Bon Voyage!

I'm heading out of the country, perhaps for a while. There might be some "biking in foreign lands" posts, but I wouldn't bet on it.

Keep biking and see you in 2012.

Plan your route: Ride the City

I've had a link to this site for a while. But still, very few people know about the wonderful "Ride the City" bicycle route planner. There has been and will remain a link to this site in the right column of this blog. It's wonderful

Le me mention a few other things: 1) Google maps also gives bike directions. These directions are not bad.

2) Bike routes offered by Ride the City are consistently better than Google. How is that possible, you might ask? I do not know how; I do not know why; but Ride the City is better than google, at least for bike directions. Also, Ride the City gives you the wonderful choice between "direct," "safer," and "safe." The latter tries to keep you on bike lanes. Direct is the shortest possible distance. "Safer" tries to mini-max the two. Usually I go for some combo of Direct and Safer.

3) You'll be surprised at the new short cuts and routes you never thought of taking (the same thing happens with google-map subway directions, by the way).

Just last night, for instance, I learned of a new route from the Honeywell Ave Bridge at Northern Blvd to Greenpoint Ave and Brooklyn. It's a route I've taken dozens of times. And yet I had never thought of going right on Skillman Ave to 30th Street, to Star, to Van Damn, to the bridge. Not only was it shorter that my usual way, and it avoids a hill, and is nicer as it goes under rather than over the freeway.

Thank you, Ride the City!

They also offer bike routes for at least 30 other cities. I assume they're just a good. But I can only vouch for NYC.

Bike Commuting 101

At the Queens Library on Broadway. Aug 8, 6:30PM. Saturday at 11AM at the library at 21-45 31st Street. Here's the PDF flyer.

Here's my 101: Buy a bike with fenders and without quick release. Get a good lock or two. Bike. Everything else you can pick up as you go along.

Keeping Bike Lanes Free From Cars

As reported in the Guardian.



I particularly like the sneaker-and-sun-glass wearing white-jacket-on-black-t-shirt gold-chain fashion sense of the rich-asshole guy who got his car crushed (yes, I know it was all staged). He looks awfully like the guys I see hanging around cafes here in Astoria.

A great idea

Pop-up cafes in parking spots.

"But where will we store our cars for free, at the expense of all taxpayers?"

Cities and Bike Culture

About the Netherlands. From the NYT:

But while many Americans see their cars as an extension of their individual freedom, to some of us owning a car is a burden, and in a city a double burden. I find the recrafting of the city in order to lessen — or eliminate — the need for cars to be not just grudgingly acceptable, but, yes, an expansion of my individual freedom. So I say (in this case, at least): Go, social-planning technocrats! If only America’s cities could be so free.

Thank you, Ray

He built the Queensplaza improvements. And the bike lane... in Queensplaza, the one that means we don't have to bike the wrong way up Queensplaza North, is finally OPEN!

Biking across Central Park

If you want biking sympathy from non-bike riders, throw this fact at them: you can't bike across Central Park. It always works. Most people are somewhat shocked.

This state of affairs may be starting to change, according to the Times.

I'd still like a way to bike through the park on the south side, since that's how I, well, roll.

I see England, I see France...

There are many why I like biking in Amsterdam:

Cars give you right of way; pedestrians give you right of way; there are nice bike paths; distances are short; you're considered normal; there are good, practical bikes; you casually meet friend biking in the other direction...

Man the list goes on and on.

But one of the reasons biking in Holland is nice is that women have no problem peddling with short skirts.

What? They do. You want me to say it? OK: I like seeing ladies' underpants as the peddle toward me! Is that so wrong?

It might be in New York.

Oh, Jasmijn Rijcken, you have a beautiful Dutch name (don't be fooled by the "ij," it's just a long i sound--her name is pronounced YasMINE RIken), and, you know what? You are awfully cute. In this one story you've done more to make biking cool in New York City than all the members of Transportation Alternatives put together! Please keep biking!

(And notice her bike has a nifty built-in headlight!)

If only!

