It's Been Awhile.....

After Sandy about two weeks ago, I finally got my act together and borrowed a bike. I have a decent bike somewhere in my parents house, but I am embarrassed to say that I have not physically mounted a bike in probably well over a decade. When I was a kid I would bike to school all the time in Flatbush. But to my defense the last time I did bike, it was a major trip.
After high school I went to study in Israel for a couple of years and during one of our intersessions we decided we would trek up north to bike around the Kineret (also known as the Sea of Galilee). Being young and stupid, I thought no problem, I play tons of sports every day, but I did not realize that stamina is a whole different ball game. It was something like a 35 miles circumference, but it was not even the length that killed me, but all those freakin mountains I had to pedal up.

We started with a group of about 10 to 12 guys and over the course of eight hours we eventually all got separated. We all planned to meet up at the end to relax at the hot springs of Tiberias. I actually completed the entire route completely by bike. But, get this, I found out years later that a bunch of the guys, who by the way were physical specimens, completely wussed out and hitched a ride on a pickup for at least a quarter of the distance. Wusses.

Flash forward a decade later, and for some reason I hadn't been on a bike since that Kineret trip (I think?). I figured that I am living in the epicenter of the storm and that I would utilize this bike trip to check out some of the damage. I was specifically excited to bike across the Atlantic beach bridge which has spectacular views, including downtown Manhattan [although the bridge has a two dollar car toll which in itself is not a big deal, but because they are morons, they don't accept ez-pass, so you have to be carrying cash if you want to drive over the bridge. The worst part about that is that there is controversy surrounding the toll, as it was discovered that virtually the entire toll goes into paying the personnel that man the toll booths. Either it is the worst case of economic mismanagement, or as I suspect, these Atlantic Beachers want people to stay off their island]. The Atlantic Beach section of Long Beach was unfortunately one of the worst hit areas of New York.

My route started along the 878 Nassau Expressway, which is a signaled highway that has it's own dedicated bike lane. I started at Central Ave and made my way south towards the Atlantic Beach Bridge. The dedicated bike lane is very spiffy and has double yellow lines for two-way traffic and many bike-specific road signs. I occasionally would see people using this route for biking, but most people use it as a sidewalk to walk or jog along the 878, and my trip was no exception.

One of the fist obvious after-effects of the hurricane I came across was when I was nearing the water. Obviously this part of the route was flooded and as you can see in the picture below, the bike path was covered in broken sea-shells:

As I got closer to the bridge there was a sign stating that one must walk the bike over the bridge:

 When I got to the bridge there was a more ominous sign warning that riding over the bridge could result in a $250 fine. And yet I saw two bikers flouting the rules and biking over the bridge anyway. So of course like the non-jaywalking citizen I am, I dutifully walked the bike over the bridge which seemed to take forever. The bridge is about 1,200 feet but when you go from speeding on a bike to walking, the difference is extremely apparent. I don't totally get why they call it a pedestrian path as it is connected to a bike lane, although I did see one guy walking across the bridge past me.

Unfortunately, all of the above pictures were taken by my phone while I was riding. I did stop to take a ton of great pictures with a regular camera, but somehow the pictures got corrupted and I cannot retrieve them. I got some spectacular shots over the bridge as well as some depressing shots of the desolation of Atlantic Beach.

When I got across the bridge I turned east to check out the north and south beaches which are only three blocks apart. I wanted to explore Atlantic Beach a little more, but I forgot how quickly it would get dark, and I did not have the proper equipment for riding in the dark. So I circled back around and then took the same route back home.

Overall, my view on the experience was that the bike path needed some serious repaving, but all the other aspects were phenomenal. especially all the dedicated signage and rights of way. If I had to commute from Atlantic Beach to Far Rockaway everyday, I would definitely do it by bike, as the actual bike part (excluding the walk over the bridge) was a pleasure.

The End of the 30-Minute Parking Space Hunt

A significant portion of congestion (and hence, emissions) comes from people looking for parking.  San Francisco thinks they can change that.

http://www.theatlanticcities.com/sponsored/inspiring-global-cities/2012/12/end-30-minute-parking-space-hunt/54/

Great Transit Website

Just found this fantastic transit website... troves of information and beautiful maps/charts about nearly every transit system in the world and proposals for new ones:

www.thetransportpolitic.com

New York City Bike lanes: A Kid’s Perspective

My husband and I moved to the Upper West Side in 2005.  One of the sights we loved was the development along the Hudson, with the bike lane as one of its primary attractions.  We thought it would be nice to own bikes and cruise along the Hudson River.  And what about that: our building has a free-to-use bicycle storage room.  However, we did not take any action to bring this to reality for some time. 

In summer 2006, I spent a full month in Berlin, as part of student exchange program in the City College’s school of Architecture. Design-wise, it was one of the worse semesters I had.  But when I returned home, there was a surprise: my husband bought us both bikes!  We used them almost every weekend, mostly along the Hudson, both south and north, enjoying the city’s waterfront!

