Resident seeks answers after 'unbelievably depressing' trend takes over city: 'Is there anything that can be done?'

A New Yorker expressed their frustration with the misuse of the bike lane on Schermerhorn Street in Brooklyn.  

In the r/MicromobilityNYC community, the Redditor explained that the main problem was that existing rules were not being followed, with eight school buses completely blocking a bike lane. 

"These pictures are just from this morning. Is there anything that can be done?" they asked.

"It's unbelievably depressing that the stuff activists fought for is basically unusable because of a lack of enforcement," they added. "Do traffic cops not have incentives to give out tickets here? It would be so easy for one of them to post up and give out (what I assume are) expensive tickets all day."

The other comments were sympathetic, with one offering a simple solution: "Bollards now!!!" 

The thread brings up an important discussion about the challenges of implementing cycling infrastructure in cities. It is an ongoing process that does not simply end with building bike lanes and passing laws on their use. 

Enforcement of existing laws is an important part of the discussion but not the sole solution to the problem. Encouragingly, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority found that 90% of drivers ticketed for illegal parking in bus and bike lanes do not re-offend, per amNewYork. 

However, as former city transportation official Jon Orcutt pointed out to the publication, the "omnipresence of cars" means enforcement is just one part of the equation. Ultimately, reducing car dependency in urban areas makes sense for cyclists, drivers, and pedestrians alike. 

Fewer cars mean cleaner air, faster travel times, and greater accessibility for pedestrians. Congestion pricing introduced in New York City earlier this year has already shown some promising early results, according to ST Engineering, though the program's survival may face some key challenges in the near future. 

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Still, if the short-term challenges can be met, there's every reason to be optimistic for the future. One need only look at New York City's history of embracing cycling. As one commenter mentioned, New York has a very long track record with bike lanes. 

"New York City had North America's FIRST BIKE LANE! We had bike dedicated infrastructure back when the primary mode of transit was horses. (It was Ocean Pkwy, by the way)," they said. 

Ocean Parkway opened in 1894 and was so popular with cyclists that it was expanded two years later to accommodate the increased demand.

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