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Oct. 2nd, 2006 09:16 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
camwynUff da. Yesterday I finally got back on the bike and did some proper riding- I'd left it in the care of Chelsea Bikes all week, which I really shouldn't have done if only because they were done with the tuneup on Monday. My intent was to circumnavigate Manhattan, which I did not manage to do. I did, however, find out how one goes about getting from the Hudson River greenway to the Harlem River one. It involves taking the bike down the stairs at the very end of the main greenway on the Hudson side and riding along Dyckman Street, which seems nice at first- and then the bike lane goes away.
It would be nice for New York City to paint actual bike lane stripes on the streets where it hangs up signs saying 'recommended bicycle route'. Putting up bike route signs means nothing. Bike lanes are the only protection those of us who don't burn petroleum to get places HAVE. It's a summonsable offence, so far as I know, to ride your bike on the sidewalk if the wheels are over 24 inches. More often than not, even the supposedly bike-wonderful routes through Manhattan are basically death traps. Dyckman has bike lanes for a while, and then they go away, and then they come back, and then they vanish again in favour of the dedicated Harlem River greenway. I would feel a lot better if there was actual striping to indicate 'plz to not be driving here'.
Then again, people would double-park in them until the lanes got enforced by cops, and cops more often than not have better things to do than enforce the law in favour of cyclists.
Anyway. I got as far as that greenway, although on my first pass I went down the wrong side of the road, not realizing that I was riding on an essentially un-maintained and largely abandoned service road leading up to the viaduct. I stopped beside a wrecked, burned-out car that gave every impression of being the remains of the Back To The Future DeLorean, down to the part where the body of the car was smashed up in one place and most of its undercarriage was in bits in another. Turned out to be an Acura, but it was stopping to stare at the wreck that made me realize I could see a perfectly good bike lane on the other side of the highway. I turned around and went back, and rode as far along the Harlem River as I could. There was at one point a sign saying 'bicyclists dismount and walk', so I did, and I got to the end of the ramp and onto the Manhattan roads again…
And the signs went away. I had NO IDEA how to get to the greenway again, or to a recommended bicycle route, or anything. No signs at all, plus a torn-up road surface that bespoke asphalt repaving on its way. The last time I rode over that for any length of time I wound up with a flat, so I decided I'd take a chance on cops and went up on the sidewalk. I'd rather get a ticket than have a flat in unfamiliar territory with no clue of how to get to the nearest subway station. Fortunately there were no tickets and I eventually got back onto the roads, and Frederick Douglass Avenue turned into St. Nicholas and then into Central Park West, which I took to Columbus Circle. From there I skittered over to Columbus Avenue, because the other south-pointing streets looked horrifying, and then rode to the Whole Foods on 25th. I wanted herbal coffee substitute and by GOD I was going to get it.
For a proper circumnavigation of the city I should have found the greenway again and stayed on the edge of the island. I also should've gone back to NJ at the same point from which I started, but I had a car on reserve and was already late to pick it up, so I said 'sod this' and got on the PATH at 23rd street. Got a new bookshelf at IKEA and a three-drawer chest which will either replace my dresser or hold even more books. I'm probably going to need a five-drawer chest to really replace my dresser, but those weigh eighty pounds. I can only get sixty up the stairs by myself. As it stood, this one weighed forty-eight pounds, but the flatpak was small enough that with some assistance I was able to get it onto my head and up the stairs without trouble. Nothing assembled yet, but I'll do that when I get home.
Tonight I am going to take a freaking bath, and I am going to make tortellini and salmon and salad, and I am probably going to watch Heroes. Then I am going to freak out because I got a character at Milliways this month with OH GOD TWENTY FIVE YEARS OF CANON WHAT THE HELL AM I DOING, and whether or not anyone else knows his part of the canon enough to care, I want to get the Brigadier as close to right as possible. (AUGH. TWENTY FIVE YEARS. AUGH.) In the meantime I have work to do. I may also wind up writing some stuff for the other character I picked up this month, because Whistler1 ,2 , 3 has been VERY VERY LOUD in my head lately.
