Review: Changing Lanes

Changing Lanes looks at how to make streets safer

The Architecture & Design Film Festival was on this week and I caught two documentaries back to back. Most of the audience at the VIFF were architects, low key but cool dressing, talking shop with their colleagues in the waiting area.

The first film was Changing Lanes directed by Ben Wolf and while it's about an area in Brooklyn, New York, it applies to any neighbourhood that is fighting to make things better. Wolf notes at the beginning of the film that he made the entire documentary by hauling equipment with his bicycle.

It opens with the death of a beloved elementary school teacher who was killed in a hit-and-run accident at Greenpoint and the residents in the area as well as grassroots activists mourn his death, and also call for the street to be designed safer for pedestrians and cyclists.

Activists rally for safer streets for pedestrians

When cities first sprang into life, there were no street lights because there were horse-drawn carriages and people walked or ran. But with the advent of cars, people were getting killed trying to cross the street. 

One activist explains it's the carmakers who blamed the accidents on the pedestrians, creating the word "jaywalking" and making it a crime for people to cross the street willy nilly, when it was something they did before cars existed.

Mayor Ed Koch tried to make New York more bike friendly and turned 6th and 7th avenues into bike lanes, but car drivers hated it and then the bike lanes were soon gone.

It wasn't until Michael Bloomberg in 2012 hired Janette Sadik-Khan as transportation commissioner did they begin bringing in bike lanes and started the Citi Bike sharing program. It also made political sense -- mayors who bring in bike lanes get re-elected again and again.

Hmmm maybe not Gregor Robertson, who got voted out of City Hall in Vancouver...

But we digress.

Numerous activists and pro-cycling people appear in Changing Lanes, most notably musician David Byrne, who is filmed riding his bike and explaining how it helps him get around the city and meet people, something he continues to do while on tour.

Byrne admits it can be dangerous cycling in NYC

There's someone who used to work at the city's transportation department, and Sadik-Khan, while activists hold rallies to get people to support their cause, but they get pushback from a businessman in the area who thinks redesigning the street will affect his business.

At first current Mayor Eric Adams is for changing the street design at Greenpoint, but then backs off; it turns out the businessman gave Adams a lot of money and was eventually indicted along with Adams.

So Changing Lanes shows that grassroots activism is important to voice your opinion, but also money can sway politicians to not necessarily do what's best for the community.

Redesigning streets, activists argue, will give people options of how they want to get around the city. Building more lanes doesn't necessarily relieve traffic james; in many cases it makes the situation worse. It was found that with more bike lanes, local businesses saw increases in customer sales because it was more accessible in terms of pedestrian and cyclists.

This is something all mayors should think about when considering how to make their cities better.

Changing Lanes

Directed by Ben Wolf

73 minutes