Let's Explore Southern Queens!

...Psych! We're taking a "little" detour over to San Francisco!


Distance Traveled: At Least 10

Random? I think not! San Francisco is ranked as one of the best cities for biking in the world by Bicycling Magazine. I would say that this is a relevant diversion. First let me describe why I'm here. My best friend, Andrew Davis, is a Marine. For the last 64 weeks he has been learning to speak Korean. I came out to watch his graduation ceremony. It was brilliant! He actually gave a graduation speech in Korean, and received an award from his teachers for being an outstanding student. The rest of the time we have been hanging around. The other day his parents and I headed north to San Fran, and of course I wasn't going to pass up a bike ride.

This presented me with an interesting challenge. I had one day (and actually only a few hours) to experience the essence of a city from a cyclist's perspective. What makes it such a famous biking haven? Is it the infrastructure; the attitude, or something else? I could never imagine "experiencing" New York in a day, so I wasn't sure how to go about doing this. I began by renting a bike at Pier 39, one of the city's most popular attractions, and then headed West towards the Golden Gate Bridge. When you rent the bike, it comes with a map attached to the handle bars and lays out a very touristy route [depicted right]. They were hesitant to tell me about the best routes through town, so I eventually found my own way.

This is a very beautiful city, especially along the north side. It screams picturesque with it's lushes greenery and the Golden Gate Bridge gracefully arching tall in the distance against a clear blue, cloudless backdrop.

It seems like there are two types of cyclists in San Fransisco. First you have the tourists. Their skill level varies, but are generally limited by the efficiency of their rented bicycle. Invariably the tourists stop on the trails to take pictures (understandably), but this causes congestion. It also makes the other kind of cyclists angry. These people are the spandex-wearing, super-lightweight racing bike toting crowd, who take themselveswa y to seriously (That's my opinion my opinion, of course). They shout at tourists who dare to block their infinitely important riding routine. While I agree that tourists should be a little smarter when it comes to dismounting and taking pictures, I think that the "spandexers" need to get over themselves and bare with the congestion. The best example of this conflict is on the Golden Gate Bridge. Right as I was about to get on the bridge, I noticed a group of tourist at the head of the bridge getting ready to start the ride across. One of the machocyclers came up the trail and started yelling at them because they were in the way. I saw several other examples of this as I went across.

It doesn't surprise me that this occurs though. If we look at the three East river Bridges in New York, we have the Brooklyn Bridge, the Manhattan Bridge, and then theWilliamsburg bridge. Aside from being one of the greatest structures ever built, The Brooklyn Bridge is a tourist super magnet. As I have discussed in previous posts, I've got a thing for bridges, so bare with me (I also can't imagine who wouldn't want to ride across the Golden Gate Bridge and take pictures!) I rode the trail up to the western side, which is reserved for bicycle traffic, and began the assent. The east side is for pedestrians [depicted left].

Unlike on the Brooklyn bridge, this separation between bicycles and pedestrians is clearly followed. On the Brooklyn Bridge, the Northern half of the promenade is divided into a set of east and westbound bike lanes, while the southern end is for tourists. Since both are on the same surface and the bridge is such a popular tourist attraction, pedestrians rarely stick to their own side. This makes the Brooklyn Bridge a nightmare for commuters. According to my research, those who choose to commute to work via bicycle go out of their way to avoid the Brooklyn Bridge because of the crowds. In this way, the Brooklyn bridge absorbs most of the tourist traffic, leaving theWilliamsburg and Manhattan Bridges open for traffic. The Golden Gate stands alone, forcing the tourists and the hardcore to merge on one path. While commuters and racing jockeys are much different types of riders, the principle is the same.

This same delineation between cyclists and pedestrians is evident throughout the city's parks. I think that this goes beyond safety though. While yes you want to keep people from getting hit by bicycles, signs such as that on the right send a message of legitimacy to walkers and cyclists alike. It says (rhetorically) "I am supposed to be here; this path is meant specifically for me to exercise this form of transportation." If indeed sustainability is about changing behavior, as I am trying to prove, then this type of infrastructure is essential. It gives people the impression that it's acceptable, common, and just plain doable. This in turn encourages people to try it.


