
Coronavirus has caused a bicycling boom in New York City - lelf
https://grist.org/climate/coronavirus-has-caused-a-bicycling-boom-in-new-york-city/
======
Scoundreller
> The city’s Department of Transportation announced on Wednesday that it’s
> seen a 50 percent increase in bike traffic on bridges connecting Manhattan
> to Brooklyn and Queens compared to last March.

It's also been regularly 5-10C warmer than average each day so far in March:

[https://www.accuweather.com/en/us/new-york/10007/march-
weath...](https://www.accuweather.com/en/us/new-york/10007/march-
weather/349727)

Almost entirely above freezing means no snow either.

And bridges are the first place to melt their snow/ice.

~~~
rdiddly
Not sure what to make of your last line. If someone has a bridge somewhere on
their trip path, for most people it's somewhere in the middle, and distant
from the start point where the decision of how to travel takes place. Their
street being ice-free is probably more meaningful than the bridge's being ice-
free.

~~~
ves
Bridges bottleneck many more paths than random streets, though, so while they
aren’t special for any particular trip, they are special over all trips.

------
sashk
...if only there were dedicated bike lines. most of my commute on a bike takes
those, but most of them are blocked by parked cars.

~~~
overlordalex
Someone recently made an app here in Germany where you can take a photo of
offending cars and the app automatically forwards the information to the
authorities. Perhaps someone can do something like that for NY?

Source in German: [https://www.sueddeutsche.de/panorama/app-wegeheld-
falschpark...](https://www.sueddeutsche.de/panorama/app-wegeheld-falschparker-
radfahrer-autofahrer-1.4393515) Here's an English article:
[https://road.cc/content/news/258976-german-app-lets-
cyclists...](https://road.cc/content/news/258976-german-app-lets-cyclists-
report-drivers-parked-bike-lanes)

~~~
turdnagel
In New York, the "authorities" park in the bike lanes:
[https://twitter.com/copsinbikelanes](https://twitter.com/copsinbikelanes)

~~~
chachachoney
They also joyride at reckless speeds around the borough of Queens blaring
sirens and driving the wrong way down one way streets for fun. That's at
night, while ON duty.

Inebriated police driving off duty are also a significant problem in the outer
boroughs and are rarely prosecuted in any meaningful way for doing so...

If nothing is done about the above, seems like there's little chance that
parking in bike lanes or on sidewalks in front of lunch/snack spots is going
to be addressed.

------
Scoundreller
What I really want to know is if there's been a stairwell boom.

Stairwells usually have the freshest air because they have to be at a positive
pressure.

And people with respiratory diseases will be taking the elevator. Possibly
before they even feel other symptoms.

Not sure how often stairwells are cleaned though.

~~~
polynomial
> Not sure how often stairwells are cleaned though.

'Never' would be my wild guess.

~~~
gshdg
Based on dead roach observations, this sounds about right.

------
crazygringo
As another commenter mentions, last March was freezing cold and this March has
been relatively warm. (I went jogging last night in Brooklyn in 63°F weather!)

But the article also doesn't mention that Citibike finally rolled out the
e-bikes for good. I'm not sure how much of a difference that's making, but I
wouldn't be surprised if that also accounts for an extra increase on the
bridges specifically, since getting up the bridges is really their main use
case.

~~~
kevstev
Those e-bikes also have special cheaper pricing for trips that start or end
outside of Manhattan, in order to stimulate this type of trip.

Something correlation... causation... can't remember the rest... :)

------
machello13
I personally am using Citibike a lot more, but it's also just because it's
finally warm out again.

------
brenden2
I've definitely noticed a decline in the number of people on the streets of
Manhattan and riding the subway. It's been a breath of fresh air. It's easier
than usual to get a seat on the train, so I've been taking full advantage of
the opportunity.

I haven't really noticed a change in the number of cyclists, but the weather
has gotten much better recently so it makes sense that people are biking
again. It might be the virus, but it's probably just the good weather
(correlation != causation).

------
zck
I wonder if it's better to take the subway, or use a citibike. With the shared
bikes, you're farther away from other people, but you're physically touching
the shared bike all the time.

~~~
quantdev
The primary transmission route in inhalation in close proximity to an infected
person. Yes, it can persist on surfaces, but this hand-washing meme is mostly
a result of (1) it costs nothing and may help, so we should try and (2) masks
are supply limited and the healthcare industry doesn't have enough. In
reality, if we had an abundance of masks, masks would be more important than
hand washing. As it stands, we reserve them for HC workers and infected
persons. The point being, subways are worse.

~~~
dmix
I read N95 masks were basically useless when walking outside, they only
mattered indoors and in confined spaces (like public transit). I’d imagine
biking is even less transmission and wearing a mask with that is pretty
unrealistic.

It’s hard to find what is right on the internet though.

~~~
erikbye
There is definitely a higher risk you inhale enough virus progeny indoors than
outdoors, yes. We know from the flu that indoors the virus can stay suspended
for many hours. Regular talking can project enough virus from an infected
person for the air to become sufficiently contaminated, though shedding varies
by individual. The more (longer) you breathe that air, the greater your chance
of becoming infected. This might also explain why indoors is a greater risk
than outdoors, you spend less time in the air that's contaminated, in addition
to the greater diffusion/dispersion outdoors, of course.

