With
bike lanes coursing through the city, a bike share program in the works, and cyclists
cruising to and from most every corner of the naked city, it is hard to imagine
that just twenty five years ago, a New York City Mayor proposed banning cycling in Midtown Manhattan.
On
July 22, 1987, Mayor Koch stood on the steps of City Hall flanked by his police
and
was
clearly an attack on bike messengers, who were being scapegoated in the press
for the dangerous
and
congested streets of NYC. Any unbiased observer could see (and still can) that
the actual cause of
danger
and congestion in our city's streets was automobiles. Fortunately, this unfair
treatment of one
subgroup
of cyclist struck a nerve among many others – from activists to roadies to
commuters – and
brought
together the cycling community in a spirit of direct action that helped usher
in an era of
victories
for a livable city.
Of
course, this ebb and flow is part of life, particularly when considering New York’s contested public spaces.
Faced with the ban, cyclists started organizing, doing what regular people have often done when faced with an injustice. In the weeks following Koch’s ban, cyclists
reclaimed public space for
non-polluting, sustainable transportation for everyone. Direct action changed the course of New York City history.
“That spirit of direct action rose, as it
always does, from the streets,” noted Steve Athineos, a
bike
messenger who helped organize the twice-weekly direct action bike rides that
helped defeat the
ban.
According
to Charles Komanoff, who was then president of the advocacy group
Transportation
Alternatives,
“Masses of cyclists, sometimes half a thousand and occasionally more, spread
across
Sixth
Avenue and paraded the three miles from Houston Street to Central Park South.
Our stately pace,
perhaps
5mph, was slow enough that passersby could look past our bikes and see our
bodies and faces.
Walkers
and joggers could join our ranks. We were slow enough that we could and did
stop at red
lights.
Letting foot and auto traffic cross at the green was a stroke of genius. It
certified cycling as city friendly.”
After
the ban was defeated, the newly galvanized cycling community went on to win
important
victories
for livable streets: full-time access to River Road in New Jersey; legal access
to the south
path
of the George Washington Bridge; a shift in public opinion that clean air
should be a priority in
NYC
transportation planning; and re-establishment of the permanent bike lane over
the Queensboro
Bridge.
For more background on the history of the ban, see Bicycle Uprisings Then and
Now, by Keegan, Time’s Up!
Join
us to celebrate this important moment in cycling history.
The
Battle of the Bike Ban is a Celebration of the Bicycle Uprising that defeated a
ban on cycling in the heart of Manhattan 25 Years ago and the 20th Anniversary
of the first Critical Mass Ride, which was born out of the bike ban protests
and continues to this day, in hundreds of countries and thousands cities across
the world, the last Friday of every month.
Friday, Sept. 28, 2012, 6:30 pm, SE Corner of Houston
Street & 6th Avenue
Ride to Central Park in solidarity with the 20th
Anniversary of Critical Mass
9:00 pm, Screening of Fifth, Park & Madison, a
film about the original uprising, at Cooper Union Great Hall, plus discussion
of grassroots cycling activism then and now.
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