At the East Rock School last night, Lt. Thaddeus announced he would be doing a major enforcement crackdown against bicyclists this summer.

The residents in attendance uniformly called for vehicular traffic enforcement to be prioritized (given the number of unsolved, hit-and-run deaths recently caused by drivers in New Haven, among other factors), but unfortunately there's no established way to track actual tickets issued so it will be hard to measure what actually happens.

A number of things:
1. Bikers should be taught how to ride safely. This can be part of a public information campaign.
2. The lanes could be marked with huge directional arrows making it obvious to the rider when they are going the wrong direction.
3. If bikers refuse to use the lanes correctly, remove the lanes. They are now creating the illusion that bikers can do anything within those boundaries.

Also note that drivers need to be educated about opening car doors when parked. I have seen many throw their doors open without checking for either vehicular or bicycle traffic. A sudden car door suddenly thrown open in a biker's path could result in serious injury and even loss of life.

I agree, Ken. Some cities have passed anti-dooring ordinances that increase the penalty for dooring and provide educational campaigns.

My sense is that people also ride the wrong way here because they are concerned about speeding on the street. Many drivers obey the speed limits, especially with the new pedestrian signs in place. However, 1) those signs should be left in year round instead of just being there for half the year, 2) they aren't sufficient enough to control speeds, and 3) 25 miles per hour is far too high of a speed limit for a residential street like this - it should be reduced to 15-20 miles per hour.

If citizens were less worried about dooring and extreme speeding on Orange Street, they might be more comfortable riding the correct direction.

I rarely see people riding the wrong way in the bike lanes on Orange. What times of day do you see people doing this, Ken?

On Orange St. I have seen this twice previously. Then again this morning, one biker crossed to take the southbound lane correctly, and a subsequent biker proceeded on the opposite side south in the northbound bike lane. It also happens elsewhere in New Haven. Forbes Ave, which is filled with traffic during commute hours often has bikers traveling--commandeering--a traffic lane going the wrong direction. These are areas I commute.

Note that Yale is offering some public skills awareness training, like the recent Smart City Cycling event. And since most in the Orange St neighborhood are in fact Yale students, hopefully this will help. Also having police officers (Yale and New Haven) on bikes actually stopping careless riders/drivers and lecturing/ticketing them will help get the word out that this is serious and not a free-for-all.

when in a situation to do so, i call out to cyclists riding the wrong way with "ride with traffic" or something similar. most of the time they yell things back like "i've been riding this way all my life" or somehow spin it like i am wrong.

Oh please, this is a very rare occurrence. I use the Orange St. bike lane twice a day and I rarely see anyone riding the wrong way (and the few I have seen are kids who probably don't know any better). On the other hand, I routinely (as in EVERY DAY) see cars speeding, not yielding to pedestrians, making right turns on red (against the signs), using the bike lane as a right turn lane, drivers talking on their phones, blasting their sound systems, running red lights, etc. Please get a grip. I have seen a certain Yale bicyclist (with dreads - might have graduated by now), who was involved in bike/truck "accident", on Whalley Ave., run the red light on Orange @ Willow, and he almost got creamed, which really made me doubt that he wasn't at fault in the Whalley Ave. incident... Check the NHIndependent crime log and see how many motor vehicle "accidents" there are on Orange, Willow, Canner, Edwards Sts. vs. bike accidents. There is no comparison. Drivers act like they're doing one a favor by "allowing" you to cross the street...

I ride on Orange and see this behavior often, among adults, kids, families -- really don't think it is very rare.

However, I agree with you that the speeding is far worse and a much greater detriment to safety and quality of life overall. Although I don't own a car now, I used to drive on Orange Street almost every day and during that time was almost killed at least twice by drivers blatantly running through red lights and speeding (bad combo) on Orange.

These cyclists give good cyclists a bad name. They also make drivers annoyed at all cyclists, as opposed to considering that one bicyle on the road = one fewer car on the road.

All cyclists should (i) wear a helmet, (ii) have front and rear lights when cycling at dusk/night, (iii) wear high-visability clothing, and (iv) obey every traffic rule (including stop signs and traffic lights).

I do all three and have never had any problems on the road.

salmoning

. . . you think that they're swimming upstream to spawn? I don't get it.

a term for people riding the wrong direction in bike lanes or on the road, made popular by BikeSnobNYC

acknowledged

issue acknowledged