NYC mayor's race: Candidates talk bike safety, animal welfare
NEW YORK (WABC) -- Election Day to determine New York City's next mayor is just two weeks away, and one issue in the race focuses on a controversial topic: cars and bikes safely co-existing.
Cars may not be a dying breed in the Big Apple, but bike ridership is booming.
But when it comes to sharing the road, Democrat Eric Adams and Republican Curtis Sliwa are riding different positions.
On Tuesday morning, Adams -- the frontrunner in the race to New York City's Democratic majority -- received an endorsement from biking advocates.
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He is promising more bike lanes and vowing to tackle congestion and increasingly dangerous streets in the city by focusing on pedestrians and bikers -- not just cars.
"We can share our streets," he said. "Historically, streets have been built just for cars. That culture has changed, so there's a way to share the streets."
Sliwa has vowed to cut bike lanes in neighborhoods where they're not so popular.
"No, I don't agree with him," Adams said. "Bike lanes are not used because we are not encouraging and promoting incentivizing the use for it. I don't even think he knows how to ride a bike."
Sliwa shot back.
"Why not a bike-a-thon, in which we both get on bicycles at the same time," he said. "I'll do a number of tricks, no hands riding. Let's see what Eric Adams can do."
Sliwa said Adams and Mayor Bill de Blasio have focused too much attention on biking, and on Tuesday, he focused on animal welfare.
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He has called it barbaric that there are still have horse-drawn carriages in New York, and he introduced his animal welfare plan.
In addition to banning the carriages, all city shelters would become no kill shelters.
Sliwa said he would also ban any circus or rodeo from the city.
"Call me a guy who changes litter boxes for 16 rescue cats," he said. "I'll accept all of that abuse, because it pales in comparison to the abuse that is heaped on our dogs and cats and other animals in New York City. And when I'm mayor, it ends."
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