New York City mayor Bill de Blasio got into it with Whoopi Goldberg about bike lanes during an appearance on “The View” tv show.
Goldberg went on the attack, challenging the mayor about the increase in bikes lanes throughout the city. She argues the bike lanes make traffic more congested, while de Blasio says they make the streets safer.
“You know what’s really pissing me off? You’ve built 83 miles of protected bike lanes, okay. And I like bikes, I like people who ride, but I don’t think you understand the impact of taking something like 10th Avenue, which is six lanes down to two-and-a-half, particularly when you have a winter storm and you can’t move – none of that is movable”, Goldberg said.
“You screwed the city up. I come in every day, and I find that because you can’t make a turn anywhere, you can’t go straight anywhere. When there is a storm, people can’t move anywhere, because you got all these medians in the way, and I’m just saying you might want to take a look at some of this. Because now you have Cuomo coming in talking about congestion pricing, and I kind of feel like it’s a set up.”
The mayor explained to Goldberg that these bike lanes help reduce the number of traffic fatalities, and in fact, in 2018, the city saw the fewest traffic fatalities since 1910.
“Vision zero is saving lives. She contends that the mayor has screwed up the city, we would argue that cutting traffic fatalities by a third in just five years is the opposite of that,” said Joe Cutrufo of Transportation Alternatives. “Maybe even more important, bike lanes are a critical part of the transportation system in a city where the majority of residents don’t drive.”
