{"id":191516,"date":"2026-04-09T23:25:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T23:25:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/191516\/"},"modified":"2026-04-09T23:25:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T23:25:07","slug":"nycs-bike-vs-car-turf-war-funny-or-not-funny","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/191516\/","title":{"rendered":"NYC\u2019s bike vs. car turf war: Funny or not funny?"},"content":{"rendered":"

CITYWIDE \u2014 The New York City Department of Transportation caused a stir last week when the agency posted this unexpected message<\/a> on its social media accounts: \u201cNYC DOT to remove bike racks to make more room for car parking.\u201d<\/p>\n

DOT added, \u201cWhy use so much curb space exclusively for storing property?\u201d<\/p>\n

The message was accompanied by a photo of bike docks obscured by a big, red \u201cX,\u201d and a link to a website, \u201cNYC.GOV\/byebyebikes.\u201d<\/p>\n

This was a surprising reversal of city policy. Parking spaces have been disappearing by the thousands<\/a> over the past few years, to the exasperation of car owners.<\/p>\n

\"ThisThis is the Department of Transportation\u2019s social media post that set off a kerfuffle last week. Graphic: NYCDOT<\/p>\n

To make sure the message about DOT\u2019s bold new initiative got out, the city\u2019s Department of Buildings boosted it on their own social media accounts.<\/p>\n

The message did indeed get out, and the reactions \u2014 hundreds of them \u2014 were swift.<\/p>\n

\u201cHell yeah!\u201d responded beleaguered drivers, while the bike clan sputtered in disbelief, warning ominously that Transportation Alternatives \u201cis not going to approve of this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eventually, it became clear that Wednesday was April Fools\u2019 Day \u2014 and the post was just a joke, folks!<\/p>\n

\u201cI literally had a minor heart attack,\u201d one cyclist confessed in relief. (For some reason, many car owners did not express the same relief.)<\/p>\n

The post touched on New York City\u2019s existential battle over asphalt: the feud between the bike clan vs. the car clan, which at times reaches Hatfields vs. McCoys intensity. (Only instead of shooting shotguns at Tug Fork they are flipping the finger on Court Street.)\u00a0<\/p>\n

Like many classic April Fools\u2019 jokes, the pranksters chanced throwing a match onto dry tinder. DOT has been accused of waging a \u201cwar on drivers<\/a>,\u201d in the immortal words of the New York Post, as it has removed thousands of parking spaces to make room for Citi Bike docks, dining sheds and garbage bins.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In response to DOT, the anti-car crowd posted messages like (and these are actual words): \u201cImagine if you put your sofa on the sidewalk in front of your building and declared that it was just for you to sit in and it would remain there for as long as you felt like it. \u2026 Why should private cars be able to take up public space?\u201d<\/p>\n

Supporters of street parking countered this assertion in their own posts (these are also actual words): \u201cIt\u2019s called the STREET. It\u2019s where cars, trucks, buses, ambulances, service vehicles of all kinds, and bikes go.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"BikeBike docks loom large in the city\u2019s turf war between drivers and bikers. Photo: Mary Frost\/Brooklyn Eagle<\/p>\n

Just a joke, folks!<\/p>\n

The friction between the farmer vs. the cowman<\/a> \u2014 oops, the cyclists vs. the drivers \u2014 has led to lawsuits<\/a>, bike-lane reversals and reinstatements, even as the city failed to meet its own mandate<\/a> for new bike and bus lanes under the Adams administration.<\/p>\n

In an attempt to bring some sort of overall coordination, Mayor Zohran Mamdani and DOT on Tuesday announced the creation of a new \u201cOffice of Curb Management<\/a>.\u201d The office will \u201coversee curb policies across the city\u2019s 6,300 miles of streets and roughly 3 million curbside parking spaces,\u201d according to a release from the Mayor\u2019s Office.\u00a0<\/p>\n

With this divisive history, why would DOT poke the bear?\u00a0<\/p>\n

Because the agency believes that most residents can still take a joke \u2014 at least one day a year.<\/p>\n

\u201cNew Yorkers have a great sense of humor \u2014 and we think government should too,\u201d Nick Benson, DOT\u2019s chief communications officer, told the Brooklyn Eagle.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur April Fools\u2019 post got people talking, laughing, and most importantly, paying attention to how we use our streets,\u201d Benson said. \u201cWhen government agencies communicate in a way that feels human, relatable, and a little bit playful, more people engage \u2014 and that means more people learning about the work we do every day.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

He added, \u201cWe promise \u2014 we\u2019re not coming for your bike racks!\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"AnAn outdoor dining shed took over a parking space on Henry Street in Brooklyn Heights. Photo: Mary Frost\/Brooklyn Eagle<\/p>\n

Quirky humor catches attention<\/p>\n

While the post rubbed some people the wrong way, it also reflects the quirkier, more humorous style city agencies have adapted on social media in recent years.<\/p>\n

DOT was not the only city agency April trickster. The Parks Department joined in the fun by claiming that the department\u2019s newest surveillance<\/a> system is \u2026 pigeons: \u201cFacial recognition. Navigation. Even Self Cleaning,\u201d they boasted. The post winked at the online faux conspiracy, \u201cBirds Aren\u2019t Real<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Commercial brands have been using humor in their social media campaigns for years, and if done right, it pays off bigly. The NoGood social media site warns, however, that brands should avoid controversy<\/a> or cringe in their attempts to be funny, at the risk of alienating customers.<\/p>\n

Rather than avoiding controversy, DOT stared straight into the maw of the abyss.\u00a0<\/p>\n

What are the April Fools\u2019 rules, if any? Ideally, the prank should make people look \u201cfoolish,\u201d but should be funny to everyone<\/a> involved when it\u2019s all over, according to Hoaxes.org.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"BikeBike docks where there were once parking spaces, on Montague Street in Brooklyn Heights. Photo: Mary Frost\/Brooklyn Eagle<\/p>\n

In addition, the prank should end at noon on April 1 \u2014 a rule based on an old folk belief. \u201cApril Fools\u2019 Day honors the spirit of Folly, which is a powerful force. And as such, it needs to be contained within strict temporal limits,\u201d the website says.<\/p>\n

The noon cut-off seems to be honored by many corporate jokesters. For example, Taco Bell once ran full-page ads in newspapers announcing they were purchasing the Liberty Bell<\/a> and renaming it the Taco Liberty Bell. They confessed to the prank at noon, Hoaxes says.<\/p>\n

Beyond that, much leeway is given.<\/p>\n

Whether DOT\u2019s April 1 prank was funny or not is a matter of perspective. Likely, it was funnier to cyclists than car owners \u2014 some of whom said they felt mocked by the city.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Still, points have to be given for the diabolical humor behind the post, which was truly in the spirit of Folly.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In his release, Mamdani held an olive branch out to the combatants when he said the city\u2019s streets are for everyone, \u201cfrom cyclists and drivers to sanitation workers and delivery workers to food vendors and outdoor diners.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CITYWIDE \u2014 The New York City Department of Transportation caused a stir last week when the agency posted…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":191517,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[73448,76641,5324,9,34981,5325,56,63,65,64],"class_list":{"0":"post-191516","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-april-fools-day","9":"tag-bicycles-bikes","10":"tag-mary-frost","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-city-department-of-transportation-nycdot","13":"tag-no-paywall","14":"tag-ny","15":"tag-nyc","16":"tag-nyc-headlines","17":"tag-nyc-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191516","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=191516"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191516\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/191517"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=191516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=191516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=191516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}