Bike lane added to Second Ave. Subway:

Dana Muskowitz, spokesman for the Gotham Motorists Association, expressed bewilderment at the plan, stating “our city’s relentless promotion of a trivial hobby at the expense of drivers’ urgent needs has reached unacceptable heights. Seriously, is the Mayor in the pocket of the front-mounted basket industry?”

Wolfson acknowledged that the Second Avenue bike lane was likely to face criticism. “Bike lanes have become a third rail in the city’s politics. So isn't eighteen inches from a third rail the most natural place to put those lanes?” Continued Wolfson, “allowing underground cycling is an environmentally friendly way of moving traffic around the city, not to mention the potential to dramatically reduce the number of cyclists who are struck by lightning.”

Queensplaza

Progressing at a snail's pace, the Queensplaza bike line has got to open soon. Can they work any slower?

Anyway, it's looking pretty good. And it really does tackle the mess that soon will be was Queensplaza.

The Oldest Manhole Cover in Astoria

OK, I just made that up, but it may be true. I suspect this cover and the granite slab predate the dissolution of Long Island City in 1898. That's old!

Where is this gem? Hiding in plain sight at Trade Fair, at the corner of 30th and 30th.

I actually noticed the old stone first when water was poring into it during the rainy weeks. Only then did LIC jump out at me. I haven't noticed any others (not that I walk around staring at manhole covers or anything, ahem).

The First Late-Night NYC Subway Map

I love the subway. Hey, stop your bitching... it's great. I wouldn't swap it for any other subway in the world.

And yet, it sure can be frustrating, especially at night. Now before I start bitching, let me say we should be grateful. Our subway is one of the only systems in the world that runs 24 hours a day (can you name the three others?). Not even supposedly first-class cities like London or Paris let their citizens get home in railed style.

And yet, unlike every other city in the world, the MTA has never made a map of night service. This is a pretty big omission. Want to know how to get home? The official MTA party line is, "Overhead directional signs on platforms show... late night service." Well that's not much help! Especially given the horrible up-to-20-minute Zombie Wait (cue dripping water and rats). And God forbid you have to transfer. Or make an honest mistake because you trusted the day map! I pity the poor person waiting for the R late at night to take them to Queens.

And then there are oddities like the E train stopping at Steinway Street. Fine. The E train is a mighty fine train. But how in the world are you supposed to know, looking at The Map, that the E train ever stops at Steinway? So how would know to take the E Train? And, oh yeah, the R, M, Z, 3, C, 5, and Times Square Shuttle don't run at all (except for some lines, at the far end, which I learned while making the map). Seems important.

On the plus side, the other night I was at Court Street in Brooklyn and was overjoyed to see the N train pulling in. I guess it does so every night. But I didn't know. Because it's not on the map.

After that night I actually wrote the MTA and offered to make a map night for them. Not surprisingly, I sort of got the runaround. So I did my best with photoshop and what I could find on line. I know the MTA is kind of anal about things like this, but my intentions are pure and non-commercial. This is a public service. I did the best I could. And any errors are my own (do let me know if you find mistakes). I do not claim any rights to this map (nor should you). It's the MTA's, if they want it. But they had nothing to do with the production.

So here's my contribution in time and labor to our great city, the MTA, and all the late-night subway riders. Plus, honestly, it was kind of fun! Download a PDF here.

[update: turns out I wasn't first. But it is the first you can download in pdf form... or even see if you don't have one of them newfangled iPhones! Plus, unlike a few others, it's accurate. And it looks like the normal subway map.]

[Further updates: Version 4 is now up, correctly labeling all the A stops.]


Download a PDF here.

Cycle Cops: 1918

Washington, D.C., 1918. "District of Columbia parks -- park policemen."

From Shorpy.

Happy Opening Day!

Bike Under the Train

This would be way cool... if not exactly entirely necessary.

The Randall’s Island Connector, part of the South Bronx Greenway, would run underneath an Amtrak trestle and create a new link to bike or walk between the South Bronx and Manhattan.