Brooklyn Spoke

I shot this short video this morning at around 8:45.  If you’re counting, you’ll find 35 cyclists in just a minute.  If the pace held, that would be 2,100 cyclists per hour.  Of course, the bike traffic came in waves and may have tapered off after 9 AM, but you never know.

DOT was out counting yesterday and today, so we’ll see what their numbers say.

The 1980 transit strike is seen by some as the moment women switched from uncomfortable shoes to sneakers and flats, making a woman in business attire with running shoes one of the iconic images of New York City during the Eighties.  Could we see something similar with bicycles?

Via CNBC.com:

“Yesterday we outsold our busiest summer Saturday,” said Emily Samstag, manager of Bicycle Habitat in Brooklyn, speaking to a surge in bike-related sales just one day after Hurricane Sandy ravaged the East Coast. “Our first customer walked in and said: ‘The subways are down so I have to buy a bike’. That was standard all morning.”

All told the shop sold 15 bikes Wednesday. In October it usually sells a bike every two weeks.

Oh, and the story kicks off with this:

New York, once known as New Amsterdam, could soon look a lot more like…well, Amsterdam.

Via Rock Camp for Girls, which is helping some of the communities in Red Hook and Sunset Park that have been affected by Sandy.  If you have a cargo bike or big sturdy bicycle capable of making deliveries, please help out tomorrow.  Here’s how to get involved:

 1) Drop off donations at Willie Mae Music Lab. We are officially accepting goods donations at 87 Irving Place in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn (between Fulton and Putnam). You can drop off items starting now until 6:30pm TODAY (FRIDAY).

Items that are high priority (via https://redhook.recovers.org/):

-already prepared food (including food for children)

-blankets

-baby products (diapers, wipes, etc.)

-batteries, flashlights, candles, power strips

-toiletries (including toilet paper and paper towels)

-utensils such as spoons and bowls

-jugs of water

2) Join our delivery corps! Given the gas shortage, we are hoping to deliver any goods donations via bicycle to Sunset Park/Red Hook. Have a bicycle? Have panniers, a bike trailer, a giant backpack, a bike rack/bungie cords? Have a car with gas in it?

Join us SATURDAY NOVEMBER 3 at 11AM at 87 Irving Place with your bike and bags to pack everything up and start hauling it wherever they need it most in Brooklyn. We will leave Music Lab as soon as we get everything packed up. If you plan to help haul things, please email emmet@williemaerockcamp.org so I know who to expect.

Once we deliver the goods, we’re hoping to stick around and help out on the ground. More info on where we’ll end up as things evolve at various local shelters.

Thank you for anything/all that you are doing to help support those affected by the storm, and thank you in advance for helping spread the word about our donation drop-off center.

Rock Camp office: 347-599-0716

One member of my building’s maintenance staff took it upon himself to direct traffic on Fourth Avenue today as drivers queued up for gas at the BP station on 4th and Douglass two blocks away.  The line stretched for at least five or six blocks, almost to Atlantic Avenue.

The passenger arguing with him — “You’re doing a really bad job of directing traffic!” — got angry when he allowed a driver who had the green to turn right onto Fourth and take a place in line.  Meanwhile, drivers honk, block the intersection and otherwise create dangerous and unpleasant conditions for everyone else.  (Which is not all that unusual for Fourth Avenue, I should add.)

Barely two minutes after I finished shooting this video the station announced that it was out of gas.

To help with your post-Sandy commute, I’m leading a bike train on Friday morning.  We’ll depart from Gorilla Coffee, 97 5th Avenue, at 8:15 AM.  We’ll head to the Manhattan Bridge via Bergen Street, Smith Street, and Jay Street.  If you need assistance or directions getting somewhere in Manhattan after that I’ll make sure you get some help.

Important notes:

• You ride at your own risk.
• Ride safe and leave on time, or let your fellow commuters know asap if you can’t make it. We’ll provide cell and e-mail info to groups.
• If you’re speedy be prepared for a more leisurely pace.
• We will obey all traffic laws, including stopping for red lights, yielding to pedestrians, and riding with the direction of traffic.
• Bells and front and rear lights are required by law. Helmets are encouraged.

If you’re new to bike commuting or need to temporarily shift how you get to work this week please join!  More details can be found here.

You can also find a full list of other bike trains, including one leaving from Red Lantern Bicycles in Fort Greene, and information about Transportation Alternatives’ commuter stations at Bikeapolis.

Dani Simons has some excellent tips for biking to work which should come in handy as New York awaits the full restoration of electricity and subway service.  If I can re-emphasize any of them it’s this one:

Get some lights — front and back ones please! Use front and rear lights during darkness. Flashing safety lights, red for rear & white for front, are required by law and are available at bike shops and many hardware stores for $6-$10.

The power is still out in lower Manhattan, so be seen and be safe.  Plenty of bike shops are open today and tomorrow.  Best to bring cash since many of these shops are operating without power.

I’ll add to this list as I get more information in no particular order.  I’ll group them by location when I have time.  [LAST UPDATED 10/31, 9:06 PM.]