It's ironic that San Fran is such a renowned biking city considering its hills. I have mixed feelings about them. They defiantly suck going up, but are incredible on the way down! I was alright for the most part. There was only one hill that I absolutely could not get up, even while standing straight up on the pedals in the lowest gear [depicted left]. Just over this hill is one of the most crooked streets in the country [depicted right]. I had a lot of fun riding down it and weaving in between the cars that cautiously braked their way to the bottom.

As I rode I saw something unique. every soften there were bicycle signs with numbers on them. I would have to examine an actual bike map of the city to tell, but it seems like the city has a number of routes throughout the city for be to utilize. Interestingly, finding a bike map of the city is a little more difficult than one would think. Whereas in New York I can walk into any bike shop in the city and pick up a bike map, it's unusually difficult to find a bike map in San Fran. Yes, it is available online for free, but when I asked around, no one knew exactly where I could find a hard copy. One person mentioned something about a map for $11. I looked up online later and found out that you can order a map for $5 + shipping online. This surprised me given its ranking as a world class biking city.



Once I was away from the tourist magnets like the bridge, the Presido, the North Park, ect, I found myself back on the city streets. Something I noted was the feeling that came to me once I was back in the raw, everyday, non touristy urban atmosphere. Sure it felt good for me as a city guy, but beyond that it felt familiar. I think there's a certain universality about urban riding. Yes every city is completely different from the next, but despite this unique character, the riding is essentially the same. Maybe you give a little more power here because of the hills, or pull the brakes there because of the decent down a bridge, but essentially you are still doing the same thing in a different place. What I'm getting at is this: Biking does not change. Riding on the streets, or in between backed up traffic during rush hour feels the same where ever you are. What's different is the surrounding environment. THAT is what makes the experience unique. Where you bike is just as much if not more important than the actual biking itself. Cycling (the non competitive kind) is almost like wearing glasses. You wear them, not for the sake of wearing them, but for the ability to see the environment around you.

There is a lot more of this beautiful city to explore. Despite what some magazine says, I still think New York is a better city to ride it for its iconography, diversity of "place," and the easy access to both cycling infrastructure and information about the initiatives. I still intend to come back some day and give San Francisco a true "once-over" where I will have more time to explore different aspects of the city.

At long last... The Tour

Distance Traveled: 54.43 miles


AAAAAMAZING!!!!! The Bike New York 5 Borough Bike Tour was phenomenal event that I would do again in a heartbeat, even with the deluge.

I woke up at 5AM after about 3 hours of sleep and left at 6AM. Several people I had run into during my travels the day before encouraged me to skip the starting lineup because of the congestion. I still wanted to get a sense of what 30,00 people looks like, so I headed down to Battery Park. On my way down, Broadway, more and more bikers started flowing onto the road around me, all of them with the same flappy green tour vest. The Park was a buzz with activity, but there certainly were not 30,00 people there. I was directed up to city hall where the starting line-up took place. The picture on the right is what I saw. The crazy thing was that this was early. The tour didn't start for another hour, and already thousands of people had arrived.

Afterward, I headed west to the downtown Marriott Hotel so I could meet Bruno Suraci...

Time for a quick tangent: Three weeks before the race, I realized i had not received my tour vest, so I called the Bike New York office to find out if they could resend it. while I was on the phone, the gentleman informed me that I had a cousin in the race. I went through the list in my head: Let's see, all of them are way to young, he would never do this, he's not into biking, and she wouldn't go down to the city alone... Who could this be? The man told me his name was Bruno Suraci. I frantically began demanding his information, which may have been slightly suspicious, but I knew he wouldn't be able to give me his info anyway. I had my mom look him up, and she found all of the contact information. Then on Friday I called him and set up a time to meet him and his friend Ralph at his hotel the following day. Turns out that our families are indeed from the same region in Italy. I also noted that he looks like my late grandfather, Anthony Suraci. In conclusion we're related somehow. On our way to the restaurant, we saw all of the bikes lined up for rental [depicted right].


