Wednesday’s Headlines: NY Times Blindspot Edition (Again!)

Kudos to David Leonhardt of the New York Times for writing that electric scooters don’t belong on the sidewalk. But the Gray Lady’s latest attempt to sound like it’s simply making a common-sense argument is ultimately yet another old-man-yelling-at-a-cloud column . The reason? The New York Times is quick to complain about everything else but the actual problem: cars.

So, sure, let’s keep electric scooters off the sidewalks. And, sure, let’s complain about distracted pedestrians (which is not even a thing!). And, yes, Cliff Levy, your minions can overstate the impact of a few parking spaces being repurposed for safer road designs.

But it’s about time for the Paper of Record to at least remind readers why we’re having all these sideshow debates in the first place: there are too many cars with too few occupants taking up too much public space to move too few people with too much pollution.

How about an article on that, Cliff? Or how about telling Leonhardt to add a sentence into his story that if the public wants scooters off the sidewalks, cities should give their riders some protected space?

OK, off the soapbox. Here’s the news:

• From the assignment desk: The city will announcement a major cargo delivery bike pilot program at 1 p.m. Dave Colon had the scoop last night.
• A Queens pedestrian has died from injuries sustained when a driver slammed into her last week. The driver was not charged, of course. (Patch, NYDN)
• Cars are death machines, Long Island version. (NYDN)
• A taxi driver was arrested for seriously injuring a cyclist in a hit-and-run — but only because his passenger demanded that he return to the scene (there goes the “I didn’t know I hit anyone” excuse that always works as a get-out-of-jail-free card). (NYDN)
• The Port Authority is taking heat for eliminating carpool discounts on the George Washington Bridge — a program that inevitably leads to fewer cars entering the city. (CBS2)
• Didn’t Andy Byford say he had hired the best signal modernization person in the world, fellow Brit Pete Tomlin? Well, maybe it never shows in England. (NYDN)
• And, finally, we mocked the NY Post’s recent attempt to shame Citi Bike for running Instagram photos of helmet-less riders, but the story earned another day of ridicule, thanks to a tweet from Joe Cutrufo at TransAlt: