This isn’t the vision City Hall had in mind.
The death of a 78-year-old cyclist on his routine morning ride this week marked a dark milestone — 16 people have been killed while biking in the city this year, tragically topping the 15 riders cut down in all of 2015, advocates said.
Michael Schenkman’s death comes during a boom for cycling, as ribbons of bike lanes now stretch across the boroughs, Citibike has expanded, all while the city continues its Vision Zero battle against traffic deaths.
“We have a dream of Vision Zero, but cyclists continue to die on the streets of New York City at an alarming rate,” Schenkman’s son Peter Schenkman, 51, told the Daily News. “Bicycles and cars don’t seem to work here. Bicycles aren’t looked at as positively as they are in Europe or even Canada. That has to change.”
Schenkman, a devoted cyclist, was killed Wednesday while pedaling east on Northern Blvd. around 6:30 a.m. A 25-year-old man at the wheel of a black Chevrolet Impala struck him near 223rd St.
The stretch has been flagged by the city as one of the most dangerous for cyclists and pedestrians under Vision Zero, Mayor de Blasio’s street safety agenda.
“Cars go really fast here,” said Randy Lopez, 40, as he sat on his bike at the intersection Thursday, a few yards from where Schenkman was hit. Lopez didn’t notice at first that a police tape left from the accident scene was under his bike wheel. “They don’t stop. You have to have your eyes open.”
The goal of de Blasio’s program, which has resulted in a 25-mph speed limit, redesigned streets and tougher laws against motorists who kill or severely injure pedestrians and cyclists, is to stamp out all traffic fatalities.
And yet Schenkman’s death puts 2016 on course to be one of the deadliest for cyclists in years, according to the pro-bike group Transportation Alternatives.
“This statistic is moving in the wrong direction,” said Paul Steely White, director of the group.
Transportation Alternatives will honor Schenkman, who was a member, by dedicating its annual NYC Century Bike Tour on Sept. 10 to the robust great-grandfather.
The group will also rally the bicycling advocacy community with a Ride for Mayoral Action on Sept. 15.
“We will renew our call on the de Blasio administration to build on the Vision Zero leadership the mayor has shown, by investing more and moving more quickly to redesign all of the city’s most dangerous streets,” White said.
Schenkman’s son Adam, a teacher in New Paltz, New York, thought the streets were too dangerous for his bike-loving father.
“I told my dad to stop cycling, as did my stepmom. It is too dangerous,” Adam Schenkman said. “I stopped biking upstate because I had too many close calls. People don’t understand the killing capacity of their car. They drive too fast, distracted.”
De Blasio spokesman Austin Finan said the city is installing a record number of bike lanes and cracking down on bad driving.
“We maintain that one fatality is one too many, and we’ll continue to invest in lifesaving initiatives like these until we achieve Vision Zero’s ultimate goal.” Finan said.
With Edgar Sandoval, Gina Salamone
