17 December 2024

A New Way To—And Off—The Island

 Here in New York City, we’ve gone from two months of unusually warm Fall temperatures and almost no rain to nearly two weeks of cold and almost daily rain.

The other day, I “played chicken” with the rain, all but daring it to fall on me as I rode, with no particular destination in mind.  More than anything, I wanted to ride for its own sake and to declare (at least to myself) an end to the flu or whatever turned my respiratory system into an EPA Superfund Site for a week.

Well, the rain chickened out (What else can I anthromorphosize in this post?)—perhaps out of spite, as I was riding one of my fendered bikes. So I had a dry, if chilly, ride with one pleasant surprise.


The RFK Memorial (formerly Triborough) Bridge is really a complex of three different spans that converge on Randall’s Island. One span, the Art Deco-inspired (and prettiest), connects Astoria, Queens with the Island and has a pretty good walkway/pedestrian lane.  I often crossed it when I lived in Astoria. Another, shorter, span links the Bronx to the Island. Its walkway, which zig-zagged up to East 132nd Street from the Island, closed nearly a decade ago, after the much better Randall’s Island Connector opened.

The third span, to Manhattan, includes a walkway that was accessible only by a sharply-winding ramp like the one on the Bronx span. But the entrance to the Manhattan ramp was easy to miss because it was tucked into a spot under the span itself, obscured by fences lining an NYPD maintenance facility. Also, it was very poorly lit: I am not the only one who wouldn’t use it at night.




Well, the pleasant surprise I encountered is a new, much safer, way to access the Manhattan span for cyclists, pedestrians and people with mobility aids.




I hadn’t planned to ride across the Manhattan span, but I did, just to check out the new entrance. It helps, I believe, to make the Island more accessible. I don’t think it will entice me to ride on or through the Island—I already do so more than most people—but I believe it might encourage others.

15 December 2024

Liberation

 I live a block from the New York Botanical Garden and have visited several times during the eight months I’ve lived here.

About a mile (1.6 km) away is the Bronx Zoo. I went a couple of times as a kid but have no inclination to go there now:  I don’t think I can bear (no pun intended) to see animals in cages.

I do, however, wonder how they might escape.




13 December 2024

Jason Lohr R.I.P.

 When a crash results in the death of a cyclist, the tragedy doesn’t end there. 

Such is the case of Jason Lohr. The 49-year-old bartender was riding northbound on Frankford Avenue, one of Philadelphia’s major thoroughfares, around 11:30 pm on 20 November. A driver traveling southbound made a left turn on East Hagert Street and collided with Jason, who died from his injuries last weekend.

The driver remained at the scene and is cooperating with the investigation




Jason was, apparently, extremely popular not only with patrons where he worked, but also in the local music and arts scenes.  Certainly, many people will miss him, but perhaps none more than his brother Dan. He is pleading with the city for more bike lanes—there is none on Frankford—and for cyclists to be “proactive.”

The Bicycle Coalition of Philadelphia is urging anyone who knows, or has lost, someone who was involved in a crash to reach out to Families For Safe Streets Greater Philadelphia by emailing nicole@bicyclecoalition.org.


And Standard Tap has a GoFundMe page for Jason Lohr and his family.