The bikepocalypse continues

Boston drivers suck.  Boston pedestrians suck. And, yes, Boston bicyclists suck. Can't we all just admit we suck, and get on with it?

No, of course not.

But we're nothing compared to NYC, as this, yet another story about NY bike lane conflicts, shows. Nothing gets people angrier than bicycles. This, by the way, includes my wife, who had a run in with a bicyclist a few months ago, and came home denouncing us all.

And bike lanes just make people go berserk. Bicycling advocates (as distinct from people who just ride their bikes to get from one place to another) try to find ways to demonstrate that bike lanes are inadequate, unsafe, cluelessly designed. And bike haters try to demonstrate that...well, that they hate people who ride bikes.

I'm not going to read the New York Magazine article Infrastructurist links to--it starts with an obsessed psychology professor who videotapes a new bike lane to demonstrate it is underused. Why do I suspect she lives in a rent-controlled apartment?  One reason for New York's obsessiveness is that its bizarre rent regulations not only encourage obsessive behavior, but make it mandatory for survival.

Cambridge was forced to eliminate its belovedly insane rent control regulations quite some time ago, and is a much saner place because of it. We even have a bike lane here and there, nothing too crazy.

Of course, we all still suck. On that, I think everyone can agree.