According to reports, here in New York City we’ve had more snow during the past week than we’ve had during the past two winters. I can believe it. That said, the white stuff didn’t come all at once: Snowfalls were punctuated by spells of rain and above-freezing temperatures. Therefore, most un-plowed or -shoveled surfaces have only a shallow coating.
Still, I and other New York cyclists have encountered a problem Cathleen Cronin reported in ecoRI news: bike lanes covered with snow or, worse, ice.
The latter aborted (Can I use that word in the current political climate?) my commute the other day. I was about to cross the Macombs Dam Bridge from Yankee Stadium to Harlem when my front wheel slid from under me. The glacial stream covered the entire width—and, as far as I could see, length—of the bridge’s bike/pedestrian path. In years past, I rode in the traffic lane. But I didn’t want to take the risk of encountering an ice patch on it. Also, traffic seems to be heavier—and the vehicles bigger (with more aggressive drivers) than when I crossed thirty, or even ten years ago.
So, I did an about-face. I could’ve picked up one of the other routes I take, but that would’ve required some back-tracking. Fortunately, I didn’t have to go very far to the Yankee Stadium subway station.
I haven’t cycled in East Providence, Rhode Island. But I reckon that it doesn’t have anything like New York’s transit system. I wonder how commuters (and other cyclists) deal with impassable lanes or streets and few, or no, alternative routes.
No comments:
Post a Comment