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'Find a F--king Bike Lane and Get in It,' State Senator Yells at Cyclists

By Nicholas Rizzi | September 25, 2014 2:58pm
 "I just scream at them out the window of my car," State Sen. Diane Savino wrote on Facebook about passing cyclists while driving. "Quite a site (sic) when I yell 'Hey, find a f--king bike lane and get in it.'"
"I just scream at them out the window of my car," State Sen. Diane Savino wrote on Facebook about passing cyclists while driving. "Quite a site (sic) when I yell 'Hey, find a f--king bike lane and get in it.'"
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DNAinfo/Nicholas Rizzi

STATEN ISLAND — A state senator told her Facebook followers she drives through Staten Island yelling at cyclists to "find a f--king bike lane."

"I just scream at them out the window of my car," State Sen. Diane Savino wrote about passing cyclists.

"Quite a site (sic) when I yell 'Hey, find a f--king bike lane and get in it.'"

Savino was commenting on a Facebook post about a pedestrian killed by a cyclist in Central Park last week

Eben Weiss, who writes the blog, Bike Snob NYC, drew attention to Savino's comments on Twitter and on his site on Thursday.

"A state senator bragging on Facebook about engaging in acts of road rage is inappropriate, alarming and representative of a disregard for public safety," Weiss told DNAinfo New York.

"It's an insult to her constituents. It's also totally ironic because the conversational thread that inspired her comment is based on a total misreading of comments I made in which I excoriated reckless bicycling."

Savino did not immediately respond for request for comments, but told the Daily News she was joking and called for greater enforcement on cyclists.

“Minimally, there’s got to be greater enforcement,” she told the News. “And bikers have to take responsibility for what’s happening.

"They’re moving sometimes at 40 miles an hour. We just went through the whole process of reducing the city speed limit to 25 miles an hour, unless it is otherwise posted. That should apply to bikes as well. We are all in this together.”

While Savino wrote online that riders need to find bike lanes, the borough she represents, Staten Island, has the least in the city.

There are only 15 streets with bike lanes in the borough and there haven't been any new ones since 2011, according to the Department of Transportation's website.

On Sept. 18, Jason Marshall, 31, of Manhattan, crashed into Jill Tarlov, 59, when Marshall swerved out of the bike lane to avoid hitting pedestrians and crashed into her.

Tarlov, of Fairfield, Connecticut, was rushed to New York Hospital and died three days later.