I have a hierarchy in my head of people, bikes, and cars as I make my way around NYC. When it comes to cars, I don’t like most of them, I tolerate some, and I constantly shake my fist at the rest. I tolerate most delivery vehicles. Most of them are professional and needed. But at the bottom of the food chain it is the black SUVs that are the worst of the worst, which is ironic because they signal the best experience for the people riding in them.
They used to be black Lincoln Town Cars, but today they are all black Lincoln Navigators and Cadillac Escalades. They signal the upper end of the experience for people who are too good to take a taxi, the subway, or walk. They are everywhere. In front of every hotel, at every intersection, and on every street. They signal luxury and quality to the people who ride in them, representing the top of the food chain when it comes to urban transportation, but when you are riding a bike in NYC, or walking, they are the bottom of the barrel. The worst of the worst.
The black cars never see you. They just don’t care. They block bike paths. They turn in front of you out of left turn lanes when you have the right of way. They stop in the middle of blocks sitting on their phones, blocking all traffic, when there is a parking space to the right of them. When they do something wrong they do not care. They are better than everyone else. I almost get hit by one every day, and often multiple times a day, depending on how much I ride around the city. They are worse than yellow cabs, who are awful creatures. There is nobody I loathe more, and keep an eye on more, than the black SUVs.
You have to watch the black SUVs the entire time they are present. If they are stopped, they’ll just gun it the moment they are done looking at their cell phone. Do not ever try to get around them. They drift, and they’ll crush you. When they are blocking the bike lane despite a fully functional parking lane sitting right there for them, and you ride by and knock on their window, or tell them the error of their ways when their window is down, they just give you a blank stare. They don’t care. They don’t see you. You don’t matter. Only the people who ride in their vehicles matter. Everyone else does not exist. That is their priority.
I find it pretty representative of how “the machine” works. Where the top end experience for some is actually the bottom end experience for everyone else. They are gas guzzling. They take up more space. They are too tall to see most pedestrians and cyclists. They are dangerous. If I am ever given the opportunity to vote for extra fees and taxes to be levied against any transportation group, I will gladly do so against the black SUV drivers. I give no grace to them. Some taxi drivers and delivery drivers I can tell are professionals. I have yet to come across a single black SUV driver I would apply that word to. You experience a lot of danger and hostility riding around NYC, and a significant share of that comes from the black SUVs that are ubiquitous here.
