Best of NYC

To wrap up my trip to New York City, here are a few of my favorite shots...

Dodging pedestrian on Brooklyn Bridge

A chap enters the riverside bicycle path

Folding bikes are popular in a city with limited parking

Another mini bike

Williamsburg

Nitty Gritty City

When I visited NYC last week, I specifically left myself some extra time to wander around looking at the city's new bicycle infrastructure. 200 new miles of bike lanes in the past three years, for over 1500 total lane-miles. Impressive, no?

Bike lane on Broadway

Well, yes and no. The infrastructure itself is first class. I mean, I am really jealous, and I wish we could get anything that looks like that in Atlanta! Many of the lanes used colored pavement to make them stand out. Most of them are buffered, at least at key points. A beautiful bicycle-only path loops most of the way around the island of Manhattan, offering views of waterfront parks, and the bridges have designated bicycle lanes separated from motorized traffic. Altogether, it forms a pretty comprehensive network until you get out toward the edges of the city.

Traversing the Williamsburg Bridge on a dedicated bike lane. The pedestrian route is on the opposite side, also elevated above traffic.

Newly installed buffered lane with bike signal and signage

Using the lane

Bicycle facilities on the Brooklyn Bridge

A separated path next to 11th Avenue

However, I saw very few bicyclists relative to the total volume of traffic. There are streets in Atlanta with more frequent bicycle traffic than many parts of Manhattan! The majority of the people I did see on bicycles were making deliveries - men transporting restaurant take-out and flower bouquets for low wages. There were also a handful of spandex-clad athletes, some groups of tourists on rented bikes around major attractions, and a smattering of hipsters and everyday folks on basic city bikes. Hardly anyone was riding in the bicycle lanes. A large percentage were riding the wrong way, against traffic, in either the general purpose lane or a bike lane. Some were on the sidewalk.

Empty delivery basket, traveling wrong-way in the bicycle lane

A woman rides against traffic on a quiet street

Rented bicycles near Times Square

Chinese food trumps traffic controls

What's going on? I suspect it is the local transportation "culture". Every city has one. NYC has a dominant pedestrian culture in which motorists tend to expect people to be in the street. They drive cautiously compared to other cities and are very good about yielding to pedestrians. People cross the street whenever there is a break in traffic, regardless of signals or pavement markings. It seems to be understood that pedestrian travel is an essential part of a functioning city. This was the only place I have ever been in America where I felt like drivers interacted with me person-to-person when I was on foot. This is good for bicyclists, because drivers are expecting to see people in the roadway and to be respectful towards them. It does have drawbacks, though, as pedestrians often take over bicycle lanes.

Annexed bike lane

Bells are required in NYC - and used frequently on the Brooklyn Bridge to shoo pedestrians out of the bike lane

There is also an issue of supply and demand. Central Park and the waterfront path were popular. These routes had few pedestrians and ample room. Better yet, they allowed cyclists to travel at full speed, bypassing the traffic signals and congestion on parallel streets. But they didn't go where the people on bicycles were trying to go. For the delivery guys trying to transport hot food a few blocks away, as fast as possible, it seemed most expedient to ride up the nearest street even if traffic was going the opposite way. With lots of one-way streets and few curb cuts, the bike lanes rarely took cyclists to the front door of their destination. Instead they used the closest lane, often on the opposite side of the street from the bicycle facility, and rode up the sidewalk from the corner. The unprotected bike lanes served little purpose at all, filled with delivery trucks and double-parked cars, and the rest of the traffic was moving at bicycle speed anyway. At the Brooklyn Bridge, a one-way vehicular ramp forced bicycle riders coming from lower Manhattan to make a large lap around the block to reach the bike route; most rode wrong-way up the ramp instead.

One-way access to the Brooklyn Bridge bike route

 Theft is clearly an issue, and bicycles of any apparent value were rare. The vintage steel frame bicycles that I love were fairly common, probably because they are cheap, less attractive to thieves, and come equipped for city riding with baskets and fenders. Pedicabs were available in a few places, but the prices were exorbitant relative to a taxicab ($20 for 15 minutes).

A riderless pedicab using a brand new lane

Here are my recommendation to Mayor Bloomberg, who I'm sure is reading this, and to transportation commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan:

New York City needs a bike share program! Transportation in NYC is all about flexibility - take the subway to work, then walk to a nearby restaurant to meet friends, share a taxi over to the Village, maybe catch the bus home. But if you ride a bicycle somewhere, you are stuck with it. If your friends are taking a cab, you have to ride and meet them, or leave the bicycle behind and hope you can come back for it later. With a bike share, that flexibility is restored. It can be substituted for any other mode without committing you for the rest of the day. Friends can spontaneously decide to cycle somewhere together. And theft is not a concern for the rider.