• Silk Road Cycles, Greenpoint, open at noon.
• Bicycle Habitat, SoHo and Brooklyn.  Offering free bike safety check-ups, discounts on lights and locks.
• Dog Day Cyclery, Red Hook, open at 10 AM.
• Red Lantern Bikes, Fort Greene, 9 AM to 9 PM. NYC Bike Train to Manhattan has three departures: 8, 8:15, 8:30.
• R&A Cycles, Park Slope, 10 AM to 7 PM.
• On the Move, Park Slope, 1 PM to 7 PM.
• Ride Brooklyn, Park Slope, 10 AM to 7 PM. Has bike rentals.
• Long Island City Bicycles, right off the Queensboro Bridge, open until 9 PM.
• Recycle-A-Bicycle, DUMBO, 12 to 7 PM.
• Recycle-A-Bicycle, Lower East Side, 12 to 7 PM.
• Bike Heaven, 348 E. 62nd St, 10 AM to 7 PM.
• Champion Bicycles, 896 Amsterdam Ave, until 8 PM.
• 718 Cyclery, Gowanus, 9 AM – 9 PM.
• Brooklyn Bike and Board, Prospect Heights, 9 AM to 9 PM. Has bike rentals.
• Kickstand Bicycles, 316 E 49th Street, 10 AM to 7 PM.
• Bicycle Renaissance, 430 Columbus Ave btwn 79/80th, M-F 1030am to 7pm S/S 10 to 6
• Master Bike Shop, 265 W 72nd St btwn Bway and West End , M-F 1030-7pm Sat 930-6 Sun 10-6. Has bike rentals.
• Metro Bike, corner of  W. 47th & 9th Ave, M-F 10-630, Sat 930-6 Sun 10-6
• Liberty Bicycles, 845 9th Ave btwn 56th/55th, 930-6.  Has bike rentals.

If possible, please call or check to verify hours and availability of bike rentals or other services.

Transportation Alternatives volunteers will be on the bridges Thursday and Friday ready to help, too.

One last piece of advice: ride slowly.  If bike commuting is a classic case of slow and steady wins the race, that Aesopian lesson will be on display this week more than ever.  You could walk your bike to work and still get there faster than anyone else.  No need to rush and risk an accident.

Thanks to everyone for their emails and contributions, including Chris McNally, Liz Patek, and Stephen Miller.

Transportation Alternatives has released a statement calling for some common-sense measures to be put in place in the aftermath of Sandy.  There’s no doubt that getting people going back to work with limited MTA service is going to create some headaches out there and the last thing we need will be thousands of private cars clogging the roads.  TA’s suggestions include:

• Emergency Bus Lanes to allow swift transit throughout the City until subway service is restored.
• Emergency Street Reservations exclusively for the safe use of walkers, bikers and emergency vehicles.
• Off-Peak Bridge Biking and Walking Lanes to ensure sufficient safe space for people on foot and bicycle and prevent overcrowding on the bridges.
• Emergency Biking Lanes on well-used routes to enable safe mobility, including coned-off Midtown bike lanes.
• Bike Parking Stations and Temporary Bike Storage in major employment centers in Lower Manhattan including Foley Square, Union Square, Herald Square, Times Square, Washington Square Park and Bryant Park.
• High Occupancy Vehicle Requirements on crossings into the most congested areas of the city.
• Carpool Staging Areas offering parking and passenger pick-up locations in support of drivers sharing rides to meet the HOV requirements.

I will be leading a group commute on Wednesday or Thursday leaving from Park Slope area to help anyone who’s new to bike commuting and needs to get to work.  Stay tuned for details.

Photo: NY Post

The New York Post’s Jennifer Fermino hops in her wayback machine to pen an attack on one of Brooklyn’s oldest bike routes, which she claims are causing problems for bus drivers:

The bike lanes — between 23rd and Dean streets — leave little room to avoid opened car doors or bikes that come whizzing out of nowhere, Davis said.

“Nine times out of 10, you can swerve around, but here, there’s nowhere to go,” he said.

Some of the lanes are protected — meaning they are sectioned off from regular traffic — while others are what are known as “shared paths.”

FACT CHECK: There are no protected bike lanes on 5th Avenue between 23rd and Dean streets in Brooklyn.  Instead, from 23rd Street to Carroll Street there is a class 2 bike lane, which, in fact, gives bus drivers plenty of room to avoid opened car doors.  From Carroll to Dean streets 5th Avenue has painted sharrows, which create no difference to the fundamental geometry of the street.  Complaining about the space taken up by sharrows is like saying your apartment is smaller ever since you repainted the living room.

I always find it amusing how the worst attacks on bike lanes actually make the case for their necessity.  To wit: If the 5th Avenue bike route was actually “sectioned off from regular traffic,” bus drivers wouldn’t have to worry about bikes “whizzing out of nowhere.”  Then again, is it too much to ask bus drivers to keep an eye out for cyclists on one of Brooklyn’s most heavily trafficked–and oldest–bike routes?

So take a look at that photo.  Is the problem that the man in the bright red jacket riding next to a painted bicycle symbol is taking the bus driver by surprise?  Or is it simply that of all of the obstacles slowing down buses on 5th Avenue cyclists are the easiest target for Post writers?  Fifth Avenue is indeed a “skinny thoroughfare,” but it seems as if in Fermino’s rush to trash Bloomberg she’s concluded that skinny road users are the problem.

Via Wired:

The effects of going into a bike share are predictably beneficial, but here are some hard numbers. Capital Bikeshare’s 2011 member survey showed that over 41 percent of users reported that they cut down on time in their cars since joining, adding up to driving 523 miles less per year, or 487.7 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions. Capital’s members kept 1,632 tons of carbon dioxide out of the air in the organization’s first year. Most bike-share programs average a $75 annual fee, which, according to the same survey, translates to a driver saving about $819 a year instead of driving a car or traveling via taxi.

I went out for a pre-storm ride with Jonathan Maus from BikePortland.org and was pleasantly surprised to see huge numbers of Brooklynites on bikes, despite the looming storm.  Once the storm hits it’s best to stay off the roads entirely.  Stay safe, everyone.