05.10.09
Coming Down the West Side
I feel so bad. I got an email from a reader that asked what is happening with me!! I feel so loved!! So anyway, the deal is that I took a long hiatus from riding this winter and now I have gotten back up on the bike. However, now my ride has significantly changed. I used to live in Brooklyn in Park Slope which was near the bridge and I could do all my riding around downtown and Brooklyn and even parts of Queens. However, now I have moved up to Harlem, which means to get to downtown and Brooklyn, I have to go down the West Side Pathway. I have to say that I do indeed prefer going down the highway for miles rather than fight the tourists on the Brooklyn Bridge to get into downtown any day of the week. However, still we two wheelers have to share the road with the walkers–why they stroll side by side by side without a care in the world knowing that they are on an active road is beyond me. The top of the pathway is on some other level!! Up near Riverside, in the one hundred teens, the road becomes the octagonal paving stones, complete with sand all over it!! What a nightmare. And with kids and dogs running all over the place, you practically have to walk the bike until you get to the open road. Plus, there are stairs, turns and at one point, you have to cross over the highway!! And they make you cross at a point where the stop lights are up the block. I really hate to say it, but I can see a lot of people getting hurt at that spot.
Then there’s the breaks in the road that have stoplights so that foot traffic bikes know to stop to let cars pass by. That’s also a croc, because it is still dangerous, cars completely ignore crossing paths, thus forcing bikers and walkers out into moving traffic, and like I stated before, every time I see a Ghost Bike (one of which is on the West Side Pathway), I know it is dangerous. I mean, if we riders can’t feel safe on a designated pathway, what are we to do?
I have also noticed that they have carved out more biking roadway down in Little Italy, namely the one on Grand Street, going east from West Broadway. They have an interesting concept for this one. They have the cars park on the outside of the lane, thus keeping the moving traffic away from riders as they roll down Grand Street. Sounds good, right? However, if you need to make a left turn, forget it!! The parked cars block your view of the oncoming traffic, nor can the driver see you (especially when they pull all the way into the crossing lane) and that is potential for disaster.
They also have those lame alongside the sidewalk lane in Little Italy, but that might as well not even be there. The streets are so old and small, that it just becomes dangerous. The drivers totally ignore the lane when loading and unloading on the street, nor do speeding motorists allow comfortable room for cyclists, thus almost clippng the rider as the driver drags down the street. Every driver in Manhattan thinks they’re Speed Racer…
On another crazy note, somehow, someway I can’t pull my pictures off of my camera right now, so I can’t present pictures of my rides at the moment. I have some beautiful shots of the West Side Pathway and I encourage all riders to ride the entire length of the pathway. It is still looking pretty new, it has never been crowded when I ride on it, there are people on it at all times of the day and night and it’s right on the water and to look at bodies of water are calming. In any case, I will get my laptop fixed and post some awesome original pictures!!
Ride on kids…