 I would also recommend buffered two-way bike lanes, contraflow lanes, and, where feasible, separated bicycle paths that give riders an advantage over traffic. They could also use official recognition of the bicycle delivery operators, and ask them what type of infrastructure they need - priority bicycle parking? They could also support pedicab expansion and freight distribution management.

The waterfront path

Public Streets, Public Life

I know everyone is sick of hearing about politics, including me, so I won't address it directly. But I do want to make some observations about general concepts of political engagement and public discourse as they relate to urban form.

A few things struck me in New York City... One was the frequency with which I encountered parks, plazas, and community gardens. You didn't have to intentionally go to a park, you just kind of wound up in one on your way somewhere. There is Central Park, of course, an enormous presence throughout upper Manhattan. But there are also delightful public spaces crammed into every available spot. Benches and landscaping invite passerby to linger for a few extra minutes, and friends meet on street corners and near subway stations.

Park benches and gardens line the Broadway median

A cyclist greets friends at Union Square

Moments of beauty in everyday life

They are even reclaiming parts of the roadway, using planters, paint, and attractive fences to create places to walk and sit. (I'll describe how this affects bicycling in another post.)

The sidewalks themselves are enormous compared to most other cities. And with good reason; there are thousands - millions? - of people using them all day and night. I can't even guess how many people I came face-to-face with in the day I spent walking around. There are social norms in place so that you limit your actual interaction with others to a manageable level, such as not quite making eye contact. But you can interact if you want to, especially with people you encounter regularly. No matter what, you realize that you are in a diverse community but still have much in common with its members.

This opportunity for interaction is largely lacking in Atlanta, and people are noticing. At a recent meeting, one person after another said, in their own ways, "We don't have a public life in the Atlanta region. We don't have public places to meet, to express ourselves to the community, to interact with people who aren't exactly like us, to create a society. Everything is gated, commercialized, privatized. There is no commons."

One of the facts I heard about NYC, while I was there at my conference, was that 80% of their public space is their streets. This includes the sidewalks and bikeways. So the way that they use that space is crucial for creating a society, a public realm. I would assume the figures are similar for Atlanta's public space, but ours in almost entirely used for motor vehicles. You can't interact from a car. Honking and shouting are not a basis for community. Even rolling the window down to talk to a neighbor feels somewhat divisive, as you strain your voice over the sound of the motor and continually glance behind you for approaching traffic. And although local streets make up most of the transportation network, the majority of car travel takes place on major roads and highways where no meaningful interaction is possible at all.

How does this affect our perception of society? Will we support different public policies as a result? Does it change our perception of our role in the political system? Does it limit our ability to get unbiased information about the world around us? And if it is changing our sense of community for the worse, what can we do about it? Will we have the strength to change the existing policies, and create a new social and political future?

The High Line: NYC created a new park on elevated train tracks several stories off the ground

New Amsterdam?

There were several moments in New York City that made me wonder - had I been transported from New Amsterdam to old Amsterdam? Narrow, crooked streets were lined with narrow brick buildings, flower boxes bloomed from windows, and practical city bicycles were chained to every stationary object.

A stylish, mature woman in a camel blazer rode past, accompanied by the rhythmic creak of various worn bicycle parts.

Some blocks further on, a bicycle shop - the famous Adeline Adeline - offered Dutch-style city bikes from Batavus, Workcycles, Pashley, and Abici.

Bicycles in the Big Apple

I spent Thursday through Saturday in New York City. Observations on the infrastructure and the people I saw cycling will come in the next few days... For now, let me just share a couple of the unusual bicycles I came across: a "Heavy Duti", a "Von Hulst" from the Netherlands, and a "Monocle".

 

Stupid Cars

First of all, I apologize for the spotty postings recently. There was vacation, then I was sick for a couple of days...

Speaking of vacation, this recent trip was really the final straw for me regarding car travel. 10 hours in the car (plus stops) is just too much for a rational human being. Your back aches, your butt is going numb, you are bored out of your skull, and there is really nothing you can do about it. Maybe you can nap a little or play some road games, but you can't get up and walk around or do anything fun. If you're like me, reading or watching movies in the car makes you queasy. Even with two people along, you still have to do a lot of driving. Highway driving. Which is very stressful, so you spend hours suspended in a state of anxious immobility.

I'm a pretty good long distance driver. I have lived in the country before, where everything was an hour away. And I've had times in my life when I was making long trips almost every week, for various reasons. I still appreciate aimless drives through the countryside.

But in this case, driving was a nightmare. And expensive. And I realized there are better options. I have sworn never to do it again. Any time I can, I will take the train as far as I can, then rent a car or catch a bus. On the train, you can walk around, relax, read, or wander down to the dining car for a snack and a beer. That's traveling in style... If there's no train, maybe I will fly. Worst case, I'll break the driving up into two days.

To add injury and insult to, um, something, my water pump failed in "east boondocks North Carolina". We spent 5 hours and a couple hundred dollars getting it towed to Rocky Mount and repaired. The repair shop was just a few blocks from downtown Rocky Mount, so we had a little time to walk around and explore. There, we discovered a grand, historic train station that served 9 or 10 trains a day! It was right on the New York-Florida line. Just as we walked up, a couple of guys were bicycling away from the station. And a train to Florida was coming through in 30 minutes. Boy was it tempting to hop on board! But no, instead we had to head back to the garage, get the car, and drive until 5 in the morning.

Field Trip: Outer Banks

I've been on the road again. The Beau and I went to Nag's Head, on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. If you've never been, it's a beautiful location. The islands run for miles and miles, nearly continuously, off the North Carolina coast. They are less than a mile wide in most places. The beach itself was delightful, although the surf was kind of rough and filled with small, harmless jellyfish. We stayed in a lovely beach house with the rest of The Beau's family.

The house fronted on a two-lane road with rideable shoulders and a shared-use path along one side. This road saw quite a few bicyclists on the road and the path. Joggers and pedestrians also used the path, and there was no sidewalk on the other side. I was glad to see how popular the path was, but it needed to be a lot wider to accommodate all of those uses. There were also some visibility issues where it crossed driveways.

One block away was the 'big road', a four-lane highway featuring fast traffic, sprawling commercial developments with acres of surface parking, and an abundance of turn lanes and driveway cuts. There were no bicycle facilities. As you might expect, the big road was cars, cars, cars, and an occasional pedestrian.

Since the islands are long and narrow, north-south traffic is heavy. And since zoning codes obviously have not been written to create a walkable beach community, destinations are far apart and reached through parking lots. Transportation planning has followed the same bigger-is-better mindset you find everywhere else. There are a couple of signed bicycle routes, but very little has been implemented on the ground. The result is sprawl, traffic, and the depressing scenery of endless pavement.

When I go on vacation, I want to go someplace scenic. It's not enough to have a nice beach. When you walk off the beach and head for the restaurant or grocery store, you shouldn't immediately be surrounded by all the stuff you were trying to escape. The island should protect the things that draw people there. Scenery. Parks and preserves. Relaxation. The unique character of a beach community. The special feeling that you can wander around all day needing nothing but a beach bag and a pair of sunglasses.

In contrast, I remembered a trip I took last year to Bald Head Island. BHI is also in the Outer Banks, but further south - almost to the South Carolina border. There is no bridge to BHI, you have to take a ferry. Private cars are totally prohibited on the island. There are some maintenance trucks, emergency vehicles, and a couple of shuttles. All other travel is by foot, bicycle, or golf cart. It's just lovely. The roads are very narrow - maybe 20 feet wide for two-way traffic and a pair 10 or 12 foot one-way lanes to serve as the main road. Trees and flowers grow right up next to the pavement, providing shade and beauty. You ride along on your beach cruiser, listening to the birds chirp and waving a golf cart by every now and then. That's my idea of a vacation spot!

Misadventures in Buckhead

It started innocently enough with a plan to meet the Beau at a nice men's clothier in Buckhead, and keep him company while he shopped. I planned to take the train there and ride from the station, since I remembered that it was pretty close. I got directions, but since I had already left my office (and I don't own one of those nifty smartphones) I didn't have a map to look at. No problem, right?

Thirty minutes later, I was lost in office park purgatory. The train ride was quick and convenient but I took a wrong turn somewhere. The directions were a little confusing - left? right? does it matter? And in a normal city setting, I could have recovered quickly by heading towards landmarks. But in the land of office megabuildings, apartment complexes, and culs de sac, there was just one long, hot, never-ending four-lane road. At least traffic was light after business hours, and a handful of people were out jogging.

Eventually I called for directions, backtracked by about 15 minutes, and wound up on a bike lane headed toward recognizable landmarks! It was still hot - c'mon people, would it kill you to plant a few trees??? - but convenient and direct.

Minus the detour, the store would have been about 5 minutes from the station. Not only was I late, but I had to sit down for a while and cool off (literally and figuratively - I hate getting lost)! Of course, there were no bike racks at the store, nor even a decent bench to sit on. Grrr.

It was a hot and frustrating experience, but I tried to think of it as a chance to see new scenery and learn the area. I also have to say that Buckhead drivers are very civil. Everyone passed with plenty of room and waited to make turns safely. Overall, I have been having good relations with motorists lately, from the woman who yelled 'Thank you' when I motioned for her to pass (safely) to the guy who waved me in when I needed to merge out of a turn lane. Awesome! I did see one other cyclist in Buckhead, on Peachtree Street.