Sep 17, 2019
Twenty-one people riding
bicycles have been killed this year on the streets of New York
City. That’s more than double the number of bike fatalities in all
of 2018. In early July, after a terrible week in which three people
on bicycles were killed in quick succession, more than a thousand
demonstrators showed up in Lower Manhattan’s Washington Square Park
for a “Die-In” to demand that officials take more aggressive action
to make streets safe. In this episode, we hear from Die-In
participants and Doug, Sarah and Aaron talk about advocacy,
activism and change-making. Is it better to be polite and work
within the system or disobedient and disruptive? Who in city
government should be the target of these urgent calls to action,
the politicians or the police? What can we learn from the work of
other grassroots social and political movements throughout history?
And do NYPD bicycle cops ever actually ride their bikes or do they
only use them as crowd control barricades?
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SHOW NOTES:
Washington Square Park Die-In Coverage (Streetsblog)
Hundreds of cyclists stage ‘die-in’ at Washington Square Park following recent biker fatalities (New York Daily News) See the guy holding the “De Blasio to Cyclists: Drop Dead” sign? That’s Doug!
Cyclist deaths in NYC: A month-by-month breakdown (AM New York)
Robyn Hightman: The Miraculous
and Tragic Story of a Life Transformed by Cycling.
A phenomenal story by Peter Flax in
Bicycling Magazine.
NYPD Cracks Down On Cyclists, Not Drivers,
Where Truck Driver Killed Bike Messenger (Gothamist)
Insane video of the
aftermath of an NYPD officer in a police SUV knocking a man off of
his bicycle for “his own safety.”
Ernest Askew wouldn’t give up his bike
(AM
New York).
State Senator Sees 'Built-in Racism And Classism' Behind A Cyclist's Death In Brownsville (Gothamist)
Here is Devra Freelander’s web site and a great review of her work and her legacy in Surface Magazine.
Cement truck drivers from the same company involved in the killing of Devra Freelander blame the victim instead of taking any semblance of responsibility (AM New York, Streetsblog, Bklyner)
This episode was edited by Jaime Kaiser.
Find us on Twitter @TheWarOnCars, Aaron Naparstek @Naparstek, Doug Gordon @BrooklynSpoke, Sarah Goodyear @buttermilk1.
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