My phone was trapped under groceries so I didn’t take a picture, but zomg let me tell you what I saw riding my bike around today. I rode down to Harbor East to check out a gym on a free pass and pick up some frozen raspberries from the expensive grocery store where frozen raspberries are actually pretty cheap. After getting over the shock and dismay that the store was out of soy milk (apocalypse is here!) I piled everything on my bike and headed back up the hill to home. Every time I get to Orleans I have to decide whether to stay on the Jones Falls Trail via the fancy new separated bike lane that’s been installed there or to take the lane. No brainer, right? Except the path isn’t finished yet, and there are these giant holes in it that make an easy ride into a steeplechase–not my favorite. I took the path today to avoid traffic, and lo and behold, they’ve patched over two of the holes with asphalt. It’s a stop gap, sure, but I need those gaps stopped, so I was pretty happy, especially since I know the planned finish date isn’t until early next year. I really wish they hadn’t started it if they couldn’t finish it, and I’m not sure why it can’t just be finished, but hey, I love seeing bike infrastructure being built–not because I can’t just ride in the street, which I do all the time, but because the only thing that is proven to increase the number of cyclists on the road is building facilities for it. And you know what I want? More bikes on the road, because more cyclists make all of us safer. Oh, and I also want no prisons, because prisons don’t actually make us safer, not in the ways I want to be safe. This cycle track keeps that in the front of my mind every time I ride home past Baltimore’s own little Prison Industrial Complex.
bike lanes
Stopped at an Intersection at 17th Street & 8th Avenue
It’s time to head home to Baltimore after this quick trip to NYC with the Brompton, so after a lazy morning, I packed up and rode the bike over to Bergen and Flatbush for brunch with E. She took the subway and just missed her train. I took bike lanes and stopped twice to double check directions, and I beat her by about four minutes. I wonder how long I’d have to live in NYC for that game to get old. Anyway, the Brompton neatly folded and sat next to us, and after I watched a couple of strollers barrel through there I wondered why I would ever be nervous about this bike taking up too much space. After breakfast I popped the bike open and headed toward the Brooklyn Bridge en route to Penn Station. I basically followed the signs to the bridge where I was greeted by a zillion walkers pouring into Brooklyn as part of some kind of walkathon. Sigh. I used my bell and my voice to navigate the throngs successfully and then I was in the city again, zigging and zagging to Hudson and then the slight right to 8th Avenue and the fancy protected bike lane, complete with its ver own stoplight, studiously observed by no one but me. I wonder how long I’d have to in NYC before I would be flying through those along with the other bikers who passed me (but who never ended up more than a block or two ahead of me, but whatever). I snapped this picture stopped at one of those intersections~dang, that is good design, and frankly, I’d marry that bike infrastructure if it were legal in New York State. The light turned, I pedaled through, pulling up again at 31st Street where I folded up and hopped into the train station, got my ticket, went down the escalator, shoved the bike above my seat, and now I’ll read my way home, having seen more of New York on my bike this weekend than I have in years. Brompton for the win!
View of Pier 40 From Christopher & Hudson River Parkway
I woke up early this morning, packed a weekend’s worth of gear in the Brompton’s bag, and flew down the hill to Penn Station where I folded up the bike and shoved it onto the overhead luggage rack for our getaway weekend in New York City. This is precisely why I got the Brompton~so we could do short trips along the Eastern seaboard together. Yeah, I was pretty excited. After getting over my nerves about the whole thing (I’m the anxious type) I settled in and enjoyed the ease of travel. Literally three minutes after I got off the train at Penn Station I was u.folded and dodging traffic and other cyclists on Eighth Avenue and then over to Fifth to meet up with my sister for keys to the house. I goggleymapped directions and found myself rolling down Fifth with all the buses, taxis, and pedestrians, an unexpected danger. Oh, it was fun, so, so fun, even if a little scary. I finally got off the freeway and onto side streets over to the bike path along the river. I snapped this picture looking toward the pier, which is like Disneyland compared to what it looked like 15 years ago when I lived in NYC. Now it’s this beautiful bike path and a succession of parks-a playground, but for folks who used to call this home, it is a real loss. I mean, what are yachts doing there? Across the river just looks like every New York metro area skyline–a postcard. I took my left and followed the signs to the Brooklyn Bridge where I did a series of portraits of Brompty, and then I fumbled around Brooklyn before getting myself headed in the right direction, and then I was at my sister’s where I just folded the bike, lugged it up a few flights, and tucked it away behind the TV. Yep, I have everything I need to live in NYC, except for the patience you must need to live somewhere so crowded. I look forward to many more rides with Brompty, though. This place is fun to ride in, that’s for sure.