The years past, and our family expanded.  So, we decided to get a baby-bike-seat and installed it on my husband’s bike.

As the picture shows, the little one really enjoyed his seat of honor and joined us on several rides and picnics along the river.

Obviously, the next step was for our son to claim independence, and from around age 4 he started to ride his own bike.  For this specific task of writing in our blog, I recruited him as an advisor, asking him to take a ride along that same path on the Hudson River, from our apartment building on 63^rd Street and West End Avenue, south to the Riverside South Park entrance on 59^th Street, go up north along with Riverside Park bike lane through Pier 1 (parallel to 70^th Street), and return home from there via Riverside Boulevard.  I asked my son about his experience taking this ride, with a combination of open- and guided-questions.  To note, he is 5 years and 3 months old at the time of taking this ‘test-ride’.

So, here we go:

My son’s first part of the ride was to get out of the building on a Sunday morning, with drizzle conditions, and ride on the sidewalk towards 59^th street.  Obviously, he could not ride the street with the cars humming along West End Avenue.  The first part of his trip was joyful, going down the small hill from 63^rd street towards 62^nd. 

While he enjoyed going down a hill, he told me that he wish he wouldn’t have to stop for the lights on West End Avenue and 62^nd, 61^st, and 60^th streets.  

Before we continued to 59^th street, my son wanted to explore the new street recently opened on 61^st street.  So we made a right turn, to encompass our building complex.  Interestingly enough, along that route, my son encountered a bump that kept his wheels from turning…..he was trying to continue while his back wheel was turning in the air, just like a cartoon…

We then returned to West End Avenue, and went south to the corner of 59^th Street, heading west-bound on 59^th street.  This was a very bumpy sidewalk, which is not commonly used by pedestrians.  The ride was slower for him, since he had to be careful for the numerous bumps due to the poor condition of the pavement along this street. 

Once we got to Riverside South park entrance, he had to wait for us (the adults) and carefully merge in the bike traffic going north-south (two ways).  He told me: “mommy, this is like a bicycle highway”.  My assumption is the traffic was somewhat slow that morning due to the almost-rainy weather (although warm for an early December morning).  From my experience, traffic on this bike lane is definitely much heavier on the spring/summer days.

From there my son went up along the bike path, all the way to 70^th street, with my husband and me accompanying him by foot.  Some of his feedback to this ride up-to 70^th street was that he did not like having to steer to the right, as we kept reminding him, so that faster riders can pass him on his left while staying on this two-way path.  He was afraid to get too close to the right-side fence that is in many parts of the section he was riding in.

I can add that as an adult walking by a young bike rider, it did not feel safe.  Most of the path is not a shared path, and the choice to make is either take the joggers/rollerblades path with a kids bike, or take the bike path and walk by him.   We took the second option, but it required active monitoring for his safety.

Otherwise, my son thought that the path was smooth, with no significant bumps (especially for his training-wheels assisted bike).  The flat path was easy for him to manage with no uphill paddling, but did not offer him any rides down a hill/ramp, which he pointed out.

The view along the river was nice, although the iffy weather was not as helpful.  We could not enjoy the same sights of the river, boats and the George Washington Bridge as we had in previous rides.

The service locations along the path were also not great during this off-season.  In the spring/summer/fall, one can stop for a meal at the Pier 1 Café (a kids favorite for anyone on the Upper West Side), or use the restrooms outside the café area.  Both of these were closed during this mid-December ride.

Also, if we wanted to park his bike (or ours as well), and lock them, there were no apparent bike-parking locations.  The only options were tying the bike to the river-front fence or any of the numerous benches along the esplanade. 

We could not have done this ride in the late afternoon hours, since there are no lights along the bike path, which could have been really enjoyable for a breezy evening ride in the summer. 

From 70^th street, we had two choices of return: walk the bike up the ramp to Riverside Boulevard (riding the bike along the ramp – up or down – is not allowed), or continue to 72^nd street, and ride up a VERY steep hill to reach the northwest corner of Riverside Boulevard and 72^nd Street.  We chose to take the first option: our 5-year-old wanted his parents’ help in walking his bike up the ramp.

Once on riverside (by 68^th street, since the ramp is 2-block-long), my son wanted to ride his bike again.  This time, he was going on the west side of Riverside Boulevard, which is a nice, long walkway without any lights or parking garages.  This allowed him to speed away, and we could see him getting ahead of us by several blocks.  Ironically, both the child and his parents felt safer for him taking this part of the ride, although it was a sidewalk, and not a designated bike path.  He stopped at 63^rd street to wait for us to cross the street towards our building, eastbound.

The overall ride took us about 45-60 minutes, but some of it was due to the ‘questioning’ I had to do as part of interviewing my son for his riding experience. My son enjoyed his ride and felt safe, within the parameters and guidelines set for him.