If a conservative is a liberal who\u2019s been mugged, what do you call a cyclist who\u2019s been hit by an e-bike rider? I\u2019ve been mulling the question since I was struck broadside by an e-Citi Bike rider in Brooklyn Bridge Park earlier this summer.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I was turning left toward Pier 3 \u2014 no one in the oncoming cycle lane and pedestrian path or my peripheral vision \u2014 when I was T-boned and knocked to the ground. I saw nothing. He must have pulled out from behind and accelerated to pass.<\/p>\n
The back of my head \u2014 helmeted fortunately \u2014 hit the pavement.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYou were riding too fast,\u201d I yelled (from the ground).\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cNo, I wasn\u2019t. I\u2019m an experienced rider. I didn\u2019t know you were going to turn.\u201d<\/p>\n
After a few rounds of this, he allowed, \u201cMaybe I shouldn\u2019t have been thinking about how I was going to be late picking up my kid\u2026\u201d and \u201cMaybe I should have said, \u2018Passing on your left.\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
My neighbor, a neurosurgeon, checked me for a head injury. I had a cut and bruises and felt dizzy all day. Nothing worse. But, psychologically and cycle-logically, I\u2019m still struggling with it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In December, trailed by a driver on a street with no bike lane, I pulled over, hit a manhole cover and broke my collarbone. I wrote an op-ed for Streetsblog<\/a> about becoming Exhibit A in my own protected bike lane campaign. Strangers expressed solidarity. I felt strengthened by this movement of thoughtful advocates for safe streets.\u00a0<\/p>\n This time, I\u2019m depressed by the ferocious opposition<\/a> from fellow cycling activists to the premise of limiting e-bike speeds to 15 mph. What are we fighting for, people? The right to ride like a jerk, even if it freaks people out and makes enemies of friends?<\/p>\n As an older woman on a light road bike, I ride defensively. I never assume cars will stop or that the pedestrian or cyclist ahead is aware of me. Look three times for e-bikes coming out of nowhere. Yet I got T-boned, on the Brooklyn Greenway, one of the safest places in town.<\/p>\n He hit me from behind!<\/p>\n I agree with Transportation Alternatives that Mayor Adams\u2019s 15 mph limit is half-baked<\/a> \u2014 no enforcement mechanism or guidelines. NYPD\u2019s new policy of issuing criminal citations<\/a> to cyclists and traffic tickets to motorists for the same infractions is a discriminatory ploy that plays into two forms of madness: President Trump’s immigration crackdown (this city is more or less dead without immigrants) and the notion that electric bike riders are causing all the carnage out there (they are not<\/a>). I understand the prevailing logic that city policy should target car drivers first because drivers cause virtually all of the traffic deaths and injuries.<\/p>\n But we all see the roads the way we want to see them: Non-cyclists perceive cyclists as just as dangerous as cars, transportation activists tend to see all riders as allies \u2014 two wheels good, four wheels bad. Here\u2019s what I see: I\u2019m taking my life in my hands every time I ride alongside cars on a street without a protected bike lane. But I used to feel relief when I was in a protected lane like the Brooklyn Bridge or the Williamsburg Greenway. Now, I feel jolt after jolt of anxiety as e-cyclists barrel toward me in my lane to pass, slipping in at the last minute like aggressive drivers. Out of my way, lady. <\/p>\n It happens over and over. I reach my destination, heart pounding, angry.\u00a0<\/p>\n Many of those riders are on e-Citi Bikes, not precarious workers exploited by an algorithm. More than 68 percent of Citi Bike customers are younger men, a demographic associated with high risk tolerance and aggressiveness, in many realms of life \u2014 including behind the wheel of a vehicle.\u00a0<\/p>\n I admit to being dismissive of e-bike complaints before. After being decked by a 60-pound e-Citi Bike rider, I can say unequivocally, yes, it\u2019s different when it happens to you. So to my fellow Safe Streets activists, I want to say that if we let the most aggressive riders set behavior norms and dominate perceptions, we\u2019re giving anti-bike reactionaries ammunition to blast us back to the bad old days with all the bad faith they can muster. More Bedford Avenues, anyone?<\/p>\n