Cone Conundrum & Cyclist-Civilian Collision Conveys Conspiracy Conjecture

Todd Heisler/The New York Times

According to The Brooklyn Paper, there has been yet another cyclist-pedestrian collision, leaving a poor old man with a broken hand. The accident occured on Saturday around 4PM on West Lake Drive near the Vanderbilt Street playground.

Now, before we all jump on here and talk about how bikers suck and everyone hates them, do we want to address the fact that maybe these giant, garbage-can-sized barrels meant to prevent accidents aren’t really doing the job? There’s been talk of them blocking bikers’ visibility of pedestrians (not a good thing when trying not to hit them), and confusing the cyclists who aren’t sure which side of them to be on.

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Was There a Crackdown On Bikers in Prospect Park on Saturday?

Photo via The Blog That Ate Manhattan

Are cops cracking the eff down on Prospect Park cyclists in the wake of recent collisions with pedestrians? First "anti-speeding barrels" were set up to slow the bikers down. And now it looks like they're handing out tickets. FiPS reader Vicki emailed us with this tip over the weekend:

Ok, why is no one writing about the MASSIVE ticket blitz that went down yesterday [Saturday] in Prospect Park?  I saw 9 bikers get tickets within 10 minutes for whizzing past the red light near the lake.  I've never seen so many police and parks department crews in the park ever and they were stationed at every red light giving out tickets.  They must've made THOUSANDS in fines yesterday.  Little crowds were forming just to watch the bikers one by one get pulled over and considering no biker in the history of man has ever been given tickets for running a red in Prospect Park before you can imagine how stunned they all were.

Anyone else see this go down? 

Cool or Not Cool: Getting in trouble for stopping a public masturbator?

Imagine you're a park ranger taking kids on a tour.

Stop it. I know you want to turn this little exercise into a dirty joke, but there's plenty of masturbation coming up.

Anyway. You're a park ranger. You're taking kids on a tour. And then you see someone in the bushes masturbating. What do you do? Most likely you'd guide the tour elsewhere, hope kids didn't see it and try not to act too awkward. Maybe you'll call the cops.

What if I were to tell you that this masturbator had a gun and a bag of weed?

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Bike Hits Person Hits City (with 3 Million Dollar Lawsuit)

Sober Second Thought Photography http://www.sobersecondthought.com/archives/003340.php?sel=photoEvery time I hear about a pedestrian/cyclist accident I think, "How can that be? We're on the same team!" The team of people who feel bullied and oppressed by cars in this city, that is. But then I remember all the times I've been nearly mowed over by a cyclist going the wrong way down a one way street, or disregarding traffic signals entirely to zip through a red light without the slightest regard for those of us on foot.

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Slime in Prospect Park Lake is hazardous

Via Brooklyn Paper

A recent growth of green bacteria in Prospect Park Lake that looks like something out of the Creature from the Black Lagoon could possibly be threatening the wildlife.

While the Park Department is testing samples of the scum for more information of its potential threat, park advocates say fewer egrets, herons and fish-eating fowls have been seen around the lake since May. Aside from running off the wildlife, the green slime may be putting animals and people at risk.

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