Essay Instructions: I need a script on Cycling in New York based on the story pitch and interview quotes below. Please use the Taxi Double Parking Outside Mosque script as a guide.
The cycling script will need to include the following roles: Anchor Intro, Host, Character (Daniel Flanzig), Character (Miller Nuttle), Character (Scared Lady), Character (Messenger). The idea here is to
Come up with something to say for the Anchor Intro (2 -3 sentences) and Host (sentences throughout the script). The function of the host is to act as a narrator and guide the story using select quotes from Daniel, Miller, Scared Lady, and the Messenger. Again, please read the sample script as a guide on what is expected for the cycling script. Please include at least 2-3 important quotes per person below in the script:
Daniel Flanzig (Bike Lawyer) Quotes:
1- “A lot of people don’t know that the vehicle traffic law in the state of New York section 1214 in particular prohibits the opening of a car door into traffic. Also new York city administrative code have sections that prohibit a passenger from exiting a vehicle on the side that would interfere with traffic as well. So any driver or passenger that gets out of a car and opens their door into the path of traffic in front of a motorist or cyclists is violating both the administrative law of the city of new York and also vehicle and traffic law”
2- “Crashes involving street defects, potholes, construction, improperly marked speed bumps is becoming more common. The city is going out and putting traffic counting devices in and there’s a requirement that the national transportation safety act and municipal planning statues that require when you place speed counting devices in you need to have proper marking, signage, and other things to let a cyclist know that there is a speed bump or traffic counting devices ahead of them.
3- “As New York begins to become a bike culture, everybody needs to understand that cyclists and cars are sharing the road. So what might have been safe for a car ten years ago is no longer going to be safe for a cyclists”.
4- “For the cyclists, absolutely they provide a great amount of protection from number one vehicular traffic because you have the cars traveling on one side of the road, parked vehicles, and then the safe designated bike lane and you’re also well outside the dooring zone.”
5- “In those lanes, you’re really safe from being doored. So they are very, very safe”
6- “The more difficult lanes and more dangerous lanes are what we call sharrows. They are what we call the shared bike and car lane, so you’ll see them around 34th street near the midtown tunnel. Areas where they can no longer have safe designated bike lanes. It becomes an area where the bikes and cars, share the lanes.”
7- “The most important thing that I tell everybody to do whether or not they think they’re hurt is to call the police. For a couple of reasons.#1, atleast you’re going to have documented that an accident occurred. The police have now identified the operator of the vehicle”
8- “If you’re involved in a crash in new York, No-fault insurance becomes your primary form of health insurance. So you need that insurance code in order to contact the insurance company and file a no-fault benefit application within 30 days of the crash. A lot of people don’t know this and we’re working to develop bicycle education programs with New York bicycle coalition, and actually working with Bike New York to help develop and educate cyclists on the importance of doing that because a lot of people don’t know that. The 30 days elapses and next thing they have is an ambulance bill, an emergency room bill, follow up care bills, and they didn’t know it’s covered by the no-fault insurance”
9- “If you are hurt in the accident, don’t be afraid to get treatment. A lot of people are worried, oh if I get in that ambulance, if I go to the emergency room, how are these bills going to get paid? No fault will be their primary form of health insurance and will help them get paid”
10- “More normal cases that we’ve seen are doorings. I probably have 10-15 open dooring cases right now. It’s a very very common cause of crashes. Again, other causes are turning vehicles in the city of new York. Improper lane changes. Cabs stopping to pickup passengers, will enter a bike lane and suddenly slam on the brakes. We’ve all seen New York cabs fight over a fare, they will jut into the bike lane and stop short and boom! You have a crash”
11- “#1 is No-fault claim and that’s to make sure that the person’s bills are getting paid for. The ambulance is paid for. The hospital is paid for, the orthopedists or any follow up care is paid for. Also, if they are out of work for any period of time they are entitled for up to 2,000 per month from no fault to cover their lost wages. If they get medications, prescriptions, all that will be covered under no-fault. That’s our biggest thing to make sure that’s covered”
12- “My philosophy is that this is a shared street. There are laws that effect motorists and laws that effect cyclists, so I think both cyclists and drivers need to understand laws for both.”
