|
|||||
|
Anita Singh from Brooklyn By Bike, has been spearheading food themed bike rides for a bunch of year’s now. It’s a great way to meet people and eat your way around the city, on bicycle. Here is a recap from the last one, a donut ride and info on the next one coming up May 21st. Dumplings. http://www.brooklynbybike.com/brooklyn-bike-tour-donut-dumplings/ Last Friday night, cloudy, cool, and rainy in NYC, so NYC Critical Mass was not personally experienced, instead, opting to bike to the indoor, and heated annual free Bike Expo New York which closed at 8 PM that night (props go out to the volunteer mechanics from Recycle-A-Bicycle). Since that night, we’ve heard no personal account of the NYC ride, that, with the weather, and the fact the weekend also hosted the Red Hook Meanwhile, in London, England, youtube video clearly shows a police officer hit a Critical Mass rider with his patrol car, run over and destroy another’s bicycle, and then take off, according to Evening Standard’s better youtube video. Not sure what led up to the confrontation? Apparently there was a questionable arrest before the cyclists’s surrounded the police car. This contrasts with a report in Streetsblog, ironically today, which claims cycling is “booming” in London. I guess there are two sides to every story? Here is an eyewitness account of the incident in London:
Check out the other two videos above too, they are not embeddable, or they would be embedded on this blog. The spring edition of the NY Bike Jumble swap meet, the largest bicycle flea market in NYC, is coming again to the Old Stone House in Park Slope on Saturday 5/14/2016. Here is your chance to get a great deal on bicycles, accessories and clothing. At 5th Ave. and 4th Street in Brooklyn, you’ll find vendors representing established bike shops as well as people with new and used bikes to sell. Plus there will also be advocacy groups and bike mechanics from Time’s Up offering free bike repairs…so come on down! NY Bike Jumble: May 14, 2011. from NY Bike Jumble on Vimeo. If you are interested in becoming vendor yourself, you can sign up here As we wind down a sobering April, in which two NYC cyclists were recently killed in Clinton Hill, and Park Slope, adding to the 4 already reportedly killed through 2/29/2016 according to the official Vision Zero website, we can at least look forward to the monthly Manhattan Critical Mass community bike ride? Not so fast, it was reported only 4 cyclists showed up at the northern end of Union Square last month, at the usual 7 pm starting time, not even worthy an unwanted NYPD escort! That’s fewer than the number of cyclists killed this year in NYC. Well, maybe we can take some solace in Critical Mass video from around the world, where the ride thrives, and hope for a better May when bike month begins? Houston Critical Mass – 3/25/2016 Miami Critical Mass – 3/25/2016 London Critical Mass – 3/25/2016 Hamburg Critical Mass – 3/25/2016 From 7 PM to 10 PM on Saturday May 14th, 2016 the Brooklyn Greenway Initiative is hosting a fundraising “Bike Rave” described as “a glowtastic night ride along the Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway” supporting the 14-Mile route that will connect neighborhood parks and open spaces from Greenpoint to Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. What a good cause? Also during the ride, “a curated radio show by Newtown Radio will be streamed with a click of a button and played on portable speakers that you bring.” Cool or what? The 8 mile route: “Starting in Greenpoint, the group will ride through Williamsburg, travel inside the Brooklyn Navy Yard, through DUMBO and Brooklyn Bridge Park and loop back to finish under the iconic Archway under the Manhattan Bridge in DUMBO”, where there will be “food, water and music and riders will compete for prizes for best decorated bicycles.” according to DNAinfo. This international event, which can draw thousands, looks like it has great potential for a memorable night outdoors with fellow cyclists, based on videos from Vancouver, Canada, Reminiscent of our own Bike Summer in 2003. You can order tickets here, or if you are the volunteering type for free, here. Via streetsblog.org, reportedly the free 2016 New York City Bike Map which you can either download as a pdf now, get a paper one mailed to you by calling 311, or stop by your favorite NYC bike shop to pick up a paper copy, will be available in print shortly.
