By Gary Martin
Gary B. Martin is an illustrator and animator who has lived on the Upper West Side for more than 30 years. His illustrations appear in the Rag on Sundays, chronicling life in the neighborhood, New York City, and the Universe. See them all here. For a broader range of Gary’s work, including animations and other motion graphics, please visit www.martoons.com
Listen to Rag Radio’s interview with Gary Martin — HERE.
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Should be on the list of endangered species, a law abiding bicyclist in NYC
Huh I see this all the time, guess I am just lucky!
Just yesterday I was crossing the CP loop with two kids and had no issues. Most cyclists stop, and for the ones that don’t it’s not that hard to look before you cross and anticipate when to cross safely. The chronic complainers will have us believe the bodies of maimed pedestrians are strewn all over the park
You crossed the loop? Aren’t you one of those who say we should all be using the under passes all the time?
…. No? There are crosswalks on the loop. Very easy to use.
There are crosswalks in the loop. What there aren’t, or at least there aren’t many since the redesign, are stoplights. So when you say you see bikes stop at the lights all the time where are you crossing?
yeah, those pesky “chronic complainers” who just want to walk around safely without cyclists riding on the sidewalks, the wrong way on bike lanes, or those complainers who ride at 12mph while the eBikes speeding (sometimes coming at you) at 22mph…So pesky!
They stopped at the light? Where was this light?
I agree that once you step out i to the road the cyclists, not being psychopaths, will swerve around you or stop. But why must the pedestrian, especially an elderly or disabled pedestrian, have to take that first brave steo? It seems that many don’t and instead wait for someone like me to do it. I’m happy to stop the cyclists for them but they should have another option available. Like a red light.
That’s a real sighting! They don’t stop in my neighborhood!
I see Gary is now dabbling in science fiction.
Boy does that ring true.
Probably got around a lot faster that way and lived to tell it.
where’s the camera? This person deserves to qualify for an award….like the ”KEY TO THE CITY”!
Extremely rare!
Thanks for the laugh on a sensitive subject, Gary! 👏😄
Alas….all too true!
It’s the bikes that will kill you.
If only!
A rarity anywhere
Ha! So true. Crazy biking habits in the city makes one weary. Thanks again!
UGH – don’t get me started (well…actually…you DID – ty!!!)
At first I thought Gary’s comic was about celebrity sightings. Silly me! As for E-vehicles on sidewalks and park pedestrian paths … I don’t see any politicians or agencies willing to do anything about them. The E-Vehicle Safety Alliance has been pushing for years now with no persons of authority (seemingly) willing to act against the corporate interests that profit from E-bike use.
One day last week while walking./crossing a busy West Side intersection….
all at same time:
Three food delivery workers stopped at the red light.
Two Citibikers went through the red light.
One stand-up scooter (going the wrong way) went through the red light.
I find the same pattern. Delivery workers stop at the red light. Citibikers rarely do. Scooters do whatever they feel like.
A cyclist stopping at a red light? What is this, science fiction??
Just back from a trip to Berlin where bicycle riding is taken to a higher level and there are separate lights (and separate streets) JUST for bicycles! At a busy intersection with 4 lanes of traffic going in 4 directions ALL the cars and are stopped by their lights simultaneously so that bicycles can safely make left hand turns. Incredibly civilized. I wonder if NY pedestrians would wait as patiently at street corners for their turns to cross, as Germans do in this situation. I think NYers are just not rule followers by nature whether they are riding or walking. One can see the up side to both ways of living I suppose.
A rare sight indeed!
What’s very rare these days is being able to walk three blocks without being bothered by someone working for a campaign.
Amazing!!
True. But e-bike is more fitting.
Looking forward to more rare sightings: “Hey look! A driver obeyed the speed limit! A driver yielded to me in the crosswalk! That car didn’t try to beat the light and end up running it! I didn’t see any aggressive driving today! A car or truck driver didn’t injure or kill anyone on the UWS today (as is usually the case)!”
Just saying.
Cyclists are just like everybody else in NY, beholden only to carpentry law.
The object is to keep moving without touching the teeth of the saw.
Tourists and novices jam up the works by interrupting the flow.
The rest of us smoothly cut across exactly when it’s time to go.
I guess you and the others who object to the cartoon don’t have any mobility issues. Those of us who are old, use walkers or canes, or are otherwise not nimble enough to dodge the thoughtless ebike riders have a right to cross the street lawfully without fearing for our safety.
I find this “cartoon” extremely unpleasant. Just because the elderly author does not ride a bike, it does not mean he is allowed to blanket stereotype an entire group of people, nearly all of whom abide by traffic laws.
How can WSR credibly cover transit and e mobility issues in our neighborhood if they are stating such a blatant editorial bias? Feels inappropriate, even for a neighborhood news source.
You are aware that newspapers have carried political cartoons forever. Should that be allowed, in your opinion?
It happens more frequently than you think. The handwringing alarmists and blanket prohibitionists would have you believe cyclists were the bane of humanity.
They have a long way to go, but they’re getting better. Don’t mock them, thank them when they do it. Positive reinforcement.
So True!! I tell everyone, I’m not going to get killed by a car when crossing the street, it will be a bicycle
For me, the timing of this debate and the street imagery here felt out of joint with the glorious weekend we just had. The UWS was beautiful—vibrant and alive, celebrating fathers, Pride, voting, the Knicks, the World Cup, and the start of summer. I get the point of the cartoon. I just didn’t need it this weekend. Love you, Gary!
This April I was hit by an electric scooter while crossing the CP loop at a pedestrian crossing near the Met museum. I had the light (there are still traffic lights at that crossing), other bikers had stopped and I crossed with other pedestrians. The scooter came out of nowhere, weaving around stopped bikers, and hit me head on. He drove off and left the scene, and bystanders called 911. I ended up at the trauma center at NY hospital with a severe head wound which took 9 stitches. Since then I’ve had other near misses and I’m always very careful. The park is no longer safe for older pedestrians because of speeding e-bikes and e-scooters.
I’m so sorry this happened to you, Cornelis. When someone called 911 did any police officers show up? I understnad why they don’t — with no liscence plates hiw would they ever find the person who hit you. My real question is are you counted in any official statistics about eScooter-pedestrian accidents?
Thank you, Anon, the police did show up but were not very helpful. They said they would check cameras (I’m not aware of cameras at that location) and that they would get back to me. I never heard from anybody. I have no idea if I’m counted or not. On that note, the trauma nurse at the hospital mentioned that three other people came in that day after being hit by an electric scooter-bike.
Since 2019, cyclists have been allowed to use leading pedestrian intervals (LPIs), meaning they can go through a red light when the parallel pedestrian signal changes to “walk.”
This is a real problem at the intersection of Columbus and 66th St where the walk signal is sometimes on all 4 directions at once. I haven’t been hit but I have been yelled at by bikes who insist “I have the light”