Without getting into whether I side with New York City’s Metropolitan Transit Authority or Local 100 of the Transport Workers Union in the labor strike that has put a halt to most commuting in New York City this morning, and at the risk of sounding too easily dismissive of the genuine hardship that this situation has dropped in the laps of average New Yorkers as well as the striking workers (who are, after all, average New Yorkers themselves), let me say there is a silver lining in this cloud: Manhattan, today, is less like its usual convergence of angry rivers of traffic, and more like a peaceful countryside of gentle streams of cars. It’s nice. And, to top it off, there are cones lining the major avenues running north and south along the length of the island — believe it or not, these are bike lanes, intended to let human beings get to and from without the aid of automakers or oil companies. I’ve always wanted to see cars sharing the city’s major thoroughfares with bicycle traffic.
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