Wednesday’s Headlines: Ostrich Parent Edition

Stop me before I badly parent again!

Perhaps it was inevitable. Days after venture capitalist/former Bloomberg aide Bradley Tusk opined in a Daily News op-ed that someone (anyone!) should have prevented his underage son from using an electric Citi Bike, Tusk’s fellow mayoral wire-puller Randy Mastro threatened the Lyft-owned bike share with unspecified punishment if it didn’t ramp up its efforts to keep the sub-16 crowd from tricking mom and dad into letting them ride. (amNY had the story.)

Let’s set aside for a second the obvious point that adults should do a better job of preventing kids from riding Citi Bikes if they’re not over 16. Those are the rules. And let’s ignore for a second that Deputy Mayor Randy Mastro should have much better things to worry about than 15 year olds who take an occasional Citi Bike ride.

Two things can be true at the same time: 15-year-olds should not be riding e-Citi Bikes and Mastro is on solid ground asking Lyft to make sure it doesn’t happen.

But at the same time, I’m right to remind Randy Mastro that Citi Bike is an unqualified mobility success that has served tens of millions of rides with very few crashes. As such, we wish Mastro would focus on real issues that could truly result in safer streets: reducing the city speed limit, building the legally mandated number of protected bus and bike lanes, and getting his many agencies to work in concert to get the worst drivers off the road.

In other news:

• Speaking of something Mastro could do, the big disgusting news story yesterday was the senior citizen driver who crashed his car, killing himself and two others. Most outlets covered it (NY Post, amNY), but Streetsblog pointed out that the city has the power to reduce speed limits, but has chosen not to do so.
• President Trump’s takeover of D.C.’s police continued on Tuesday, The City reported, as a predictable number of fellow travelers begged him to do the same in New York City. Be careful what you wish for, Vickie Paladino.
• Then again, maybe U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy’s wife inadvertently spilled the beans on why President Trump acted in Washington:

• Former Transportation Alternatives head Paul Steely White, now head of Parks and Trails New York, urged state lawmakers to not forget about parks. (NYDN)
• No offense, but if the War on Cars is going to run an episode about free buses, the hosts should have called Dave Colon.
• Andrew Cuomo’s underpaid Covid subway cleaners will finally get paid. (NY Times)
• Open Plans’s Sara Lind and Brooklyn Trans Alt activist Alex Morano paired up for a pro-daylighting op-ed in City Limits.
• We mentioned it a few days ago, but the Governors Island electric ferries got more coverage. (NY Post, amNY)
• The PATH train is screwed on Labor Day weekend. (Gothamist)
• Unpermitted Tesla robo taxis. What could go wrong? (CNBC)
• Whoa. And I’m not saying that as a horse pun, but more of a, “Whoa, this is a big deal for the Central Park Conservancy.” (Gothamist, Crain’s)
• And, finally, the way things are going, you don’t think too much about too many home runs. Apparently, the Mets didn’t either … until it happened: