Summer Streets
It was the second Saturday of Summer Streets today, one of 3 Saturdays in August when the city temporarily closes Park Avenue and connecting streets to vehicular traffic between Brooklyn Bridge and Central Park and opens it up to the people, although cyclists seem to primarily be the ones taking advantage. Bikeandroll offers free bike rental and this year Macro Sea have provided 3 'dumpster pools' where you can cool off on a first come first served basis.
In theory I love the idea...in practice...well cyclists don't see to be the most considerate people in the world in my experience of previous Summer Streets events - this is the 3rd year it's taken place - since despite being on two wheels many of them seem to assume they have the rights of both pedestrians and vehicles, so if the light is in their favor they'll go and if the light is in favor of pedestrians trying to cross to the other side of Park Avenue they'll still go.
Now I'm sure it's only a small few who give the all the other cyclists a bad reputation, but it seems to be my misfortune that I come across these small few more often than not - probably because I walk through Central Park so often on my way to work - and for the most part I'd rather take my chances with the cabs and the accompanying exhaust fumes than the demons in lycra, so I'll admit I groaned when I realized Summer Streets was in progress as I walked down to my eyebrow waxing appointment at Harmony on 43rd St.
Fortunately this year the NYPD seemed to have their shit together and I was able to easily cross Park Avenue at one of the designated crossing points while the police - and perhaps volunteers - used hand held traffic signals to control the flow, so this year I was able to enjoy the unusual site of Park Avenue taken over by cyclists, rollerbladers, runners and walkers without fear of losing a limb.
6 comments:
I love cycling - do it every day - although I have never cycled into a city. Somehow that scares the crap out of me...
I guess I've read too many stories about goods vehicles killing cyclists by accident (but then, every time I read one of those stories, I blame the cyclist for putting themselves in a dangerous position)
Hi Jonathan,
I think you are wise not to cycle into a city, that's just putting your life in other people's hands.
I never had a problem with cyclists until I moved to New York, but here the delivery guys more often than not cycle the wrong way in traffic and I've had a near miss with them on more than one occasion, then there are the Lance Armstrong types who race through the park stopping for no-one because God forbid they should lose a second off their race time by being considerate of people trying to cross at the crossings. I'd love NY to become more cyclist friendly, but only if the cyclists can obey basic traffic rules and respect pedestrians.
I rode my bike everyday during my college years. One time, a car purposely crossed over 6' of green to reach the sidewalk to hit me. ON PURPOSE! And then he drove off and left me in the ditch. He busted my bike to where I had to get a new one. Bruised me up pretty good, too - but I was more angry than hurt. Could not believe he had done that on purpose.
Wow Ruth, that's insane!!! Glad you escaped without serious injury.
Hey, that's GREAT that this year the police took care of the possible problems that you usually faced. :-D :-D :-D
I won't dare cycle in Indo 'coz the streets are so busy and the pavements aren't even...but I do enjoy cycling here in this small, quiet village of Sodankylä...
oh, I heard about this event. :-\
I have the same feeling as you do. I've seen too many accidents (which turned out surprisingly okay) with cyclists involved to think that shutting the roads down to them is okay.
Being an auto passenger, too, I know how fast the cyclists ride and how dangerous it is. Besides the delivery guys who ride on SIDEWALKS!!
I yell at them but they don't care. They yell back at me.
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