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Bike Lanes Are Good For Cab Drivers, Too

by Mark Gruberg

In recent weeks, the Board of Supervisors has given the green light to an Environmental Impact Report on the city's Bicycle Plan, and the MTA has approved a slew of new bike lanes around town. Taken together, these actions will mean more bikes on the road, and more potential for confrontations with what many cab drivers regard as reckless, rude, self-righteous abusers of the road.

Let's admit, however, that the feeling is mutual, and that from their point of view, we're the dangerous ones, navigating the streets behind the wheel of a mass of menacing metal.

First, because more bikes mean fewer cars on the road. That helps us to do our job. And then, bicyclists themselves sometimes bite the bullet and get into a cab. It may be a flat tire, or just a reluctance to do the long ride back to the Sunset at the end of the day. Every experienced cab driver has had these rides.

Sure, we may lose a lane of traffic to a bike lane here or there. That slows us down a bit — but who knows better than we do how to avoid the backups? And what's lost in one place is gained in others.

The same considerations apply to changes that encourage the use of public transportation, and of the original form of transportation — our feet. We'll never know how many people take cabs after leaving cars at home. But it has to be a goodly number. And if the city decides to approve more bus lanes, that's good for us as well, because we get to use them, too.

I'm not arguing that every bike lane is automatically a winner. The MTA is wisely taking a second look at proposed changes to Second Street that would create a monumental mess in one of the busiest parts of town. But extending the reach of bike lanes into a comprehensive citywide network, providing safe and convenient pathways for bicyclists of all ages and degrees of agility (that is, not just the daredevil crowd), will make our job safer — and more lucrative as well.

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