And maybe I'll write other things. Who knows?
1 No, not that one
2 Not that one either
3 David Strathairn, for pity's sake
It would be nice for New York City to paint actual bike lane stripes on the streets where it hangs up signs saying 'recommended bicycle route'. Putting up bike route signs means nothing. Bike lanes are the only protection those of us who don't burn petroleum to get places HAVE. It's a summonsable offence, so far as I know, to ride your bike on the sidewalk if the wheels are over 24 inches. More often than not, even the supposedly bike-wonderful routes through Manhattan are basically death traps. Dyckman has bike lanes for a while, and then they go away, and then they come back, and then they vanish again in favour of the dedicated Harlem River greenway. I would feel a lot better if there was actual striping to indicate 'plz to not be driving here'.
Then again, people would double-park in them until the lanes got enforced by cops, and cops more often than not have better things to do than enforce the law in favour of cyclists.
Anyway. I got as far as that greenway, although on my first pass I went down the wrong side of the road, not realizing that I was riding on an essentially un-maintained and largely abandoned service road leading up to the viaduct. I stopped beside a wrecked, burned-out car that gave every impression of being the remains of the Back To The Future DeLorean, down to the part where the body of the car was smashed up in one place and most of its undercarriage was in bits in another. Turned out to be an Acura, but it was stopping to stare at the wreck that made me realize I could see a perfectly good bike lane on the other side of the highway. I turned around and went back, and rode as far along the Harlem River as I could. There was at one point a sign saying 'bicyclists dismount and walk', so I did, and I got to the end of the ramp and onto the Manhattan roads again…
And the signs went away. I had NO IDEA how to get to the greenway again, or to a recommended bicycle route, or anything. No signs at all, plus a torn-up road surface that bespoke asphalt repaving on its way. The last time I rode over that for any length of time I wound up with a flat, so I decided I'd take a chance on cops and went up on the sidewalk. I'd rather get a ticket than have a flat in unfamiliar territory with no clue of how to get to the nearest subway station. Fortunately there were no tickets and I eventually got back onto the roads, and Frederick Douglass Avenue turned into St. Nicholas and then into Central Park West, which I took to Columbus Circle. From there I skittered over to Columbus Avenue, because the other south-pointing streets looked horrifying, and then rode to the Whole Foods on 25th. I wanted herbal coffee substitute and by GOD I was going to get it.
For a proper circumnavigation of the city I should have found the greenway again and stayed on the edge of the island. I also should've gone back to NJ at the same point from which I started, but I had a car on reserve and was already late to pick it up, so I said 'sod this' and got on the PATH at 23rd street. Got a new bookshelf at IKEA and a three-drawer chest which will either replace my dresser or hold even more books. I'm probably going to need a five-drawer chest to really replace my dresser, but those weigh eighty pounds. I can only get sixty up the stairs by myself. As it stood, this one weighed forty-eight pounds, but the flatpak was small enough that with some assistance I was able to get it onto my head and up the stairs without trouble. Nothing assembled yet, but I'll do that when I get home.
Tonight I am going to take a freaking bath, and I am going to make tortellini and salmon and salad, and I am probably going to watch Heroes. Then I am going to freak out because I got a character at Milliways this month with OH GOD TWENTY FIVE YEARS OF CANON WHAT THE HELL AM I DOING, and whether or not anyone else knows his part of the canon enough to care, I want to get the Brigadier as close to right as possible. (AUGH. TWENTY FIVE YEARS. AUGH.) In the meantime I have work to do. I may also wind up writing some stuff for the other character I picked up this month, because Whistler
And maybe I'll write other things. Who knows?
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no subject
Date: 2006-10-02 02:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-03 02:39 am (UTC)