Daniel Convissor's Website

Power to the Pedal!

Manhattan: Your editorial "Pedal-Powered Gridlock" (March 27) says that shifting street space from drivers to bicyclists is "nonsensical." Step back a moment.

Compare the width of midtown's streets with the width of its sidewalks. Cars get about three-fourths of the space. Pedestrians are left with narrow sidewalks, despite pedestrians' outnumbering people in cars by a vast magnitude.

The minuscule minority in their cars get to: 1) take up most of the space; 2) make extraordinary noise; 3) foul the air; 4) hinder our economy by slowing commercial deliveries, and 4) get away with killing 250 pedestrians a year in the city.

Seen in this light, demanding the status quo is what's truly nonsensical.

Author: Daniel Convissor
Title: Power to the Pedal!
Section: Letters to the Editor
Publication: New York Daily News
Date: 31 March 1999

Source URL: http://www.nydailynews.com/1999-03-31/News_and_Views/Opinion/a-24241.asp