Cellphone video of a car barreling down a narrow bike lane over a small bridge in New York City is the latest example of the fraught battle for space between cyclists and drivers, they say.
Bicyclist Steven Stones, who recorded the video, was riding his bicycle to work Friday morning when he looked up and saw a Volkswagen sedan barreling toward him, taking up almost all of the bicycle-only path on the Pulaski Bridge connecting Brooklyn and Queens.
"When you see a car coming at you, it's not the greatest feeling in the world," he told NBC 4 New York.
The sedan had a dashboard placard that read "official clergy business," according to Stones. It had somehow managed to squeeze itself onto the narrow bike path -- clearly marked and separated from vehicle lanes by a cement divider -- at the bridge's entrance in Long Island City.
Even more mind-boggling, the driver seemed to make it all the way to the end of the path in Greenpoint.
Other drivers who travel the bridge say they couldn't see how he missed the signs.
"You can see the bike and the reflectors that divide the path," said one woman. "It's very noticeable."
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It's unclear why the driver was on the path. There's no record he was cited, but Stones said it seemed the driver thought the bicyclists were actually in his way.
"He started flashing his lights -- I don't know what he was trying to accomplish, like trying to say 'get out of my way?'" he said.
Bicyclists say the battle to co-exist with drivers in a city where two wheels are becoming increasingly common rages on -- but no one could have imagined this bike path would become the latest battleground.
The Department of Transportation said it has placed a barrel at the entrance to bike path in Long Island City and will address any signage needs.
