I’m in Seattle, not NYC, but this is an almost daily nuisance for me, both as a driver and as a pedestrian. Cyclists in general seem to have an attitude like rules and laws don’t apply to them. I see them blowing red lights, disobeying all-way stops, and nearly running over people all the time.
In my experience in cities where cycling is built into the architecture of the city, most do tend to follow the road rules. However, a pedestrian might still find it rude if a cyclist were to pass close enough to brush shoulders, or a driver might find it rude for a cyclist to lane split.
From my perspective that kind of "rudeness" is just part city life, though, it's not really something exclusive to cyclists.
On the rudeness aspect though, I do find cyclists in general pretty rude. I've even seen cyclists that seem to outright seek confrontation by putting themselves in situations that are unfavorable to them. For example, the other day I observed a challenging traffic situation and a driver had to stop mid turn at a corner. A cyclist was coming and saw the whole thing happen, but they still positioned themselves such that a "hook" accident could occur once things started moving again. As soon as the car started moving to complete their turn, the cyclist also moved forward and started arguing with the driver. It looked pretty clearly premeditated.
Bicyclist has their kid mindset of rules not applying to them, I believe. Also they go closer to pedastrians than they would with a car.
It maybe just that bicycles are not that good in dense cities. In my small home town there was enough space for both bicycles and pedestrians.
The difference is that cyclists don't kill people, and actually get hurt when they do stupid stuff like this. Cars often just drive off.
That's not why the article said they are there - they're there to turn cars away. Surely they won't care about people crossing a more-or-less empty street?
but precisely because it's almost empty, it's very easy to jaywalk and not think about the bus coming down the street at 25 mph.
as another commenter said, the drivers brought this onto themselves. i think the impact of uber driving around waiting for a ride, + booked ubers double parked waiting for the charge to arrive, adds significantly to congestion. without getting into the uber/taxi debate, you could just see (and hear the honking) how difficult it was for the buses to get through even during normal traffic.
another quiet change that happened nearby, is the closure of union square w between 14th & 17th. theres an extremely high amount of pedestrian traffic, and near the edges of the square there's intersections that would get pretty dicey. now it's much, much better. to be fair, ny drivers are decent, but there's just too much volume (and pedestrians looking down at their smartphones). i'm sure people got hit on an almost daily basis. ironically, i'm more afraid of bicyclists hitting me than cars. they simply do whatever they want.
but still, i firmly believe these changes are a huge positive overall.