Recent Streetsblog NYC posts about The Conscious Commuter

Eliminate the Parking Requirement

By Alex Marshall | | 65 Comments
I’ve long bristled at the word "subsidies" that is applied so frequently to subways, buses and trains, and so infrequently to driving, even when the latter is "subsidized" much more lavishly than the former. The latest subsidy I’ve encountered most viscerally is the requirement that exists, even in most parts of New York City, to […]

Shared Space on the Brooklyn Bridge

By Alex Marshall | | 71 Comments
I’d bet that people walking outnumber people bicycling across the Brooklyn Bridge by at least 100 to one. I cycle across the wooden-slatted walkway that soars over the top of the bridge regularly now, and every time I do so I think about this. My rolling bicycle negates the space for scores of people every […]

Invisible Man

By Alex Marshall | | 17 Comments
The brain experts tell us vision is an act of discrimination. In other words, we don’t see everything; see what we look for, what we expect to see. Which probably explains how the guy on Avenue B over near 10th Street opened his door directly in front of me, just after sticking his head out […]

Tearing Up the Streets, and Pants

By Alex Marshall | | 41 Comments
A bicyclist in Amsterdam: "Dignified, civilized, unhurried and even elegant…" The ragged, angry tear on the woman’s jeans at ankle level was matched by her angry expression on her face as she looked in vain for some sort of consolation or advice from the bike shop attendant, to whom she explained how the front sprocket […]

To Obey, Or Not to Obey

By Alex Marshall | | 132 Comments
Not getting flattened by a 50,000 pound "big rig" is a good reason to stop at a red light if you’re on a bicycle. But how about less skin-saving reasons? Are there in fact, good reasons to ignore traffic regulations when you can, because after all, they are really meant just for cars? It’s a […]
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