13- “No riding on the sidewalk, another big issue in new York city”
14- “New York city , it’s a very strange law. It’s actually not in the section on vehicle and traffic law. It’s a section in the environmental control board. And if you ride on the sidewalk and issued a summons. It’s actually not even a traffic violation it’s a misdemeanor and you find yourself not in traffic court but you’ll find yourself in criminal court. So it’s something that people learn the hardway and it could be a very expensive summons”
15- “A bicycle is considered a vehicle under vehicle traffic law. Cyclists have the same rights to ride that road as any motorist. He has the right to use that lane, has the right to use the lane to make himself safe, and has the same rights and protections as any other motorist on that road. Likewise the same responsibilities to follow the laws as well”
16- “We’ve had great success developing programs for other lawyers in new York state. I’ve conducted a couple of programs educating other attorneys on how to handle a bike crash case and understanding bike laws in new York. Presented one of the first national programs with the association of the American justice, a webinar on bike litigation, which never had been done before. So, it’s a very interesting and growing area of practice nationwide.”
17- “We saw that a lot of people didn’t know what to do after a bike accident, so we developed an application for the iphone and android to help walk you through what to do after a bike crash. It’s actually a free app and it walks you through the steps. Gives you a list of new York city bike laws and rules. Launch the app and it walks you through what to do…names of witnesses, driver. Also has the ability to record witness statements, take photographs, sketch a crash scene of the accident itself and it’s all saved into a nice little format that can be emailed to yourself, friend, attorney, or whoever will need this information.”
18- “There’s a time of panic when you’re involved in an accident and no one knows what to do. So, assuming you’re healthy enough and assuming your phone survived the crash??"you launch the app and it’ll walk you through exactly what you need to do. It’s a free download. And it’s actually been written about all over the world. It’s been downloaded in Denmark, france, the uk, it’s got great press all around the world. And that’s the first of it’s kind”
Miller Nuttle (Transportation Alternatives) Quotes:
1- “We oversee all of our grassroots efforts here at TA, so we have a committee of concerned new Yorkers”
2- “ A really good example that TA waged was around 1st and 2nd avenues. So a number of years ago the city was planning to install select bus service on first and second avenues. It was a major capital project and a big investment the city was making. And we saw an opportunity to incorporate a world class bicycling infrastructure, along with the plans because they were going to be tearing up the street and building dedicated bus lanes.”
3- “We mobilized a group of our really dedicated Manhattan volunteers, volunteer activists, and collected 25 hand written letters from people on the streets, they met with their elected officials, they ultimately delivered the letters to a council member and the DOT. And eventually the department of transportation agreed to incorporate the protected bike lanes for pedestrians safety, all that we now see along first and second avenues with the select bus service. Today, it’s actually the longest protected bike lane in America”
4- “there are 3 classes of bike lanes. The best one, the one that we advocated for are protected bike lanes. A protected bike lane is any bike lane that has physical separation from moving traffic, so usually in new York the model that we have been seeing around our major avenues is a row of parked cars in between the bicylists and moving traffic so you have some degree of physical protection between cars. And most people from age 8-80, need that physical protection to actually feel safe riding a bike on the streets”
5- “Class 1 is the protected bike lanes, class 2 is a striped white lane that you see on a lot of smaller residential streets, where it’s just paint on the road, but it’s dedicated it has the bike symbol. Then class 3 are what we call sharrows, the sharing arrows, looks like chevrons on the street. It shows that it’s a preferred route for bicylists, so drivers should be more alert and aware that bikes could be present”
6- “Creating choices for new Yorkers is what TA does??"we’ve made it possible for people to feel safe walking, biking, taking the public transit grabbing a citibike now. You know basically creating options for how new Yorkers get around.”
7- “My biking experience in new York has been great. It’s totally transformed how I’ve interacted and experienced new York city. It’s my gym, it’s my time to relax on the way to work and on the way home. It’s been pretty universally positive.”
8- “Now biking is safer than ever. Bicyicling has quintupled over the last decade or so with the number of people riding bikes. But the number of crashes has actually gone down over the same time. There’s the safey in numbers effect that we talk a lot about here. That the more people you have riding bikes the more aware drivers are of our existence on the street and less likely crashes become”
9- “Biking has been the safest it’s ever been in New York city right now…we have more people that are riding.”
10- “The two things that make bicycling and walking in the city safer are better infrastructure and better enforcement and those are our two priorites here at TA. So, we’ve advocated for things like pedestrian plazas, protected bike lanes, select bus service a host of different changes we can make to the streets to make our streets a lot safer for biking”
11- “we’ve also advocated pretty intensely for the NYPD to enforce the traffic violations that we know are really dangerous…you know speeding is the number one killer on the street. We’re advocating for the NYPD to pay more attention to speeding and write more tickets and enforce speeding drivers. “
12- “They write more tickets for tinted windows that they do for speeding, so we’re encouraging them to really prioritize the offenses that are really killing people on the street.”
