Dorothy Rabinowitz, a rich old lady who is a member of the Wall Street Journal’s editorial board, lit up the Internet last week with this video rant against New York’s bike share program.
It’s really worth a look; it’s an enthralling, unhinged performance. At one point she actually says, “The bike lobby is an all-powerful enterprise.”
She also says, “I represent the majority of citizens.” She also says, “We now look at a city whose best neighborhoods are absolutely begrimed, is the word, by these blazing blue Citi Bank bikes — all of the finest, most picturesque parts of the city. It is shocking to walk around the city to see how much of this they have sneaked under the radar in the interest of the environment.”
“Begrimed” obviously stuck with a lot of people. The wonderful Liz Patek put up a picture blog post called Bewitched, Bothered & Begrimed, showing just how awfully begrimed the city has become by those bad bike begrimers. I’m going to hop on Liz’s bandwagon and show a few Citi Bike begrimers here. This begriming needs to be aired for the world to see.
The grime! For more bike grime, please check out this gallery.
BONUS FUTURE BEGRIMER:
Erin - She is pretty inflammatory and I am excited about CitiBike (I commute by bike often), but the city could help the program by offering education about cycling rules for the sake of drivers, pedestrians, and cyclists. Being informed and understanding the rules of the road is imperative to everyone’s safety and cyclists, pedestrians and drivers are all equally responsible for that.
Dmitry - The city (DOT) AND Citi Bike already do this. Every Citi Bike membership comes with a Biking Rules pamphlet. The DOT has conducted a (kind of misguided, in my opinion) “Don’t be a Jerk” campaign aimed at cyclists. Every single bike has the rules of the road written between the handlebars…
Joshua C. Cohen - Dorthy Rabinowitz’s opinions are based on sheer conjecture and lack any factual basis whatsoever, starting with the claim that she represents the majority of citizens of NYC. She pulls anecdotes out of nowhere and offers them as if they are data-driven. “There is nobody who doesn’t blow by the traffic light…etc.” True, except for all the cyclists who do stop. She claims there are no rules posted anywhere. They’re on the Citibikes. And the bike lobby is only all-powerful to the extent that so many everyday citizens want to ride bikes safely.
Ms. Rabinowitz herself is the idealogue, and lacks actual data to back up her complaints. Her comments evoke those of the irascible curmudgeon sitting on her front porch, screaming at the kids playing in the street to get away from her front lawn, angry at the world because her life is not how she wants it to be. Thankfully, she and her ilk are of the old guard and will soon make way for those not so closed-minded. To preserve its journalistic integrity, the WSJ should at least offer airtime to commentary that is data-driven.
Erin - Sorry, I wasn’t fully clear in my statement earlier. I understand that rules are on the bikes, but I was referring to something wider, backed by enforcement. While I acknowledge that Rabinowitz is being inflammatory and is deluded in her accusations, there is definitely a divide in this city and education doesn’t make its way to drivers and pedestrians. Some cyclists follow rules, others don’t. I’ve been the victim of cars who don’t follow rules (beeping at me for taking a lane I am rightfully allowed to be in) and cyclists blowing stop lights and riding on sidewalks (while I was a pedestrian). Police blocking bike lanes is one of the most infuriating circumstances to me. My main point, though, is that more people need to understand the rules – pedestrians and drivers, as well as cyclists – and people need to follow them. That all said, I think Citi bike is an excellent program and doesn’t deserve the negativity being flung at it.
VeloDramatic - Why am I sure that Dorothy Rabinowitz is president of her condo board… old, brittle and small minded
PJ - Dorthy should organize a rally to protest against the citibike scheme.
If she has the majority of NYC citizens behind her then it would be a HUGE rally that the mayor cannot ignore.
In Sydney, we had a shock jock, Alan Jones, espousing similar views and attempted to organize an anti-bike rally at Sydney Town Hall last year against our mayor, Clover Moore.
What happened is about 300+ cyclists turned up to support cycling and no-one from the anti-bike movement turned up.
Dmitry - Agreed, everyone can and should do better! As far as enforcement goes, I guess the question is where do we direct limited police resources? Cyclists ticketing campaigns as the NYPD has done before? Or focusing more on speeding, etc. I think ultimately better infrastructure leads to better behavior across the board. People bike differently when they feel the city has carved out a legitimate space for them. We’re not there yet with NYC, but we’re getting there.
douggyi - Any plans that I had to visit NYC again, after a hiatus of 12 years, are now on hold until this horrible plague of begriming is put to an end. I’m also now questioning how much begriming I’m doing down here in Sydney, Australia, but riding my bicycle. Perhaps I am engriming my own locale without knowing it. Let she who is without grime cast the first stone.
Dmitry - douggyi- Come on over, we’re so begrimed now, you couldn’t possibly make it any worse. Fun fact: begrimeage flows in the opposite direction here.