Manhattan, NY – The Upper West Side and Williamsburg share the distinction of being among New York’s most Jewish neighborhoods.
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But the communities have dramatically different handles on bike riding.
Last year, Williamsburg’s largely chasidic Jewish community protested a new bike lane running through their ‘nabe, complaining it attracted scantily clad cyclists and eliminated much-needed parking spaces.
Meanwhile, Upper West Side Jews have come out full force in support of creating protected bike lanes on Columbus and Amsterdam avenues, running from 59th Street to 110th Street.
Members of Manhattan’s Community Board 7 — initially largely opposed to the idea — last week, endorsed the plan for bike lanes, after receiving letters and hearing speeches from many of the neighborhood’s prominent Jewish leaders.
Seven West Side rabbis, including Ansche Chesed’s Jeremy Kalmanofsky and The Jewish Center’s Yosie Levine, signed on to a letter arguing that bike lanes would promote public health and public safety, reduce pollution and increase transportation options.
“Pollution reduction is a Jewish obligation,” noted the letter, drafted by the Jewish environmental group Hazon. (Among its other projects, Hazon sponsors an annual “Jewish environmental bike ride” from upstate New York to the Upper West Side.)
Jewish leaders have been “great partners to our campaign,” said Lisa Sladkus, community organizer for the Upper West Side Renaissance Campaign, founded by the bike advocacy group Transportation Alternatives.
Among the youngest Jewish activists was Andrew Udell, a 10th grader at the Abraham Joshua Heschel High School, who rides his bike to school almost every day.
“I just talked about how biking to school is one of my favorite parts of the day,” Udell, 15, said, of a speech he gave at a recent Community Board 7 public meeting.
“I often ask my friends if they want to bike with me, and I always get the same disappointing answer: ‘I’d love to but my parents won’t let me — they say it’s too dangerous.’”
Udell started biking to school last year, finding it more enjoyable than walking or taking a cab. While his parents were apprehensive at first, he convinced them to let him go carefully down West End Avenue.
“Safe biking is something all citizens should be entitled to,” he said. “Students should be able to bike to school if they want to.”
give for the neighborhood what they want, UWS needs a bike lane give them, Willy dosent need take it away, they shouldn’t force it onto them
This so-called williamsburg war against bike lanes is overblown and far from truth. I know because not only am I chusid that lives in williamsburg, I live on Kent Ave at the heart new bike lanes.
That are those who jump on every opportunity to portray us as an uncivilized, backward thinking “sect” that lives in the dark.
There were no protests held against the bike lanes. Ever. What did take place was a press conference or two attended by handfull of independent activists which included Puerto-ricans and others.
The only point of ipposition was the fact that too many parking spaces were eliminated.
Why is this some type of surprise. The leadership of the WB jewish community are themselves typically overweight couch potatoes who will find all sorts of hallachic excuses to say biking is for goyim, creates tzinius issues, results in bitul torah, etc. while the west side leadership correctly perceives biking a a healthier alternative to driving for both the biker as well as the community at large by reducing auto pollution. We have had this debate many times on VIN. If yiddin want to bike there is no reason (other than sheer laziness and bad midos) why they cannot. I use my car when essential (e.g. major shopping trips, bad weather when biking might be dangerous, shlepping the kids to after school activities etc.). Most of the time, though, I use my bike for local trips.
Please understand that the critical idea with the bike lanes was to protect us and our families to see unnesecsery things Vahmyven Uven
1. bike lanes should be placed where they are needed & will be used
2.whether biking is a great thing is a diff. discussion
3.willy residents agrree that if the majority would bike ride than bike lanes are a good idea
4. i own a bike but in all honesty the bike lanes for willy was an innocent mistake by a great mayor
5 there are many more differences between the west side & willy wake up
I am happy to say I am hassidic and live in Willi and go biking every day. Its great fun & excersise. We should create a williamsburg bike association !!! -k-
it says in the artical: A bike lane in willi but the problem is there are like 5 of them
Now a bike lane and tomorrow a carrage lane. May be a dog lane/walk? This is crazy and causes lots of traffic in willy and in manhattan, and thes bikers don’t even use them they go in the cars and busue this is totaly crazy I will not vote for Bloomberg and so will the jewish community. Hay and about the UWS rabbis let me ask you what did you do for judasim/yiddishkite? Only to be healthy and fit? Is that the entire torah or tzenios is not in the UWS torah? I want to hear from you big Rabbis
I don’t under stant from where the chasidic comunity of wili. takes such chitzpeh to think thay represent the entire area of williamsburg the bike lanes go trough entire brooklyn it just happens to pass the 15 chaseedishe blocks it is not ment for you to use it is made for people to bike from point A to point B that have to pass this area some times travling for miles
I do a lot of driving through many Brooklyn neighborhoods. I like the lanes for two reasons. 1) it gives the bikers a guideline where to ride. 2) The drivers are reminded to look before opening their doors, What I am oppossed to is the huge fines for blocking the lane, Its treated like a no stopping zone. In many places such as Williamsberg there is room for either cars or bikes why should the bikers have priority over drivers, this doesn’t make sense.
its funny that in borough park and monsey there is no problem riding a bike but in williamsburg nobody does. the reason for this is not because its asur but only because nobody does it and everybody is scared to start because they are afraid of not getting a good shidduch for their kids.
this fear of not doing things that are not assur, but different, is one of the greatest flaws of the chasidic community of Williamsburg. Everybody i speak to says, “I would love to ride a bike like in monsey or borough park, but Im scared of the community reaction.”
there are a few brave williamsburg chasidim who ride around on bikes, because either they grew up elsewhere where its ok, or they just arent as scared of not doing something illogical. it will become more popular because the bike lanes will increase, parking will get worse and in the long run it makes sense.
