Quinnipiac Poll: Bicycle Enthusiasm, Business On The Rise In NYC
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Look left, look right … bicyclists are everywhere in New York City. A new transportation report finds more people are biking.
Tyrone Gardner of Astoria said he cycles 15 miles a day commuting to and from work.
"It's easy access, plus it's good for my health," Gardner told CBS 2's Dave Carlin.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg's office is boasting that bicycles are now the toast of the town -- up 14 percent, with close to 19,000 city cyclists every day compared to spring 2010 where that daily number was 16,463.
"Bicycling is booming in New York," said Michael Murphy of the pro-cycling advocacy group Transportation Alternatives.
"When you make a bike lane more people, as we see with the increase, choose to use that mode of transportation," Murphy said.
There's more bike lanes and more bike sales. The owner of one bike shop in Chelsea told Carlin his booming business is proof that this way of life is on a roll.
"It's good for health, good everybody," Rafael Vazquez said.
However, Burghardt Jegutzki said he wants to see fewer New Yorkers on bicycles and a lot more safety education.
"No good. No. It's dangerous," he said. "It's going to take a long, long time to have the understanding between the drivers and the cars and the bicyclists to be one on the road. Never gonna happen, no."
But a new Quinnipiac poll shows support for bike lanes growing, revealing that 59 percent of New Yorkers like the lanes, up from a few months ago when the approval was at 54 percent.
"I think it's a matter of growing pains around a new change. Change is difficult and we're in the very early stages," Murphy said.
Murphy said driver and rider education are key, as the city adds bike lanes and keeps up this push to pedal.
The Quinnipiac poll went borough by borough and found support for bike lanes highest in Brooklyn and lowest on Staten Island.
Why do you think a majority of Staten Islanders polled came out against bike lanes? Sound off in our comments section below…
