I served on the board of directors of a New York City transportation policy advocacy group for 2-3 years in the early 90s. Bike lanes have ever been, and probably always will be, a contentious issue. Not only do lots of drivers and even pedestrians hate them, but cyclists and bicycle advocates are not even uniformly in favor of them. They have also exacerbated the culture gap between hipsters and the orthodox jewish community in Williamsburg. Despite my interest interest in the field, I could never get too worked up over the issue. I probably spent more time thinking about how to process this image than about the efficacy of bike lanes.

This barely needed HDR treatment. The only element that needed tonemapping really was the fence,, and I could have done that manually, but the slider controls on Photomatix have become so familiar to me I use the program now as a tool for basic post-processing beyond just tonemapping.  After Photomatic I adjusted the sky and the signs independently in Nik Software’s Viveza, and then used Nik’s Color Efex to apply the a Kodak Ektachrome filter that added some pop to the whole thing.