Daylight Savings Time ended last Sunday. That meant setting clocks back an hour. A result is that, for at least a couple of weeks, I'll pedal through the sunrise during my commute to work, and cycle through the sunset on my way home.
Showing posts with label daily commute. Show all posts
Showing posts with label daily commute. Show all posts
12 November 2019
10 September 2019
A Morning After
First of all, I want to thank all of you who sent your condolences and other thoughts over my mother's passing.
While pedaling to school this morning, I couldn't help but to think of her. She was an early riser and often ambled by the canal behind her house.
The Bronx Kill, which ebbs and swells under the Randall's Island Connector, is not nearly as bucolic as the waterway in her backyard. I guess it was the calm, and the softness of the early morning light, that made me think of her, again.
Or perhaps it was another early riser:
While pedaling to school this morning, I couldn't help but to think of her. She was an early riser and often ambled by the canal behind her house.
The Bronx Kill, which ebbs and swells under the Randall's Island Connector, is not nearly as bucolic as the waterway in her backyard. I guess it was the calm, and the softness of the early morning light, that made me think of her, again.
Or perhaps it was another early riser:
04 May 2019
Another Path For The Island
My daily commute takes me through Randall's Island. It's a bit like riding through a large park, as much of the island consists of athletic fields and gardens.
One thing about it is frustrating, though. There are pedestrian/bike paths on the island, but they are not connected. That means, for example, that when you descend from the RFK Bridge ramp, you could find yourself hurtling straight into the path of a bus or Parks Department maintenance truck because the path at the end of the ramp runs for a couple hundred meters before ending abruptly on the island's street. And it's easy to miss the turn to get onto the path that leads to the Randall's Island Connector, the bike/pedestrian bridge that links the island to the Bronx.
Also, cycling is not allowed on the fields or, understandably, in the gardens. So it's difficult, if not impossible, to go from, say, the 103rd Street pedestrian bridge to the Connector.
Well, it looks like at least one step is being taken to make the island more navigable for cyclists and pedestrians. The Randall's Park Alliance has announced that it's received a grant for a new pathway to connect Sunken Garden Fields with the waterfront pathway by the 103rd Street Bridge.
While this will be a boon mainly to people living in (or cycling from) Manhattan, it is at least one link in what could become a system of paths that will allow more traffic-free access to more of the island.
What is needed, along with that path, is one that transverses the island and allows cyclists and pedestrians exiting the Queens or Manhattan spurs of the RFK Bridge to access the Connector, and the eastern part of the island, without having to contend with buses and trucks barreling down, or traffic exiting the bridge.
One can hope...
One thing about it is frustrating, though. There are pedestrian/bike paths on the island, but they are not connected. That means, for example, that when you descend from the RFK Bridge ramp, you could find yourself hurtling straight into the path of a bus or Parks Department maintenance truck because the path at the end of the ramp runs for a couple hundred meters before ending abruptly on the island's street. And it's easy to miss the turn to get onto the path that leads to the Randall's Island Connector, the bike/pedestrian bridge that links the island to the Bronx.
Also, cycling is not allowed on the fields or, understandably, in the gardens. So it's difficult, if not impossible, to go from, say, the 103rd Street pedestrian bridge to the Connector.
Well, it looks like at least one step is being taken to make the island more navigable for cyclists and pedestrians. The Randall's Park Alliance has announced that it's received a grant for a new pathway to connect Sunken Garden Fields with the waterfront pathway by the 103rd Street Bridge.
While this will be a boon mainly to people living in (or cycling from) Manhattan, it is at least one link in what could become a system of paths that will allow more traffic-free access to more of the island.
What is needed, along with that path, is one that transverses the island and allows cyclists and pedestrians exiting the Queens or Manhattan spurs of the RFK Bridge to access the Connector, and the eastern part of the island, without having to contend with buses and trucks barreling down, or traffic exiting the bridge.
One can hope...
04 May 2018
Why Was I Doing My Commute On Sunday?
