Cyclists host 'Die-In' to protest dangerous driving, scary streets

A cyclist holds a sign urging drivers to proceed with caution. Eagle photo by Anthony Tellez

By Anthony Tellez

Chanting “Do your job,” cyclists called out Mayor Bill De Blasio and his administration’s “Vision Zero” street safety program at a so-called “Die-In” at Washington Square Park Tuesday, just days after the 15th cyclist of the year was killed by a truck driver.  

The 15 cyclists killed by cars and trucks in the first six and a half months of the year already exceeds the 2018 total of 10 fatal collisions. Two of the deaths occurred in Queens.

Most of the advocates at the protest lay on the ground during a moment of silence.  Fifteen remained standing and held signs with the names of the cyclists who have died this year.

“It’s not the cyclists that are at fault, so much as the city [which] has not designed safe pedestrian [and] cycling [infrastructure],” said Dr. Hindy Schachter, whose husband was struck and killed by a driver while cycling in Central Park in 2014.

Cyclists said their major concerns include cars parked illegally in bike lanes and on sidewalks, creating a hazard not only for cyclists, but passing pedestrians, as well.

“Safety is the number one priority,” said Erwin Figueroa, a senior organizer for Transportation Alternatives, an activist group. 

Councilmember Jimmy Van Bramer, who recently wrote an open letter to NYPD Commissioner James O’Neill about illegally parked cars on the sidewalk around the 108th Precinct, also attended the rally.

“The precinct is overrun with illegally parked cars whose owners have no concern or respect for the law or residents of the community,”  Van Bramer wrote in the letter. 

A Department of Transportation study, “Cycling in the City,” found a 9.1 percent average annual growth rate of daily cycling between 2012 and 2017.

While car fatalities have decreased in recent years, cyclist fatalities have remained largely consistent, despite an increase in cyclists on the road. Since 2000, there have been between 12 and 24 cyclist fatalities per year, according to the 2018 “Vision Zero” annual report. 

The city is on pace to surpass that total in 2019, however. 

With six months remaining in 2019, the 15 cycling deaths are already more than halfway to the 24 total cyclist deaths recorded for in 2017 — the highest number in the past decade. 

 While protestors laid on the floor Interim Executive Director Ellen McDermott shouted through the speakers, “We are here for every person that has been injured and maimed on our streets. We are united in grief. We are united in anger and by our vulnerability on the streets we will not stop riding.”