So, I’m one of the 3,000 cyclists who each day ride back and forth over the Manhattan Bridge, crossing onto the island to pick my kid up from day care, returning to my office in Dumbo, and screaming in Chinese at the clueless pedestrians who endanger everyone by walking two abreast in the bike lane.
But, apparently, it turns out those pedestrians weren’t clueless—they were prescient! Because starting today, the bike lane is now the pedestrian lane, and the pedestrian lane, on the south side of the bridge, is now the bike lane. And to get there, we have to walk up STAIRS! Says Gothamist:
[T]his is being done for that Manhattan Bridge rehabilitation work we warned you about last year. Workers are replacing all the bridge suspenders and repairing all the cables. Now that they’ve started on the north side, the bike path will be covered with protective sheds under any active construction. But because the sheds are only three feet wide, they’re too narrow to accommodate the 3,000 cyclists a day who pedal over the bridge.
My god. This is awful. How ever will we survive? And what do we say now to the idiot pedestrians who are walking on what was once the right side but is now the wrong side?
There is, however, a bright side to this: I’m on vacation in Cape Cod, and won’t have to deal with the inevitable horror show until next Monday. Whew. Yeah, really dodged a bullet there. Till then, I’ll just have to content myself with whatever snark Bike Snob has to offer.
FYI–the view on the other side is nicer. –theodore.
View, schmiew. I’d rather have the afternoon shade the north side offers.