Seth Dixon‘s insight:

In a busy city like New York, there are never enough places for parking and lanes for traffic.  There is simply not enough space for the flow to be smooth and efficient.  Cyclists that attempt to assert their right to the street are often times referred to as “cyclist activists” as though their activism is synonymous with extremism that  is more easy to dismiss.  Many hold views that privilege a motorists right to space in the city above that of a cyclist.  I saw this tweet by a NYC cycling organization that referred to “activist drivers” who park in the bike lane as attempting to create a “guerrilla can lane.”  They used the terms and language used against them and superimposed it on the larger motorist community which sees itself as having a more natural right to all space in the city.  This video embedded above is an excellent spoof and highlights the dangers of being a cyclist in a motorist-centric world.  Below we see a video as cyclists have clashed with locals in the neighborhood for wearing too little clothes, so they removed the bike lane, but “guerilla cyclists” put it back on the street.  This was dubbed as a hipsters vs Hasidic Jews.    

Tags: transportation, cycling, urban, planning, territoriality, space.