Bikeshare is a Nazi Plot

Or as Krugman puts it, Nazi islamic bikes from hell:

Not, I hasten to add, because annoying conservatives is the goal per se; instead, what we’re getting is a wonderful window into the conservative psyche. Here’s Front Page magazine:

Bicycles are one of the obsessions of Mayor Bloomberg and his transportation secretary Janette Sadik-Khan. Khan is the granddaughter of Imam Alimjan Idris, a Nazi collaborator and principle teacher at an SS school for Imams under Hitler’s Mufti, Haj Amin al-Husseini. The bio of his son, Wall Street executive Orhan Sadik-Khan, frequently mentions the bombing of the family home in Dresden and surviving trying times after World War II. It neglects to mention that the times were only trying because their side was losing.
…
In partial revenge, Khan has made many New York streets nearly as impassable as those of her grandfather’s wartime Dresden.

No, this isn’t a parody.

It isn’t hard to see why conservatives are upset about Citi Bikeshare. The program is a private venture by a financial firm, not requiring  government subsidies. Conservatives hate that sort of thing.

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Another Helmet “Study”

Yet another flawed bike helmet study:

Researchers analyzed the number of U.S. bicycle deaths between 1999 and 2010 and found that states with bicycle helmet laws reported about 20 percent fewer bike-related fatalities among people younger than 16 years old.

“The impetus is that when you make it a law, parents realize it’s important and parents get their kids to do it,” said Dr. William Meehan, the study’s lead author from Boston Children’s Hospital.

About 900 people die as a result of bicycle crashes every year in the U.S. and about three quarters of those are from head injuries, according to Meehan and his colleagues.

Previous research has found that wearing a helmet may reduce a person’s risk of a head or brain injury by up to 88 percent, but few studies have looked at the effect of helmet laws on national injury and fatality rates.

If you read the actual paper, the final sentence shows the problem with the methodology:

The present study did not address the effect of helmet laws on ridership.

There are other problems. The paper (unless there is a longer version?) lacks any data, just presenting the conclusions. It does not correlate bike fatalities against a state’s overall traffic fatality rate.

However, the biggest problem with this (and all other helmet studies) is the lack of data on bike facilities. Bike helmets are no substitute for proper bike facilities. Instead of focusing on bike helmets, states need to provide safe routes for kids to ride away from the danger of motor vehicle collisions.

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Faregates Are The Answer…Now What Was The Question Again?

Faregates are the answer…now what was the question again?

The MTA Blue Line opened in 1990, and according to Garcia’s office, it is the second busiest line in the Metro system. Specifically, Long Beach has eight Blue Line stations with an estimated 6 million boardings every year at those eight stations.

The request would ask the City Manager’s Office to look into the possibility of lobbying for electronic turnstiles for the Long Beach stations.

“They’re really helpful when it comes to public safety and ensuring everyone is paying their fees,” Garcia said. “There are none in Long Beach … but we have one of the largest volumes (of passengers) in the county.”

Lowenthal said the main reason she came on as a co-author of the agenda item was the turnstile issue, which she also said could help with safety issues.

So let me get this straight: Long Beach riders have the slowest street running, and some of the busiest stations. And your plan is make trips take even longer by adding turnstiles?

And as for turnstiles making the stations “safer”:

The big problem, he said with Long Beach stations in particular, would be the fact that those stations are placed in the median of the roads there. With those locations, latched gates could queue up potential riders and push them into dangerous areas along the street — creating a new safety issue.

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NJT Employee Pays Drunk Homeless Man to Direct Bus Traffic

WTF?

A man who says he is homeless and an alcoholic was being paid by a New Jersey Transit employee to direct buses in and out of a midtown Manhattan parking lot, according to a report on NBCNewYork.com.

NBC witnessed the visibly intoxicated man directing traffic out of a lot on West 37th Street while wearing an agency vest and using a red flag as the NJ Transit employee slept in a parked bus, according to the report.

The man, who identified himself as Hector Santiago, is not a New Jersey Transit employee, the agency confirmed. Santiago said the employee paid him to help buses navigate in and out of the lot onto the traffic-clogged street.

 

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