Which Bike Planning Team Will Reign Supreme?

white_kaga.jpgTomorrow night, Paul White does his best Chairman Kaga.

Tomorrow night’s the main event for the New Amsterdam Bike Slam, the weekend-long extravaganza hosted by Transportation Alternatives and Vélo Mondial. Two teams will face off Iron Chef-style to devise the most effective plan to raise cycling in New York City to Amsterdam-esque levels. I’m not quite sure what to expect, but a planning contest "inspired by poetry slams, reality television competitions, and
celebrity death matches" promises to not be dull.

The teams, each comprised of American and Dutch planners jumbled together, have been roaming the city the past few days, hatching their plans. They’ve been asked to address everything from law enforcement to bike culture in their presentations. The most interesting visuals should appear in the second round of the contest. That’s when the teams will unveil designs for four types of bike infrastructure: a bridge crossing (the Williamsburg Bridge, specifically), a greenway, a neighborhood-scale network of streets, and a large office building (the Municipal Building).

The Bike Slam design battle gets started Saturday at 10 p.m. at Cielo (18 Little West 12th Street, between Ninth Avenue and Washington Street). Tickets are $20, or $10 for TA members. The competition will be followed by dancing until 4 a.m. What I want to know is, who’ll have the stamina to bike 100 miles the next day?

ALSO ON STREETSBLOG

This Week: Big Votes on Bike Lanes for Amsterdam and Sixth Ave

|
Community boards are expected to vote on two major Manhattan street safety projects this week: protected bike lanes for Sixth Avenue and Amsterdam Avenue. There’s a lot more community board action in Brooklyn — so much that we couldn’t cram it all into this post. See the complete Streetsblog calendar for more events. Tuesday: DOT will present a plan for […]

Team Amsterdam Victorious in Bike Slam Design Battle

|
Team Amsterdam’s concept for a bike and bus boulevard down Broadway. Team Amsterdam won running away at Saturday night’s New Amsterdam Bike Slam design battle, the two-team competition to devise the best plan for boosting bicycle modeshare in New York City. But Team New York could go home with their heads high — they presented […]

Levine to CB 7: Support the Amsterdam Avenue Protected Bike Lane

|
Next Tuesday, Community Board 7 is slated to vote on the Amsterdam Avenue protected bike lane, and Council Member Mark Levine wants to be crystal clear: The street needs a redesign that includes a protected bike lane. In a letter sent to CB 7 members today, Levine makes the case that by shortening crossing distances, reducing speeding, and adding a protected bike lane, DOT’s […]