon0117]

Idiots like that driver are why I no longer use the area bikepaths, and have chosen to ride in the road.

[twilwel]

What a lousy infrastructure. But why bash eachother?Cyclists and car-drivers should unite and convince the authorities that seperate bicycle paths can reduce congestion. When safe bicycle paths are there, the cyclists will come. It is basic math: because cyclists take up far less space on the road and parking, there will be more room for the car-drivers that are not ready yet for the joys of cycling.

BTW: Just follow the videoresponse to see what I mean.

[Emix0x0]

wow i just graduated

from there!! n i went

2 da asembaly =]

[fierospeeder]

Hippies don't have jobs. They don't have to worry about being all stinking for work.

[cdltpx]

NY License plate BXU 3753 Any one with NYPD here is your chance to prevent global warming. It's assholes like this one driving the geo tracker that make doing the right thing almost impossible. The fuel economy of that piece of shit tracker is 21 22 not worth the trip it is shit cars like that one that burn way too much fuel causing prices to go up. If that were a geo metro he could get 37 44 big difference.

[cdltpx]

Car lane bike lane any questions. You see faster traffic I will step aside and allow them passage you never know if they really have an emergency. If you have to stop at a light leave room for cars to access parking lots hear an ambulance or fire truck get to the shoulder of the road. If I am on a 2 lane and it is safe to do so I allow room for opposing traffic to cross if they are making a left hand turn,if we all did this the roads would be far less congested and less stressful. Be courteous.