The following is via the WSJ:
On the map showing the dozens of bike-share stations that will soon freckle northwestern Brooklyn, there is just one neighborhood-size void in the network: the ultra-Orthodox Jewish enclave of South Williamsburg.
It won’t be the first time religious residents in the area, many of whom are members of the Satmar Hasidic movement, have won exemption from citywide bicycle infrastructure. This time, according to interviews with residents, community leaders and city officials, deference to local sensitivities came without the shouting matches, pedaling protests and arrests that marked a 2009 battle over a bike lane bisecting the neighborhood.
Publicly, at least, South Williamsburg became a bike-share-free zone with hardly a peep from religious leaders.
For planners at the city’s Department of Transportation, the Hasidic hole on the bike-share map indicates the successful solicitation of public feedback.
“I think it’s really important that the stations meet the needs of the communities,” the city’s transportation commissioner, Janette Sadik-Khan, said in an interview. “We’re not really looking to put them where there isn’t a lot of demand.”
Yet an absence of bike-share stations also underscores the lingering tensions separating secular cyclists and their religious neighbors in this corner of Brooklyn.
“The women come through on bikes, and they’re not dressed properly,” said Joel Weiser, a Hasidic musician who lives in the area, echoing complaints heard during the backlash that forced the removal of a painted bike lane on Bedford Avenue. “They’re more naked than clothed.
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3 Responses
If you read the whole story, and the related stories at the WSJ-NY website, it appears that its not only Orthodox Jews objecting to the biking initiative, but includes a variety of people.
Mayor Bloomberg is determined to copy europe, no matter what the cost–bike lanes obstructing traffic, road dividers that cause crashes and obstruct ambulances on their way to the hospital, and–let’s not forget–a strict ban on 16-ounce Coke!
The truth is that everyone should be riding bikes to get around NYC including our community. There is an epidemic of type 2 Diabetes and other obesity related diseases in our community AND in society at large (no pun intended), that is best combated by regular physical activity. There is no excuse for taking a car for an errand 10 blocks away. We have a terrible conception in our community that it is somehow beneath our dignity to be seen exerting ourselves in public. I would counter that it is equally beneath our dignity to be seen in public at 5’10” 250 lbs, and it surely reflects poorly on ones own “dignity” if someone puts himself into the hospital because he failed to take adequate care of his physical needs.