Spinning around: Bikes and the governor's race

Daily Point

Blakeman mum on 'DEI bike lanes'

Nobody seems certain of the practical impact of the Federal Highway Administration's removal of bike lanes from its list of best safety practices to be implemented around the country. The agency says it is eliminating "social initiatives" that supposedly worsen congestion. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, who has complained about "DEI bike lanes," is "putting safety first," says an agency statement.

Long Island traffic experts and transportation advocates worry that Duffy's peculiar characterization could cut support for sorely needed projects to make roads safer for pedestrians and bikers. Gov. Kathy Hochul told The Point through spokesman Gordon Tepper: "Investing in proven methods to make our streets safer should be common sense. It's unfortunate that the federal government is trying to turn public safety into a political issue."

But Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, the Republican opposing Hochul on the November ballot, doesn't seem to have a viewpoint on the matter. Asked on Monday to respond to Duffy or the news about the best-practices list, Blakeman was unavailable for comment and did not convey one through a spokesman contacted by The Point.

Bike lanes and safety have been a topic close to home. In April, Newsday's news division reported that Blakeman's county administration quietly canceled a long-planned protected pedestrian and bicycle path on a stretch of road in East Atlantic Beach where a hit-and-run driver had killed a cyclist.

In Washington, Duffy is an appointee of President Donald Trump. Blakeman has said, "When it comes to President Donald J. Trump, I will always have his back." Last year Blakeman vocally supported Duffy's failed effort on the administration's behalf to stop the $9 congestion-pricing toll in Manhattan, while lawsuits against the toll were also unsuccessful.

Exactly how the road measures in question — adding bike lanes, removing a vehicular lane to slow traffic down, or lowering the speed limit to protect pedestrians — earn the label of diversity, equity and inclusion has gone unexplained.

The FHWA's Proven Safety Countermeasures list is supposed to serve as a guide to help state and local transportation agencies choose and deploy "highly effective, research-backed infrastructure improvements to drastically reduce traffic fatalities and serious injuries on U.S. roads," as described on the agency's website.

Duffy's far-fetched "DEI" label may stem from a statement by his Biden administration predecessor, Pete Buttigieg, that grants from 2021 funding bike lanes would "improve infrastructure, strengthen supply chains, make us safer, advance equity, and combat climate change." Trump officials are averse to recognizing climate change as a threat even worth addressing in public policy. Presumably, "equity" meant access to transportation for those who don't drive.

The grants included money in various blue and red states for new transit centers, bridges, extended streets, traffic lights and crosswalks, and bike lanes. Now the financial status of such projects is muddled.

Federal aid for various New York priorities is a traditional partisan flash point during a governor's race. Trump has pungently politicized program funding for a decade. When President Joe Biden signed his $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act into law in 2021, his predecessor (and later successor) spitefully condemned 19 Senate Republicans and 13 House Republicans who voted for it.

— Dan Janison dan.janison@newsday.com

Pencil Point

The Sound of Money

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Quick Points

LI summer's orange glow

• Nothing says summer on Long Island like the sci-fi movie effect of Canadian wildfire smoke. The unhealthy orange haze that blanketed the Northeast last week made Long Island homes and offices smell like campsites. Guess that's a new take on glamping. And just thinking: Why is it Canadian wildfire but Canada geese?
• Just as former Long Island Rep. George Santos was revealed as a contestant on the Fox reality competition series "Special Forces: World's Toughest Test," Spain's annual Running of the Bulls festival in San Fermin concluded with two gorings, including a man who "took a horn in his thorax," according to The Associated Press. Here's a challenge: Skip the reality TV bit and dodge half-ton bulls.
• MLB attendance is up, but not for the Yankees and Mets. The Amazins have on average 3,103 more empty seats compared with last year. Shocker — people don't want to pay major league prices for minor league play.
• An upstate rural school district will use a humanoid robot in some classes next fall as an artificial intelligence teacher's assistant. According to New York Focus, the lifelike robot will have "silicone skin and long brown hair" and "be stationary in a seated position but have a wide range of upper-body movements and facial expressions." Now that Cyberdyne Systems Model 101 is teaching class, homework submission rates are expected to skyrocket.
• East Farmingdale's Chad Caruso recently broke his own Guinness World Record by skateboarding 2,809 miles in 39 days, going from California to Florida. The trip through Texas was the most uncomfortable, Caruso told Newsday, because of the rugged pavement. No "DEI bike lanes" in Texas, huh?

— Mark Nolan mark.nolan@newsday.com

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