Today we had the coldest weather we've had in two years. Last night it got down to 15F; the weather forecasters say that it may drop to 10F or below tonight.
One way you know we're having a real winter is to look at the bike racks where I work:
One way you know we're having a real winter is to look at the bike racks where I work:
The only bikes parked there are Vera, the red Allez that's been there seemingly every day and an old Fuji mountain bike.
Are they ridden by hardy souls or addled minds? Now there's a question for a campus debate!
21 January 2013
They Should've Been Riding Bikes
Yesterday I wrote about the Long Island Motor Parkway, which, in its history, has been one of America's first race courses and one of its first automotive expressways--and would become of the last bike lanes to open in New York for nearly half a century. Now it's a segment of what is supposed to become the Brooklyn-Queens Greenway.
So, perhaps, there was some weird sort of synchronicity, or whatever you want to call it, at work when I found this image on one of my favorite non-bike blogs, Old Picture of the Day:
So, perhaps, there was some weird sort of synchronicity, or whatever you want to call it, at work when I found this image on one of my favorite non-bike blogs, Old Picture of the Day:
20 January 2013
Riding An Early Race Course
Believe it or not, this was once an automobile race course.
It was also one of America's first expressways. At least, it was one of the first roads to be designed so that drivers wouldn't have to stop for traffic lights, railroad crossings or many of the other things they'd have to contend with on conventional roadways.
Of course, when it was serving the functions I described, it didn't have all of the trees and other vegetation growing on its sides. That was allowed after the road became a bike/pedestrian path.
Yes, the path in the photo was once part of the Long Island Motor Parkway, which I mentioned in an earlier post. Now it's a segment of the planned Brooklyn-Queens Greenway.
I don't know whether storm damage has been cleared, or whether there wasn't much of it on the path. Running through the middle of Queens, it's several miles from either the north or south shores and, I would assume, out of the path of a storm surge.
Here the former Parkway takes a turn underneath the expressway--the Northern State Parkway--that rendered it obsolete for automotive use.
When it carried automobile traffic, the Parkway had several "toll lodges". (Don't you just love that term?) One of them now serves as a Parks Department facility in Cunningham Park:
Tosca was clearly enjoying the ride, as I was:
It was also one of America's first expressways. At least, it was one of the first roads to be designed so that drivers wouldn't have to stop for traffic lights, railroad crossings or many of the other things they'd have to contend with on conventional roadways.
Of course, when it was serving the functions I described, it didn't have all of the trees and other vegetation growing on its sides. That was allowed after the road became a bike/pedestrian path.
Yes, the path in the photo was once part of the Long Island Motor Parkway, which I mentioned in an earlier post. Now it's a segment of the planned Brooklyn-Queens Greenway.
I don't know whether storm damage has been cleared, or whether there wasn't much of it on the path. Running through the middle of Queens, it's several miles from either the north or south shores and, I would assume, out of the path of a storm surge.
Here the former Parkway takes a turn underneath the expressway--the Northern State Parkway--that rendered it obsolete for automotive use.
When it carried automobile traffic, the Parkway had several "toll lodges". (Don't you just love that term?) One of them now serves as a Parks Department facility in Cunningham Park:
Tosca was clearly enjoying the ride, as I was:
