A Better Way On The Greenway

 Every once in a while, my New York Cynicism (TM) is challenged.

Remember, this is a city where it took 100 years to build a subway line that basically goes nowhere.  And there are days when I’m still surprised that the Randalls Island Connector was finished in less time than it took for the creek underneath it to form.

So you can imagine my shock upon pedaling down the Hudson River Greenway and finding this:

Now, you could be forgiven for thinking it’s just another short segment of a bike path. But it fixes what disrupted what might otherwise be the best bike lane in the Big Apple.

At West 54th Street, cyclists had to risk unfortunate encounters with tour buses, taxis and ride share vehicles headed for cruise ships and ferry boats or the Intrepid Museum. That crossing (on the far left side of the photo) wasn’t an intersection with a traffic signal like the one at Chambers Street, just north of the World Trade Center. Rather, it was a spot where the street cuts across the bike lane, with no signal, at a point where the lane curved sharply and visibility was therefore not good.

The new ribbon of asphalt curves away from that spot, away from traffic, and goes underneath an access ramp. It is not only safer; it also makes for a smoother ride with greater continuity. A cyclist can now enter the Greenway at 125th Street and not encounter another crossing until 42nd Street—a distance of about 7 kilometers. In essence, it’s now possible to spin your pedals nonstop all the way from West Harlem to Midtown. That certainly makes the Greenway a valid option for many commuters and simply a more enjoyable ride for everyone else.

I am happy we now have it, but we need more if this city’s planners and policy makers are serious about encouraging more cycling and getting more cars off the streets.

How Did We?

About ten years ago, I was talking on the phone as I scurried down the hall to my class.

When I entered, one student wondered, aloud, how I survived with such a “primitive” device:  a flip-phone.

Mind you, neither he nor any of his classmates was wealthy, at least to my knowledge. But I was a couple of years away from having any desire, let alone seeing any need, for a “smart” phone.

Now I’ll confess that before my July trip to Japan, I “upgraded” to an iPhone 16 from the iPhone 8 I’d been using for seven years. I really wanted to stick with 8 because it was familiar, but the software wouldn’t update anymore, the battery took forever to charge and the charge didn’t last. Turns out that changing the battery would’ve cost more than getting a new phone, at least with the surprisingly generous trade-in allowance I got from Verizon.

Anyway, I thought about my old student when I got my new phone. And I wonder what he would think, if he were a cyclist, of some of the bikes I’ve ridden—and still ride.

No, It’s Not Because I Haven’t Had A Baby

 I started to go for regular eye examinations when I was about 45–just around the same time I started my gender affirmation process (what most people—and I—in those days were called my “gender transition”). When I had to cut a conversation with an co-worker short because I had to go to an ophthalmologist appointment, he wondered, “Oh, are the hormones affecting your vision?

That colleague could be forgiven for such an assumption even if, as an “educated” person, he should have known better than to conflate coincidence with causation.  

Then again, I’ve seen and heard of health care professionals who make similar erroneous assumptions.  For example, a friend of mine is, shall we say, Rubens-esque. She laments that when she goes for help with any sort of medical condition, no matter how unrelated (the flu! a broken arm!)  nurses and even doctors have assumed that her weight was the cause. Then again, other women have told me their doctors insisted that their mental as well as physical health issues would disappear if they had a baby.

While such cluelessness or dismissiveness is inexcusable when it comes from trained health care professionals, it (or at least milder forms of it) are somewhat understandable from lay people like my former co-worker. I’ve experienced a it during the past few days.  Neighbors and friends noticed a bandage on my left knee. “You hurt yourself bike riding.” Not a question :  a declaration or an amateur diagnosis.

Now, I can understand why they, especially if they don’t know any other regular cyclists, might think my injury might be a result of riding. But its cause is more banal: I tripped over a divider after I exited the Botanical Garden. I can’t even spin a good story out of it,

Well, at least they’re not assuming my admittedly minor injury happened because of my gender “transition.” Or because I haven’t had a baby.