13- “Be alert and aware and make noise. Have a bell, have lights on your bike. You know new York is a busy place, so the more you’re talking and alert to your surroundings the safer you’ll be.
14- “Thankfully in new York, there are really great lawyers who represent cyclists who are victims crashes or reckless driving. It’s unfortunate, I’m glad they have work but ideally we wouldn’t need cycling lawyers because we would have streets that prevent bike crashes in the first place.”
15- “It’s rare that a driver will get any more than a summons even if they kill someone on the streets right now. So, we’re working on some legislation to make it easier to report and atleast write a summons to someone who kills or seriously injures someone on the street.”
16- “We’re working on legislation that makes it easier to prosecute reckless driving”
17- “Bike lanes and pedestrian safety improvements make our city safer, healthier, place to live so we encourage all elected officials to really do the right thing and stand up for safer streets”
Messenger Quotes:
1- “Basically, I’m a messenger. I do not like the Citi Bikes for the only reason…it takes up space on the bike lanes. They don’t know what they are doing. They’re reckless. I’m reckless as a driver myself …but I mean have 2 reckless people in the same place is not going to end well.”
Scared Lady Quotes:
1- “I’m very hesitant because there aren’t many bike paths in the city and I’m afraid I’m going to be hit by a bus.”
2- “I don’t have a helmet available, I won’t rent them until I get on that at the very least”
3- “If there were more bike paths available, I’d be up to renting these guys”
Story Pitch--what the script is based on:
It’s only been five months since the launch of New York City's bike-sharing program, Citi Bike, and it seems that everywhere you look, New Yorkers are on the streets cycling. In fact, more than 200,000 New Yorkers are biking every day, sharing the roadways with motorists and pedestrians.
Despite the many benefits of riding a bike, New Yorkers are getting hurt and consequently needing lawyers. Meet New York’s Bike Lawyer, Daniel Flanzig, Esq. He’s been riding the New York City streets since his first days in Law School. This lawyer is an avid cyclist and bike advocate who has been representing crash victims in New York for over 18 years. Involved in a bicycle crash or accident? Call Daniel and the many more lawyers in New York specializing in Bike Law in New York.
Today bike ridership in New York is more popular than ever. As a result, the story will cover typical bike cases, bike laws, bike lawyers and bicycle advocacy.
Filming will include interviews with Daniel Flanzig, Esq., and Miller Nuttle, Manager, Campaigns and Organizing, at Transportation Alternatives, New York’s largest transportation advocacy organization for bicycling, walking and public transit. Efforts will be made to film people on the street to talk about bike accidents and ways they try to avoid them.
Sample Script: Taxi Double Parking Outside Mosque
Anchor Intro: When you think of New York city the large crowds and time square coming to mind, but as Tony Montana tells us, on one block in Manhattan a couple of other city staples are frustrating the neighborhood.
Host (Montana): Look at this traffic, and all these double parked taxis. Although the are illegally parked, the drivers usually don’t get ticketed. The NYPD allows parking, as a courtesy.
Character #1 (Taxi Driver): “I come to pray. Muslims pray 5 times a day and every Friday is a big congregation to come to pray”
Host: Taxi drivers account for more than half of the worshippers at the Islamic cultural center. It’s one of the few mosques in the city where parking is easy to come by; if illegal
Character #1(Taxi Driver): “In Midtown or downtown it’s really hard to get parking, especially in Midtwon, there’s no taxi relief stand, plus there’s no meter parking in Midtown”
Host(Montana): The NYPD and the Mosque don’t have a formal agreement, so there aren’t parking signs to educate other drivers. And tickets are still issued if taxis double park on any other neighboring street
Character #2(Truck Driver): “I understand it because I guess t’s prayer time for them. Some of them do know some of them don’t know. I guess people that do know it doesn’t bother them because they understand why and the one’s that don’t maybe they have an issue with it”
Host(Montana): The Imam of the Islamic cultural center makes the drivers move their taxi, even during prayer, if they are blocking another car. He also expects their attendance
Character #3 (Imam): “If you can drive and make money you can go and serve god, you can also pray, it’s part of your daily schedule”
Character #1(Taxi Driver): “I drive about 10 hours a day, it’s really hard for me to spend about an hour to come up here and park the vehicle and worship. It’s a little hard for me but it’s okay, it’s a part of my life”
Host(Montana): This traffic and parking problem is a part of the life in this neighborhood. The local community board has never had a complaint. Tony Montana, Pratt News.