Back to Sunday: Bruno, Ralph and I headed up the Hudson River Greenway about five or six blocks and then cut over to 6th. There we waited for the police motorcycles to role by. The entire route was blocked off by the NYPD, all the way down to Staten Island. It was really impressive. We weren't the only one's who chose to join the tour slightly ahead of the mass. There were a ton of other people waiting up where we were. Actually, all the way up to Central Park I saw people on the sidewalk who merged in with the tour. Once the cops rode by I shot off like a bullet, eager to experience New York from a perspective that doesn''t come around very often. One of my major themes in this project is how cycling alters peoples' (both riders and observers) perceptions of the urban environment. How fitting that the race gives people a chance to experience New York without cars (along the route at least).

It was a phenomenal feeling, zooming through the middle of the street, worrying only about passing cyclists around me; not having to keeping my fingers firmly poised just above my break levers. Once we got to Central Park, we hit our first real down hills. For whatever reason the Marshals kept telling us (me in particular) to slow down. The rest of the ride north was pretty familiar to me until we got to the Madison Avenue Bridge. We were forced to stop here, so that the "VIP registrants" could catch up and move ahead. Hey, if you can't keep up, why pay $300 extra to be at the front of the line? While we waited I chatted with a bunch of people behind me about my project. Though from Connecticut, they found the idea really interesting. I also recommended some places for them to ride in the city. We exchanged cameras to take pictures and then the race began again (I have this weird habit of calling it a race; I'm not sure what that's about). As you may have noticed from the map above, we were in the Bronx for all of 10 minutes. I haven't had a chance to explore the Bronx in detail, but I have heard plenty of negative stereotypes. he question is whether or not the Race is perpetuating them or not, or if this was simply the best route for the tour. I'm not quite sure. I intend to ask the folks at Bike New York why they choose to bypass the Robert F. Kennedy (tribourough) bridge (which could have taken us straight from the Bronx to Queens... actually the bridge runs directly over Astoria Park where we had to stop). Once we were back in Manhattan we headed to the Queensbourough Bridge. This is a perfect example of altered perceptions. as you know from the day before, I took the QB Bridge walkway into Queens on my way to Roosevelt Island. Today however, we took the main Eastbound roadway on the upper deck [depicted left]. Now this was amazingly cool, not only because I like bridges, but also because I got to experience the same structure in two completely different ways. I was also cool to see the framework whizzing by. We took the same route up to Astoria that I had taken the day before. Since this was a mandatory stop I got a real sense of how many people were doing this. Bikers flowed in for the next half hour and it got crowded very quickly [depicted right]. There was all kinds of free food, including thousands of bananas, oranges, these really good energy water drink things, and some sort of unfried chip. I stocked up and then awaited the race to begin again. The photograph on the left was taken as we waited to leave. I actually submitted it for the Bike New York photo Contest with the title "Comradery Over the Handlebars."

We continued by heading south, back towards the QB Bridge and then farther south into Brooklyn. This is when the rain started to pick up. I liked it! I don't know what anybody else was thinking, but it was fun. The journey down through Brooklyn was kind of bland because we were on the Gowanus Expressway most of the time. There, again is another example of the difference between cycling and driving through a city. In a car, some of the infrastructure is designed to remove you from the urban environment in the interest of expedience. The trade off to this extra speed, however, is a loss in terms of what one perceives around them. Instead of tall buildings and diverse people, one is confined to concrete dividers and repetitious white dotted lines.


