I saw this guy the other day while riding home in the morning. Forgive the terrible picture, but I didn’t want to creep up on the guy and shoot him lying on the side of the street after hitting or getting hit by a car, so I took the coward’s way out and pretended like I was checking some bullshit on my phone and then took a pic from across the street. It was hard to tell exactly what had happened in this case, but it ended with a biker laying on the street in a bike lane and a silver Masseratti with a big dent in its side. If the car had swerved at the last minute, anything could have happened so speculation is tough. Maybe the driver even doored him and he dented the side with his head when he flipped over it.

This is the second time I’ve seen a biker laying on the road in a bike lane. The first was on Broadway in the city, and this time was on 5^th Ave in Park Slope, Brooklyn. Every time I ride down 5^th Ave, I’m inches away from getting pushed into a parked car or run over at an intersection. The problem is the bike lanes. Someone slows to make a left turn at an intersection, and the driver swerves into the bike lane to pass without looking. It happens in a moment and a thousand times a day. Bike lanes are used for delivery parking, overflow parking, taxis dropping and picking up, hot dog carts, Italian ice carts, and skateboarders and runners going the wrong way. Then cars start swerving around, and I see these morning commuter accidents and bikers getting shoved into cars.

Bike lanes only work as well as police keep cars out of them. I’m going to make a bike tank and ride it down 5^th Ave one day. Straight through all the food vendors, swerving cars, and they’ll only stop my after calling in the SWAT team to drop a bazooka on me once I ride uphill to Prospect Park.