Rearguard Marlee?

Hmm…Perhaps Marlee can ride with me after all.

I wonder how the woman feels about the arrangement.

Share, Don’t Impair

When I ride, I obey traffic laws as much as I can without endangering myself or others. So, for example, I’ll stop for a red light at a busy intersection and, if there is no cross-traffic, I’ll proceed through the intersection ahead of drivers traveling in the same direction in order to avoid drivers who are about to turn.

More importantly, I try to follow the rules of civilization as I understand them. Therefore, in an intersection that doesn’t have a traffic signal or “Stop” sign, I’ll stop if I see that someone with mobility issues is crossing. And on narrow or busy streets I pull aside for ambulances and fire trucks.

Oh, and I try not to park anywhere where it might impede the kinds of people for whom I stop.

I mention my habits, not because I want you to think I’m a wonderful person, but to make a point about some of the behaviors for which I, and other cyclists, are unfairly blamed.

A while back, a driver made a point of pulling into an intersection I was crossing—when she had a red light and I had the green.  She rolled down her window and screamed at me—not for anything I did, but to complain that “you bike riders” leave bikes on the sidewalk.

Fortunately, there was no other traffic in that intersection, so I could take a moment to “school’ her.  “Really? I don’t know any cyclists who do that.”

“I see those day-glo green bikes on the sidewalk by my house,” she lamented.

Then I realized she was talking about eBikes, probably from Lime.  Apparently, they and other dockless eBike share systems allow users to leave the bikes anywhere as long as the bikes aren’t obstructing pavements.

Now, I don’t want to tar all eBike share users with a broad brush. (It’s a good thing I didn’t make a New Year’s resolution not to use clichés!) But in my admittedly-unscientific observations, just about every bike I see abandoned on a sidewalk is an eBike from a share system.  The abandoned bicycles I see are almost always locked to parking meters, lamp posts, fences or other immobile structures.

An eBike lying on the sidewalk is an annoyance or, at worst an inconvenience, for somebody like me. On the other hand, it’s an obstacle, or even a danger, for a person with mobility issues.

That is something Lucy Edwards wants eBike share users to understand. The blind content creator navigates London with her guide dog Miss Molly—that is, when the sidewalks are clear. But if someone has left an eBike on its side, “I don’t know how to get past” if “I don’t have someone with me.”

So…if you use a dockless eBike (or, for that matter, regular bike), please leave it out of the way of someone I (and, I hope, you) would stop for in an intersection.

Why Did He Build This?

 During my “afternoon delight” ride, I came across this:

In the Bronx, one can find many buildings like it: handsome, even beautiful, structures built during the early 20th century, just after the Bronx became a borough of New York City.

(Most of the Art Deco buildings for which the Bronx is famous were constructed during the interwar period.)

Like so many structures in the Bronx—and throughout New York City—it is not serving its original intended purpose.  Today a moving and storage company operates in it. From some of the building’s details, I am guessing that it was once a medical or health facility of some sort.

What really intrigued me, though, was this:

Apparently, a “Cuneo” family was involved.  That caught my eye, in part because I cycled to Cuneo, Italy during a bicycle tour of the Alps.  But I couldn’t help but to notice the inscription for Lorenzo Cuneo, born during the same year—1913–Anthony Cuneo erected the building but who died in 1924.  I would think that he was Anthony’s son, nephew or grandson.  Why did he die so young?

When I stopped to look at the building, someone gave me a suspicious glance. Did she think I wanted to buy the building (which I am in no position to do) and price her out of the neighborhood? Or is she one of many people in this city who pass things that are beautiful, interesting or simply unusual but has no curiosity about it?