Bike Infrastructure at Guilford & 20th
I like to ride my bike like I’m driving a car–“vehicular cycling,” I think they call it. That means I stay off the sidewalk unless I fear imminent death (see yesterday’s post) and I take the lane when I need to. Oh, and I often use my outside voice to let folks know what the rules are, according to me. When I first started riding my bike around this town, I would take Guilford home from points south, and when I got to North Avenue, I’d get my best vehicular cycling on, taking a wide right into the turn lane and taking a left on the arrow, another left on 20th, and then a right to get back on Guilford. A driver once yelled about this to me, told me to take the sidewalk and parking lot like the other girl on the bike. Not me, no way, no how. I drive my bike. And then I started doing what that driver told me to do, and today there are signs instructing me to bike through the lot and take the sidewalk. Well alrighty then. Today’s ride was like pedaling through spring already, and I look forward to many rides following these new official directions in my near future. Yes.
Blocked Bike/Ped Lane on Light Street
So Baltimore’s got this thing coming up called the Grand Prix. They’re blocking off a bunch of streets downtown, the ramp onto 395, a light rail station, and effectively cutting off a main artery through town–all traffic will now go on MLK–and then some Indy cars will come race around the 2+ mile course while the rest of us just try to stay away, unless, of course, we can afford the $20-$895 tickets, plus $30 to park non-Indy cars. Continue reading
504 Fashion on St. Bernard & N. Johnson
So I’m stuck in a rainstorm after a most lovely sunny ride to brunch with E. and then along the new Broad Street bike lane to the Gentilly bike lane and then back. Oh, do I love a new bike lane! Broad’s is super-wide and the asphalt isn’t piled with loose gravel and sticks yet, and in the whole ride, only one car was parked in it. For the commuter cyclist, that’s just heaven. And connection between Orleans, Broad, and Gentilly? Be still my heart! I thought I would make it back to the Quarter for women’s World Cup soccer before the rains, but alas, it wasn’t to be. But I needed a ride, and I got one, and there’s a dry spot under this church overhang and 504 Fashion just across the street and eventually I will just wade out into it, but for now I will stand here and mop off, composing another love letter to another bike lane.
Parking Available at Orleans & N. Johnson
I spent my day writing and reading and watching Shoah, which is the most intense piece of art I have ever seen. That’s all I’m going to say here, except that I can’t believe I’ve never seen it, and I think it should be required viewing, period. I had plans to go to the baseball game tonight, so regardless of the mood I was in, it was time to get on the bike and head over to R.’s for a carpool to Zephyrs stadium. Continue reading
Bike Lane on Harrison Through City Park
I got up early early this morning, took a shower at the landlady’s place (I haven’t had running water this week), and hopped on the bike to get to the Regional Planning Commission for Day Two of my bike safety training course. It was way too early for me to be up. I am so tired. But alas, this is the schedule, and I am always on schedule. Continue reading
Buses Parked in the Bike Lane on Magazine & Andrew Higgens
I was out of town for almost exactly 24 hours and returned home exhausted, to a house with no heat and no water (frozen pipes). We’re having a cold snap. It was so cold in my bedroom that getting out on the bike seemed like a great idea, even in this weather, so that’s what I did, first Uptown to meet a student and then down to the Marigny for coffee and a chat with S. Continue reading
Yellow Flowering Tree at Constance & Annunciation
Do you ever have those days where you just feel exhausted in the very marrow of your bones? Today was that kind of day for me. Which meant that as much as I wanted to ride my bike to the Po Boy Fest or the Congo Square Rhythms Festival or out to Chalmette, I walked to brunch and then straight back home to laze about with my cats and The Grapes of Wrath. I can’t believe they let high school kids read this anti-capitalist, anti-private property, anti-disciplinary state apparatus screed, or that there isn’t a revolution of the working class led by high school juniors every year. Everybody should read this book. Anyway. Continue reading
What I Saw Riding My Bike Around Today 