If you want to ride a bike move to the country. When you live in the city you have to realize where you are and take your bike to a park.
“Among the youngest Jewish activists was XXX, a 10th grader at the Abraham Joshua Heschel High School” – in that “jewish” schooll – it is non orthodox. they do not teach yiddishkeit. They do not even admit “lishitasam” that there is a G-d – they do teach their children about ‘the author of the bible”. Hashem yeracheim. This issue is the mitzva they pick on….. We need to reach out with love to acheinu benei yisroel tinokos shenishbu… if they are Jewish at all….
I work in Williiamsburg, I am not a Satmar.
The bike lanes in Willy are a travesty.
The real issues are taking away badly needed traffic lanes to permit an imagined benefit from bike riding. The lanes are removed 24/7 and traffic is more congested while the bike lanes are very rarely used. Those that ride bikes sometimes weave thru the traffic lanes anyway (why?) and in a fit of sheer idiocy the bike lanes cut off a special Ed School from access by car or School Bus. Lest you imagine otherwise; the cyclists are very rude, do not stop for red lights nor for school busses flashing red, even at the afforementioned special ed school.
I can promise you that if the rambam would be alive today he would be the biggest advocate for the bike lane. He was of the opinion that the life expectancy are in the hands of a person to take care of their Health.
Why is everybody so worried about polluting their lungs, but not about polluting their eyes? Lung transplants are available, eye transplants aren’t!
The premise of this article, a comparison of the reaction of the UWS Jews to that of the Willy Jews, is utterly ridicules. Its akin to comparing the reaction to [pick your issue] of Blacks living in Zimbabwe to those living in Harlem — both Blacks, but clearly a different set of norms.
Biking is goyishe, and so is the UWS
I live in willy and happen to support the bike lane. On Kent Ave I understood what the problem was, it took away a lot of parking spaces, but otherwise I don’t understand what the problem is. It only makes the biker and driver safer. Eliminating the bike lanes won’t take away the bikers
you guys are all clueless…biking is great and healthy…the issue is that the enforcement of these laws will likely target regular drivers creating new ways to give out unreasonable tickets….
this admin can not be trusted to incorporate a good idea without attaching some kind punitive charges (always taking the opportunity to find way to give more tickets)
just watch…more of the same bloomberg hidden taxation, antagonistic policies to regular middle class people , finding ways to make life unreasonably harder for most to accommodate a small few
BTW in the NYC bike map, they write that in BP we are getting bike lane on 13 & 14 avenues.
“Williamsburg once was Meah Shearim, but alas it isn’t any more”
If seeing someone who rides a bike in comfortable clothing threatens your “neshama” than you and your mishpacha should move to meah shearim but how dare you suggest that you have some greater “standing” to decide the rules of the road for WB residents who may not share your beliefs. We are fortunate to live in the U.S. where those like you will be unable to ever impose your views on others.
The Halochos re danger i.e. health (Shmirat HaGuf) are more stringent than other Issurim. Bicycles are a very efficient way of getting fit saving gelt etc
all those things you mention are not torah they are thing made up thousands of years later. And does not by any means make one more Jewish or Frum
Askupeh, the rabbi was right, but if you are a man living in a modern western city, you have either to go blind or see that much of perverted use of sensuality, that one will be hardened that way, even when one seeks to avoid it. Sad, but that’s the state of the world.
About bikelanes, the bike is a good, honest means of transport, it is cheaper, more humble, allows the liberty to ride at a much younger age than the cars you seem addicted to, more importantly somebody riding a bike is not only improving his or her own health, but also using a vehicle which is much less likely to accidentally kill or severely injure a fellow human being and is on the other hand not contributing to the local pollution. The bike rider is thus much less harming other humans, but unlike the car driver, who is protected by the car, the bike rider is as vulnerable as the pedestrian, which means that to reduce the number of casualties among those who cause less of them, bike and car traffic might be better seperated with bikelanes being to bikers what sidewalks are to pedestrians. That way the car driver has a lesser risk to cause the death or mutilation of a fellow human being, the biker’s life is better protected, interaction will halt the flow of traffic less often. Increased safety may promote the use of bikes instead of carsand thus again reducing pollution and congestion of traffic. The way I see it, used to lots of bikelanes, being against bikelanes is being against the prevention of accidents. Do the Williamsburg residents have a religion allowing to prefer parking places over the prevention of human suffering and untimely death? To me that is what you suggest, but that cannot be true, can it? How one is dressed when cycling is another issue, though.
You got me wrong. I’m not against bike lanes per se, only against having them on EVERY Avenue in Jewish Williamsburg. If they would have made it on One Avenue only then even though it would have bothered me, I wouldn’t of had a choice and would have swallowed it, and tried to use the other Avenues instead; but no, they want it everywhere, they want me to also ride a bike and put my fifteen children on my head.
As for safety, I beg to differ. In the last year alone I have seen a near miss of a biker almost sent to the other world. I myself almost killed a biker riding like a car on my lane. Bikers usually don’t obey any rules. They ride outside their bike lanes, on the wrong side of traffic, don’t stop for traffic lights, stop signs or to let children make it safely to the other side of the street. We are dealing here (In “Williamsburg”) on the most part with people, who don’t believe in the rule of law, tease and flaunt flagrantly and shamelessly themselves and their counterculture. Their brazen attitude should be a wake up call to all of us who want to raise Ehrlicha Kinder. Those advocating bike lanes here are nothing but Shlichim of the devil; pardon my expression.