Give Us Better Cycling Infrastructure Now – Streetsblog New York City

Children have a chance.

Brooklyn’s teens demanded that the city’s political establishment build a greener, safer future for them at a rally for safe cycling infrastructure on the steps of Brooklyn Borough Hall on Saturday morning. Organizers of the rally, in which dozens of children carried placards denouncing traffic violence and calling for better protected cycle lanes and the recently proposed idea of ​​a cycle highway known as The Tube, had a simple message.

“We are the future of the city,” said Oscar Fishman, senior executive at Stuyvesant. “And we want politicians to know that we are demanding, we are not asking, we are demanding better cycling infrastructure, and we need it now.”

Brooklyn’s own Greta Thornbergs lambasted city leaders for not doing enough to make their life safe for cycling. In a young reverse to the oft-cited “New York is not Paris” attitude of local leaders who do not want to make big changes to the city streets, one teenage speaker specifically cited the City of Light as a place that New York should be inspired by it.

“I said, ‘Why not here? “” said Adam Gottesdiener, senior at Brooklyn Tech, noting the millions of euros that Paris has invested and continues to invest cycling not only an alternative but a main means of transport in the city.

Gottesdiener also reminded any elected officials who might not pay attention to the issue that children organize and pay attention, so ignoring them could prove costly in future elections.

“We need our incoming elected officials to do one thing: listen. Listen to the victims of road violence, listen to the amateurs who do not want to risk their lives to do their daily exercise. But above all, listen to the children. Very soon we will be of voting age and when we are all of voting age are we going to give up? No! ”He said.

In a year when one of the most shocking acts of road violence on record was a known repeat offender speeder who crashed into 3-month-old Apolline Mong-Guillemin and killed her, Fishman pleaded for the political leaders are building a future where lives are not. t suffocated by the violence of the traffic.

“I imagine a world where your elementary students can cycle to school and you don’t have to worry that they end up splashing the bumper of a car. I imagine a world where my kids don’t have to see white painted bikes locked to a traffic sign. I want to see people replace their car keys with bike lock keys. I want people to be able to cycle to work without fear of being killed in the process, ”he told an approving crowd.

Teenage cyclists who traveled the city on two wheels said they faced the same reckless contempt from drivers as the city’s adult cyclists.

“I agree that we need better protection on the cycle paths,” said Otto Lanneot. “What they say about double parking [in bike lanes] it is everywhere, in each street there is a double parking lot. And when you try to go out on the street to get around cars, the drivers feel like it’s terrible, they honk at you and accelerate right in front of you, which is really dangerous.

And the crowd was not just cyclists. Newly radicalized New Yorkers were there to demand better cycling infrastructure, drawn to the movement after making contact with friends at school.

“It’s really interesting because I don’t usually cycle, so I never thought about the consequences of cars, and then less cycle paths and how we need more,” said Hadeel Alsabri then that she was chatting with friends after the rally. “But I see why cars can be dangerous.”

While part of the rally’s purpose was to bring attention to The Tube, the youth organized at the center of the day said they wanted the city to know that there is a younger generation to come who are paying attention. whether future leaders show they care about safe streets.

“I think the young people who come here, no matter what the enemies may say, we show people we care and show politicians we care. And I think that’s the most important thing, because in this city all we really need is to care. The current problem is that politicians don’t care. The police don’t care about parking in bike lanes, they don’t care about bikers and that needs to change. I think a lot of the problems would be solved if we just looked at the cycling problems as human problems, ”Fishman said.