Image Credit: NYC DOT According to the DOT 365,000 copies will be printed this year. While according to the Gothamist, and DNAinfo, there are some errors on them that will hopefully get fixed before all those maps are printed! At least that’s some good cycling news, as NYC Critical Mass nearly reaches extinction, meetup #BikeNYC did reach extinction, and we just learned, there will be no Ghost Bike Memorial Ride this year not because we reached Vision Zero in 2015.
Screenshot from “New NY Bridge – Conceptual Rendering” youtube video 2:28. Good news, yes, the 12 foot wide Shared Use Path (SUP), is scheduled to open in 2018, but it appears for years, many South Nyack residents are concerned about, having their city made more bike friendly (otherwise known as NIMBYism). One would think the 3,500 residents would be more concerned about the expansion of the bridge to 4 lanes in either direction, currently daily, bringing an average of 140,000 motorists (with a high of 170,000) and its increased pollution, and potential accidents due to increased speeding? A uniform 100 to 120 motor vehicles per minute. Instead “Their fear is the 3-mile path may become a tourist attraction. By the state Thruway Authority’s own estimates, 473 visitors could visit it per hour during peak times.” At maximum, 8 people per minute, not the average, or median number. So instead of having the bike path ending calmly, in the town itself, the residents strongly advocated to dump cyclists in a yet to be built 56 space parking lot at Exit 10, a nearby busy exit off the Tappan Zee Bridge, and the Raymond G. Esposito Trail, the so called “Concept F”, due to concerns about additional local traffic. In the long run, the residents could regret this, as the bike ride to the Tarrytown Metro North Station, is much flatter, than biking to the Nanuet Metro North Station, any time they want to invade the City by public transportation (Metro North offers a $5.00 lifetime permit to bring bicycles on their trains), or bike across the bridge for any other purposes. To avoid this mistake, an additional access point is needed at the River Road/Piermont Avenue/Bike Route 9 crossing, and since the 56 new parking spots at Exit 10 are written in stone, this should not cause any additional motorized traffic for local residents by tourists. Finally, a source tells me, even 24/7 access to the SUP is in question, if you can believe that? Public comment on the proposals is open until 4/1/2016, no joking, so don’t be a fool, send an e-mail to info@NewNYBridge.com about these and other issues concerning this vital bike path. The Shared Use Path (SUP) appears between 2:23 to 2:45 in the video Daily cyclist and artist, Canadian Stephen Lund likes to create large scale GPS doodles as he is rides his bike. As reported on Bored Panda, and other news outlets, Stephen “began his unusual craft in 2015 to unwind and be creative; since then, he’s logged 22,300km, and his longest piece has been a 220km mermaid.” Check the above links for more fantastic images. Can you think of any images you’d like to see created on NYC streets?
As reported by the Gothamist, and other news outlets, just before 5:40 PM on Tuesday 2/16/2016, 59 year old avid cyclist, Stanley “Lee” Marshall, was struck and killed as he was biking on Richmond Road (at the intersection of Andrews Avenue), in Staten Island.
The family is seeking contributions to cover funeral and medical expenses for him on a Go Fund Me page devoted to Lee’s memory. According to the family: “Lee Marshall was a friendly and selfless man who would give you his last dollar and the shirt off of his back. He had no material wealth but behaved as though he had through the generosity of his character,” the page reads. “He was always ready and willing to help whenever he was asked, and lived a very simple and solitary life.” On Valentine’s Day, the New York Times featured a piece on using cargo bikes to move someone’s belongings from one Manhattan apartment to another, instead of trucks, or other motorized vehicles.
Photo Credit: Karsten Moran for the New York Times (many more photos of the January move are included in the article). Thinking about a cargo bike move for yourself? You might contact this elusive NYC group through their facebook page. |
|
||||
|
Copyright © 2016 Bike Blog NYC - All Rights Reserved |
|||||
