I’m on a transport kick at the moment but not my usual ranting about traffic transport kick. No, I am attempting to focus my interest more positively. I am doing quite a lot of reading about the water taxi system (which seems to not be working out as one might have thought) as well as bike sharing plans (which I am very excited about after listening to a piece about it on WNYC).

Before you scoff at the bike sharing idea, I am not – nor is anyone else – proposing that racks of bikes be scattered across the city for people to walk up and use willy-nilly. And no one is naive enough to think that some people suck and bikes will be stolen. They do and they will be. But if you build accountability into the system (make people ‘check out’ a bike a la library books) and budget for a certain about of “people suck”-age, the idea is viable.

No, New York is not too big or too complicated. They manage it in London, Barcelona and Paris as well as tons of other places. Oh and DC. They can manage it here. I plan to collect links and information about such plans so I will put them up shortly.

The big obstacle as I see it is untethering the city from the screaming mass of car drivers who don’t want anything to interfere with their ability to make everyone’s life a misery. The city can no longer support the number of vehicles that descend upon it every day and the longer we let the convenience of the few distract us from the changes necessary to benefit the many, the worse (and more expensive) it will be when we finally DO address it.

Guess what, drivers? We are going to need bike lanes. Real ones. Bike lanes that will take some of your space away and will be separated by raised curbs. Stop screaming about how it will make traffic worse. Any change in the traffic pattern makes traffic worse until people get used to it. But if there are viable, maintained, alternatives (a well run subway, a comprehensive bus systems, bikes and water taxis) to driving in, people will use them. There will be fewer cars on the street and you can get along quite nicely in your reduced space.

And you – bikers! Stop that smug posturing. Drivers will have to adjust but so will you, you two wheeled, maniacs. You must stop maneuvering like kamikazes, weaving like madmen and generally treating pedestrians as badly (if not worse) than the drivers are treating you. We all have to live and work here and we must all share the space between the building to get where we are going.

I am not saying automotive vehicles should be banned outright. Of course not. Deliveries must be made, buses are needed, taxis (once given more freedom to move about) will all be needed on the streets. But I am willing to lay good money on the fact that easily 50% (if not more) of the vehicular traffic on the streets of Manhattan (and I focus on Manhattan here since it is the most confined area) are merely there for the convenience and comfort of a single individual.

For point to point trips within Manhattan, bikes may be a good addition to what will need to be a stable of options. Of course, none of this will matter if the MTA can’t get itself straightened out. The State legislature is useless, focusing only on getting re-elected by groups of people who are more interested in “sticking it to downstate” than they are interested in the bigger picture. The MTA is worse than useless since it apparently is brought to a screeching halt by simple maths.