Sometimes I joke about "going through the Gate of Hell to get to work every day." The truth is, I ride over Hell Gate and by the Hell Gate Bridge when I cross the RFK Memorial (a.k.a. Triborough) Bridge every morning.
On Sunday I took Bill and Cindy by it. If that was supposed to scare them into living on the straight and narrow, it wasn't very effective. Then again, how could I scare, or persuade, anybody or anything into being straight?
But I digress. We were riding to Van Cortland Park. They wanted to take the Greenway along the Hudson River (and the West Side Highway.) While I like the views and that it's so close to the water, I knew that on a sunny Sunday, half of the cyclists, 70 percent of the skateboarders and 99 percent of the people with dogs or baby strollers would be on that path. Pedaling through the Port Morris industrial area--deserted on Sunday--and Bronx side streets would be bucolic by comparison.
So, after taking Bill and Cindy through, or by, the Gates of Hell, we descended (literally) to Randall's Island where we rode underneath the Amtrak viaduct. After the Gate, these arches were rather impressive. Funny thing is, I don't normally see them that way: They are, after all, part of my commute.
So are these houses on Alexander Avenue in the Bronx:
Not far away are these houses. Save for the graffiti next to the "fish" building, almost nobody expects to see them in the South Bronx:
They're diagonally across from each other on the Grand Concourse. The mansion is the Freedman House, built in the 1920s for formerly-wealthy people who had fallen on hard times. Now it contains an event space, art studio and bed-and-breakfast. It's almost jarring to see such a classically Florentine house across the Concourse from the Art Deco building with its mosaic.
Anyway, Cindy had an appointment and had to leave us before we reached Van Cortlandt Park. Back when I lived on the Upper West Side and in Washington Heights, I used to take quick spins to the park, where I would check out whatever was on display in the Manor or watch the Irish rugby and soccer players. Time marches on, and now there are different folks playing a different game.
The clouds thickened, but never threatened rain. But they didn't portend anything like Spring, either. Rolling across the hills of Riverdale, they broke against the shore of Spuyten Duyvil, another place almost nobody expects to find in the Bronx:
On Sunday I took Bill and Cindy by it. If that was supposed to scare them into living on the straight and narrow, it wasn't very effective. Then again, how could I scare, or persuade, anybody or anything into being straight?
But I digress. We were riding to Van Cortland Park. They wanted to take the Greenway along the Hudson River (and the West Side Highway.) While I like the views and that it's so close to the water, I knew that on a sunny Sunday, half of the cyclists, 70 percent of the skateboarders and 99 percent of the people with dogs or baby strollers would be on that path. Pedaling through the Port Morris industrial area--deserted on Sunday--and Bronx side streets would be bucolic by comparison.
So, after taking Bill and Cindy through, or by, the Gates of Hell, we descended (literally) to Randall's Island where we rode underneath the Amtrak viaduct. After the Gate, these arches were rather impressive. Funny thing is, I don't normally see them that way: They are, after all, part of my commute.
So are these houses on Alexander Avenue in the Bronx:
Not far away are these houses. Save for the graffiti next to the "fish" building, almost nobody expects to see them in the South Bronx:
They're diagonally across from each other on the Grand Concourse. The mansion is the Freedman House, built in the 1920s for formerly-wealthy people who had fallen on hard times. Now it contains an event space, art studio and bed-and-breakfast. It's almost jarring to see such a classically Florentine house across the Concourse from the Art Deco building with its mosaic.
Anyway, Cindy had an appointment and had to leave us before we reached Van Cortlandt Park. Back when I lived on the Upper West Side and in Washington Heights, I used to take quick spins to the park, where I would check out whatever was on display in the Manor or watch the Irish rugby and soccer players. Time marches on, and now there are different folks playing a different game.
The clouds thickened, but never threatened rain. But they didn't portend anything like Spring, either. Rolling across the hills of Riverdale, they broke against the shore of Spuyten Duyvil, another place almost nobody expects to find in the Bronx:
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