Manhattan

[Nefertiti2]

At least 8 killed when a car drove onto a cycle path in Lower Manhattan. Bill de Blasio calls it "an act of terror"

[ursus arctos]

It was a truck.

All of us have spent a lot of time in the area (a few hundred metres from the World Trade Center)

[Nefertiti2]

Apologies - the reports of a car came from the The Guardian

Hope all NY based OTf-ers are OK

[Sean of the Shed]

Suspect has been shot and arrested, or as a local law enforcer put it “He jumped out of the truck with a pellet gun, yelled, ‘Allahu Akbar,’ and the First Precinct lit him up,”

[Satchmo Distel]

Soft target, despicable, but Lone Wolf according to Cuomo.

[MsD]

Hope everyone's OK and that this is an isolated occurrence.

[ursus arctos]

The Greenwich Village Halloween Parade (a huge and historic event) is going ahead, which is a very good sign.

[MsD]

Good, enjoy Hallowe'en. I've spent one Hallowe'en in NYC and it was great fun.

[ursus arctos]

Glad to hear you've been in town for it.

I can’t think of anyone on here who would appreciate it as much as you.

Suspect is reportedly an Uzbek National from Florida who arrived in the US seven years ago.

[Femme Folle]

All of my downtown peeps are safe.

As for me, I rarely go down there these days, although that may be changing. My client in Jersey City has moved them back to the Water Street location.

[Incandenza]

I don't want to be crass, but I'm curious to see how bike advocates respond to this. I worry that some will try to make some heavy-handed comparisons. To explain, cyclist deaths from hit-and-runs are quite common, especially in large cities like New York, and there have been a lot of heated anti-bike lane rhetoric in NYC and other cities. I just fear that some well-intentioned people will say something like "I guess cyclist deaths only matter when we're killed in acts of terrorism, not everyday drivers."

[ursus arctos]

Sadly, I would be surprised if that didn't happen on some level.

I've already seen suggestions that it wouldn't have happened if the bike path had been herneticaly sealed from motor vehicles.

The subject has become seriously overheated here.

[Satchmo Distel]

An article from 2015 on Uzbeks in Brooklyn, and how they feared blowback from the activities of the tiny minority of ISIS sympathizers: http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer...yn-uzbeks.html

[ursus arctos]

The dead include five lifelong friends from Rosario, Argentina who were celebrating the 30th anniversary of their high school graduation.

RIP

[Femme Folle]

It is kind of amazing that there was such a long open stretch of path wide enough for a truck to pass, considering you can barely walk in Midtown without bumping into a cement planter.

[Seven Saxon Kings]

I've already seen suggestions that it wouldn't have happened if the bike path had been herneticaly sealed from motor vehicles.

Well is that not true, and would it not also offer some protection from accidents as well? I know walking to work over a London bridge every day I'm glad for the concrete barriers offering some protection from terror attacks given there have been two using vehicles on bridges this year.

Obviously it's impossible to make everywhere completely safe but we can reasonably do things to protect the softest targets like the most wide-open and busy pavements and cycle lanes, and at least then if the attacks are directed elsewhere they might result in fewer victims.

[Evariste Euler Gauss]

What SSK said.

[ursus arctos]

There were bollards blocking motor vehicle access to the path, but they weren’t concrete and the guy just drove over them.

The police and parks department are usually the ones who insist on maintaining some access, as it makes policing and maintenance easier, but I would expect that we will shortly see concrete barriers here, which would also have the positive effect of reducing speeds by the cyclists who think thy are Mark Cavendish (another anti-barrier constituency, btw)

The guy turns out to have been an Uber driver.

[Satchmo Distel]

What's Trump saying - there should be no visas issued to non-Judeo-Christian and/or non-white people ever?

[caja-dglh]

The Home Depot truck is from Jersey, so he must have taken the Lincoln Tunnel or GW and then driven all the way down to there (says a man who once tried to take a U-Haul through the Holland). Not sure why but this part really resonates with me on how premeditated the act was.

[ursus arctos]

Most likely the George Washington Bridge, as he was living in Patterson (where he would fight w/his local bodega guys over the price of Ginger Ale).

[San Bernardhinault]

The police and parks department are usually the ones who insist on maintaining some access, as it makes policing and maintenance easier, but I would expect that we will shortly see concrete barriers here, which would also have the positive effect of reducing speeds by the cyclists who think thy are Mark Cavendish (another anti-barrier constituency, btw)

It's not really the place for this debate, but that constituency frequently does have a point given how appallingly these things are usually designed outside of the Netherlands.

[ursus arctos]

The challenge we have (especially on this path) is that the cyclists range from amateur racers in training to tourists who haven’t been on a bike in decades. The City has also been trying to expand the network on the cheap, as it is very hard to get funding approved.

Bike paths have become a seriously toxic issue in NYC politics.

All that said, a much sturdier, but still removable, metal bollard could have helped a lot here, and I expect we will see those soon.

[San Bernardhinault]

It was always true in London, and I often cycled on the public roads in the regular flow of motor traffic rather than on the terribly designed segregated bike paths. Because often the bike paths had their own poorly timed traffic signals, and a huge number of stop signs, and took you on stupid routes. And sometimes were super-dangerous, like putting the cyclist on the wrong side of the road, where drivers could easily turn across the cyclist's lane without realising.

Drivers don't like it when cyclists use the road - even though we are road vehicles - if there's a bike path alternative. But sometimes it's safer, and often it's much faster, for the cyclist just to use the road.

[Bored Of Education]

No, he is still talking about his immigration policy (despite Uzbekistan not being on the list).

“I have just ordered homeland security to step up our already extreme vetting program. Being politically correct is fine, but not for this!”

At the end of the month, 8 dead, 12 people injured - vetting program to be stepped up. At the start of the month, 58 dead and 546 injured - nothing.