~~~
newtoday
Are you saying I could breathe in some, conveying a small amount of the virus,
and not get infected? That seems to be the opposite of what highly contagious
means.

~~~
erikbye
Disclaimer: Not a virologist.

A virus has to achieve viral entry: it has to find a suitable host cell, and
introduce its viral material.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viral_entry](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viral_entry)

Whether an aerosol hits your face, or you breathe air with suspended particles
containing the virus, the virus has several challenges it needs to overcome
(described in the link above). Its success is not guaranteed. An increase in
virus particles improves its chance while a decrease improves your chance.

In theory, a single virus particle could achieve its goal.

------
ineedasername
But they're bicycling to some place with other people, so it's not like
they're out of close contact with others. Although I suppose it's still better
than having that same contact _and_ the additional contact of public
transport.

~~~
ajross
No, but they're in less contact. While the infection rate is still low[1],
we're not trying to eliminate the "possibility" of infection, we're trying to
reduce the likelihood of a transmission event. So biking to a workplace and
not sitting in a subway car is eliminating a bunch of transmission events.
That reduces the R0 of the epidemic, which determines the exponent with which
it will grow (or shrink). Enough measures like this and the case count starts
going down over time and not up.

Defense in depth, basically. Is it enough? We just don't know. But it's
absolutely not useless.

[1] This stops being true once the infection rate starts being non-negligible.
That's where you have to go to hard quarantine measures that try to eliminate
all non-essential contact. But we're not there yet.

~~~
op00to
We are there in Westchester, maybe Ocean/Monmouth.

~~~
ajross
Not really. There are 20M people in the metro area and 421 positive tests so
far. Assume (reasonably conservatively) that those tests reflect about 10% of
the active infections, and that there are about 2x as many contagious but
asymptomatic cases as sick people (both the doubling rate and the incubation
period seem to be about 5-6 days). That's one potential transmission event per
~2500 people right now. You'd have to be on a __lot __of subway cars to be
within infection distance of that many people.

It's close enough to be worried, but not at "going in public will make you
sick" yet.

( _Edit: covidtracking.com just pushed some new numbers, and NY is at 524
cases. Up 25% in a day is freakout territory -- a doubling period of just a
little over 3 days. We have to hope this is an artifact of more testing
capability or just a data burp._ )

------
bluegreyred
wouldn't it be risky to ride behind a potentially infected rider? after all
you'd be breathing in their exhaled air, or would the speed and wind dillute
the aerosol quickly enough to make it harmless?

I read that italy banned bicycling in affected locations to avoid accidents
that would further strain their already stressed health care system. sorry, no
source.

~~~
Scoundreller
> would the speed and wind dillute the aerosol quickly enough to make it
> harmless?

Basically this. It's a probability thing though.

Indoors, air is stagnant and sneeze droplets can float around for a few hours.

Riding behind another cyclist requires poor luck for enough of their sneeze to
impact you.

It's still cool enough for me to wear a face mask too, so that's another
(hypothetical) risk reducer.

Plus, a cyclist is a good signal someone doesn't have active respiratory
disease.

------
shartshooter
Silver lining in the epidemic that more folks might get used to biking to work
over the next few months due to social distancing, so that becomes more normal
and cities start to adapt even further.

General city traffic will be way down and bikers will have a lot more freedom,
so it feels safer, so more people adopt, etc

Could be a positive step in making the cities more liveable

------
mistrial9
apparently, some other parts of the world are quite interested in USA COVID-19
outbreak, too

[https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019%E5%86%A0%E7%8A%B6%E7%97%8...](https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019%E5%86%A0%E7%8A%B6%E7%97%85%E6%AF%92%E7%97%85%E7%BA%BD%E7%BA%A6%E5%B7%9E%E7%96%AB%E6%83%85)

(note the link to a Facebook page at the top)

------
kingkawn
Spring is more exciting than coronavirus is scary

------
JulianMorrison
Humans: We can't do all the green things! It's expensive! Who cares if the
planet is overheating!

A WILD CORONAVIRUS APPEARS

Humans: Okay lets do all the green things.

------
starpilot
Is it true people are looting Trader Joe's there?

~~~
talyian
It's true that Trader Joe's in Manhattan are jammed with lines going out the
door and shopping there is mayhem regardless of whether there's an ongoing
pandemic.

------
xwdv
Great. _More_ cyclists.

~~~
komali2
I wonder if you're the dude that chunked a full Gatorade at me for having the
audacity to ride my bike on the road.

~~~
ineedasername
Actually that was me, you looked _really_ thirsty!

------
jeffadotio
> it was uncertain whether New Yorkers who aren’t used to cycling on the
> city’s inconsistent network of bike lanes —which are frequently clogged by
> parked or idling cars and trucks — would take the mayor’s advice

The notion that New Yorkers use bike lanes is funny. I live on a major
Manhattan avenue with a bike lane and there is at least three times as much
bicycle traffic on the sidewalk right next to it. Even motorized scooters are
more commonly seen on sidewalks than the road. When I lived in Brooklyn I
learned to peek my head around the corners of pedestrian bridges because
motorists and cyclists will speed around them recklessly. The food delivery
gig industry has put this behavior into high gear. It’s illegal, but New York
laws are more like guidelines.

From my fire escape I can see a vacant lot that is used to store stolen
bicycles while they are advertised on craigslist. I guess I wouldn’t have to
go far if I decided to buy a bike.

~~~
cochne
Which avenue is that? Whenever I am cycling I see most people in the bike lane
if there is one available.

~~~
thawaway1837
Yeah, that’s never been my experience. You may see some scooters on the
sidewalk. Bicycles are far more likely to be on the road than sidewalks.

Note that kids under a certain age are allowed to bike on the sidewalk.

