Into And Out Of The Rain

Yesterday I went back to the college to pick up a few things I'd left.   The sky was swaddled in clouds that looked utterly pregnant with rain. (How's that for a bad metaphor?)  I decided to pedal in anyway.

The rain started when I passed Citifield, a bit more than halfway there.  It wasn't too bad; I'd brought my rain jacket with me and I was wearing shorts.  Plus, I was riding Vera, which has full fenders and a flap on the front.

Also, I was riding faster without really trying.  Although I normally try to avoid riding in the rain if I can, once I'm riding in it, I get a strange but good kind of "high", as long as it's not cold.  In addition, I think the slick roadway makes for faster (if slipperier) riding.  

Then, when I got to the college, I stayed and chatted with a couple of people in the hope that the rain would let up.  It did, finally.  I pedaled to Jackson Heights--about 3/4 of the way home--before I started to feel more like I was on the Maid of the Mist and that I was riding right into the Falls.

About a kilometer from my apartment, the rain stopped abruptly.  But the sky looked as ready as it had been to drench me and anybody else who, whether through necessity or insanity, were on the streets.  Still, I made it.

From Bike Riding Guide

One day, I'll ride in the rain the way she does.  Until then...

My Bike For A Tart!

"A Cronut!  A Cronut!  My Citibike for a Cronut!"

All right.  So The Bard didn't write that line in Richard III.  However, it seems like an apt headline for a story that appeared in Thursday's  Gothamist.  

A Cronut looks something like this:

Chef Dominique Ansel created it and  it's available only in his ShHo bakery.  It opens at 8 am, but in otder to score a Cronut, one has to arrive before 7 and wait on line. 

That is what someone with a Citibike did.  I don't know whether or not he had an annual  membership or was renting by the hour.  if the former is the case, he is limited to 45 minutes.  For the latter, it's  30 minutes.  If he doesn't check into a Cititbike kiosk before his time is up, each additional half hour is $9.00 (for an annual membership) or $12.00 (for a one-time rental or holder of a seven-day pass).

Now, if said cyclist were to abandon the bike, the Cronut run, as the Gothamist wryly noted, would cost $1000.  Cronut fans claim that is a small price to pay.  As I haven't tied one--or a Citibke-- yet, I couldn't tell you for sure.

Two Wheels vs Two Feet In Bucharest?

Many of us have an image of Europe as a place where cycling is revered, or at least respected.  Even if you haven't been to Amsterdam or Copenhagen, you've seen images of streets full of people riding to work, to school, to go shopping, or just because they can, wearing everything from fashionable suits to flashy racing gear.

Even in less bike-friendly European cities, one finds accommodations, if not in physical accoutrements, then at least in the attitudes of local motorists and pedestrians--and, sometimes, even the police, who are often recreational or sporting cyclists themselves.

But, believe it or not, there is a major European capital in which officials actually seem to be discouraging cycling.  Or, worse, they seem to be pitting cyclists against pedestrians and motorists--and everyone else in the city.

That place is one I've never visited:  Bucharest, Romania.  Believe it or not, the city's to build bike paths on the sidewalks.  This would endanger both cyclists, for both will have less space than they would have were the bike lanes in the roadway--or if there weren't bike lanes at all.  

Riding to Bucharest City Hall to protest the Mayor's decision to place bike paths on the sidewalks.  From Demotix

As I've never been to Bucharest, I can't comment on its motor traffic or cycling conditions.  However, it does seem as though there is a growing number of commuting  and recreational cyclists--and people who would like to be one or both.

What's interesting is that, according to a poll, 81% of motorists believe that cycling and walking should be encouraged.   Perhaps they're thinking about the study that rated Bucharest the most polluted capital in Europe in 2011 and the second-most in 2012.  I would imagine that even those who wouldn't normally think about the environment could be noticing an increase in the number of respiratory ailments or cancers.  Perhaps those motorists have contracted one or both themselves.

Those same motorists, for the most part, agree that making cyclists and pedestrians share the same ribbons of concrete is a terrible idea--at least for a city that should encourage cycling and walking.