Additional City and State Initiatives

In any classroom where driving is taught, bicycle awareness must be part of the curriculum. Information about bicycle operation, hand signals and road-sharing techniques should be included in lessons and state-issued drivers' manuals. Licensing exams should have questions related to motorist-bicycle behavior, including the integrity of bicycle lanes. Behind-the-wheel training should include practice in scanning for bicycles, evaluating cyclists' behavior and sharing the road with nonmotorized vehicles (which, it should be stressed, have as much right to it as any motorist). Instruction should also emphasize the dangers of opening car doors into traffic without looking.

Likewise, training sessions for the Police Department, the Taxi & Limousine Commission and the Transit Authority should all be bicycle-sensitive, making the point that bicycles are a legitimate form of transportation with a right to road space. Perhaps all these agencies could collaborate on a manual. Trainees should be reminded that because bicycles can be harder to spot than cars, they should make an effort to watch for them.

Bus and cab drivers-in-training should be instructed not to pass bicyclists in pulling over, but to wait for cyclists to pass and then pull over. Perhaps bus drivers — not to mention mechanics and Transit Authority managers — should be made to stand behind an idling bus and inhale rapidly, or have the side of a bus nearly squeeze them off the road as a lesson in what it feels like for a cyclist; not that bus drivers have control over their vehicles' emissions, but they can certainly be more sensitive to cyclists trying to ride around them rather than be blinded and choked by their exhaust.

Cab interiors should have mandatory stickers telling passengers to look before opening doors. Companies that employ fleet drivers, such as Federal Express and the United Parcel Service, should also include door-opening instructions in their training sessions, as well as injunctions to cut down on the chronic double-parking that forces cyclists to bob into traffic. (See Chapter 15: Freight Cycles, for ways to reduce the number of trucks on the road.)

Finally, the Police Department and other city agencies can send a powerful message to the public by using bicycles themselves whenever practicable. Uniformed police officers on bikes (see Chapter 16: Governmental Cycling) would reinforce efforts to educate the public about cyclists' rights. Occasional cycle commuting by the mayor, the commissioner of transportation and others would strengthen the message that New York is a viable city for cycling.