Month: June 2008

Biking in Astoria

Amsterdam again

So I’m in Amsterdam again. On day five, I saw my first fixed gear bike. It wasn’t like I was missing them or looking for them. I just find it interesting, one in five days. Meanwhile there are now hundreds of bakfietsen. In some ways, symbolically, a new bakfiets here is kind of like an…
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16 injured by runaway vehicles in Chinatown, Garment District and Harlem

And not one of those vehicles was a bicycle.Here’s the Post’s account. And the Daily News. I didn’t just do this just to prove my point about the comparative harmlessness of bikes. You gotta believe me! Why do we let cars do this? I wonder what’s going to happen to that car menace now that…
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Run Red Lights, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!

This was just left in a comment. It got me so riled up I thought I’d reprint it here. Jamie writes: A woman on a bike who didn’t stop for a red light almost hit me and my dog while we were crossing the street. We had a walk sign. There was no option for…
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Missed Connections

Just last week I was in the bike store on 28th Ave (not my normal store, but being able to drink at the Rover while getting a flat fixed is a big plus). A beautiful young woman was looking at bikes saying she’d never biked in the city before. Or something like that. Though she…
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Drunken Bicycling in NYC

Drunken Bicycling in NYC?! I’m all for it! And I’ve been guilty of it more than once. Now there’s drunk and in charge, a blog.

Could change actually be good?

Of course not. But with my ear to the ground, I do hear some footsteps of improvements. This plan for (Manhattan’s) Broadway (all of 7 blocks). And a few car-free “Summer Streets.” And unrelated, I bought a bicycle drink holder for my friend who likes walking down (Astoria’s) Broadway with a gin and tonic in…
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Operation Barrier in Effect

The NYPD has implemented an innovative, some would even say brilliant, approach to keep motorized traffic from driving in bike lanes. It’s called Operation Barrier. And since the NYPD’s trial run on Fulton Street in Brooklyn, reported incidences of cars illegal driving in the bike lane have dropped to zero. Outstanding! Keep up the good…
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Wait till next week

Astoria Bike will not be posting until June 16, give or take a few days. See you then.