Liveable communities take away my rights

[PamNY]

The retailer complaints in Manhattan tend to be very specific to the individual stores' circumstances. In most cases, their customers don't arrive by private car, but some are affected by bike lanes nonetheless.

A deli does a lot of business with taxi drivers who stop quickly for a cup of coffee (and probably double-park). Some delis cater to taxi drivers by letting them use the rest room (a huge issue for taxi drivers). With a bike lane, that very stable chunk of deli business is instantly gone.

One bike lane narrowed a street so much that tour buses supposedly avoided the area. Restaurants and souvenir shops that cater to tourists claim to be hurt (which seems plausible to me).

Delivery trucks (which nearly always park illegally, but at least they can park) are another issue when parking space is lost.

The equation in Manhattan is a bit different because bikes don't mean "one less car" -- they mean one less person on the subway, which doesn't matter very much. I don't know how relevant our bike lane battles are in other places.

None of this is an argument against bike lanes -- just a bit of reality.

If you're interested, this is a story about one very controversial bike lane (the one that discouraged tour buses).