This morning I decided I would try a new route for my commute. Instead of traveling east, through downtown Brooklyn to get on the Manhattan bridge, I opted to ride north (from my
recently-named historical neighborhood!) and use the Williamsburg bridge instead. This new route was, for me, an attempt to get a change of scenery on the daily slog to the office, and as such, one should not construe that I was trying to pursue either a time or safety benefit...
I turned onto Bedford Ave. and rode north on its ample bike lane which I must say, was far more pleasant than I expected, though I certainly did encounter my fair share of double parked cops, delivery drivers and salmoning crackheads. With the exception of a cumbersome crossover at the intersection of Rogers + Bedford Aves, and Dean st, Bedford is actually a pretty nice street to bike down. Even the salmon don't bother you as much since the bike lane is so friggin' wide; and since Bedford isn't that commercialized, you don't get so many delivery trucks using that ample space to unload
large and unwieldy things.
Of course, any Brooklynite will tell you, Bedford Ave is a long-ass street, and as such, varies greatly from hood to hood. So Just to be clear, I'm referring only to Bedford between Eastern Parkway and the BQE, because north of there it becomes an entanglement of fixed-gear willyburgers, jaywalking hasids, and turn-signal-oblivious livery drivers.
Seeing as I rarely ride into the city on the
Williamsburg Bridge, I took the opportunity to document my surroundings before heading into the city. Interestingly, the ride over the bridges is different depending on which direction you're going (for instance, taking the
MB into manhattan is a much easier climb and faster descent than going the opposite way).
Also, this afforded me the opportunity to better familiarize myself with the area around the MUP on-ramp. I was riding the other direction a few weeks ago and saw this little ghost bike chained to a parking sign and assumed the worst...
Naturally, I guessed the
ghost bike was for a little boy or girl since the bike is so small and in what looks like reasonably good shape, aside from being spray-painted white. Determined to use this sad story as the subject of a KIRT post, I went over and took a better photo of it and read the dedication that was paint-markered in blue on the chainguard:
As I've underlined (in hexidecimal: BADA55) the victim was apparently "26 years young." While I'm still bummed out that this ghost bike has to be here, I feel duped by those who erected the memorial. You can't use a 6-year-old's bike if you're 26, unless of course you happen to be a bear in the circus. Even that is a stretch because the incedence of cycling-bear fatalaties is relatively low these days, especially those due to motorist carelessness.
In hopes to lower the rate of car-cyclist-pedestrian altercations, the city has been closing down certain squares and parts of the avenues to automobile traffic. First Times Sq. and Herald Sq. were closed to north/south traffic, and now broadway is getting new "Protected Bike lanes" from Herald Sq. to 25th st. or so that reduce broadway down to one southbound lane. I happen to work right along that stretch of Broadway, and have been monitoring the progress of the bike lane for some time now. The most recent improvement were signs stating that cars are prohibited from parking or driving in the bike lane. Of course, this is just another sign for motorists to ignore:
The funny thing is, this car must have had to pull over into the hatched area, and then backed up to be halfway into the bike lane like that. I snapped this picture as the owner of the offending Honda came out of a store and shot me a disapproving look. Oh well,
commuters in this city are no stranger to vindictive motorists in the bike lane...
At least the bike lane has big friendly arrows painted on the ground to remind bike-salmon of their misdeeds and give creedance to my pleas for uni-directional cycling. In fact, one time, as i had just mounted my bike to ride home for the day, I encountered a woman erratically salmoning up broadway and as she passed me, front wheel flapping this way and that, I gently told her that "bike lanes are one way, just like the streets are for cars." Once she processed what I had said she called back to me "No they're not!" Well, salmoners, take
this (from NYC traffic law):
'Bicyclists cannot ride against the flow of traffic. Ride with traffic to avoid accidents' NYCDOT Section4-12 article p.4.v