As the Verrazano Bridge faded into view, I new that the most challenging, yet rewarding part of the ride was coming. Completed in 1964, The Verrazano Narrows bridge was the longest suspension bridge in the world for 17 years. This bridge is so long, that the two towers are actually angled slightly to match the curvature of the Earth. Unfortunately it does not have any sort of pedestrian walkway or bike lane. This was the first time I was seeing it in person, which is kind of a big deal considering my feelings about bridges. This marks the last of New York's great bridges for me to see (I don't count the Bronx Whitestone and the Throngs neck just because they are no where near central New York and have never broken any records). Just before the entrance ramp was cannonball park [depicted right]. I hope I don't have to go over why it has that name. I began the ascent of the 4,260 foot span and shifted into a lower gear to make the ride a little easier. The tour ran on the westbound side of the lower deck. Occasionally water would spill down from the upper deck through cracks like a waterfall, and of course I would ride straight through them (I was already saturated, why not?).

When I made landfall in Staten Island, I headed directly for the celebratory festival. The ride was complete. At this point, I was pressed for time, so I could not stay very long. I wish I could have gotten one of those free massages, but oh well. Technically there was another three miles to ride for the ferry back to Manhattan. They let us load directly onto the ferry, which was crammed. I biked back to Union square after landing in Manhattan. I literally only had enough time to change my shirt and shorts (not the shoes though), grab the rest of my stuff and head to the train. luckily I caught a Q express to 34th and barley made the train. When I got back to my apartment in Philly I literally had to cut the shoes of my feet. I immediately took a shower and then went to work on a group project. What a crazy day!

I biked a total of 103.9 miles, and saw a wide diversity of places. I met a new family member, and learned things about the city which I never knew before. I went to those places which I had only previously read about. This was an extremley productive, fun trip, and I look forward to my next weekend adventure.

I swore I would take it easy today...

...but ended up riding 38.9 miles anyway.

I left Union Square around 9:45ish in the morning and head uptown. My destination:Roosevelt Island. I've always been curious to explore it and now as my chance. I was also excited since I had never before ridden on the Queensboro Bridge. I have this thing for bridges... It must be the engineer in me. The Queensboro bridge is a cantilever bridge. Because it spans over Roosevelt Island, there are two supports which negate the need for a suspension bridge. The bridge opened in 1909, and until the mid '50s had a vehicular elevator so motorists could descend onto Roosevelt Island. For me, this particular bridge has that old New York kind of feel. Almost like I'm expecting to hear jazz music and see a bunch of flappers dance by.


When I reached the center of the bridge, above the island I was surprised to find that there was no walk way of any kind. Confused I consulted my bike map. The only vehicular access to the island is via the Roosevelt Island Bridge [depicted right]. Otherwise, the only ways onto the island are via the F train ( a relatively new addition, the subway station is one of the deepest in all of New york City at 100+ feet) and a cable tram that runs along the QB bridge from Manhattan [depicted left].

The first thing I saw when I arrived on the island was an huge parking garage. One of the things to remember is that the island was designed to accommodate as little traffic as possible. In fact, there's only one street, and would you believe it, it's called Main Street! aside from two loops at the top and the bottom, this two lane road is the only one open for public vehicular traffic. Needless to say there were not many cars on the road. The most abundant vehicles I saw were the red public buses which kept going around and around. The island is very narrow. I could see clear across to the other end. It wasn't even a quarter of a mile! I got a real sense of how narrow it is when I visited it's southern most point [depicted left]. This section of the island is actually gated off because of the deteriorating ruins of a former smallpox hospital [depicted right].

At the other end of the island is an official landmark known as 'The Octagon.' In 1839 it opened as an administrative building for the "New York City Lunatic Asylum." I don't think political correctness was a big issue back then! The plaque out side reads, "The pleasant island surroundings were thought to be conducive to both physical and mental rehabilitation." What a great excuse for rounding up all the crazy people and sticking them on an almost quarantined island. Today it is still an operating facility. Instead of an asylum though, it now supports an elderly and special needs center. I went inside searching for a restroom and some interesting pictures. I climbed all the way to the top and took the picture to the right. On my way down the stair case two employees stopped dead in their tracks and stared at me. I kept moving down the staircase. When I got to the bottom I found the security guard listening to his walkie talkie. I hastened my pace towards the exit as I heard him say, "yeah, he's leaving now." I guess they don't like people visiting there.

Another thing I noticed about the island was the number of children, many of whom did not have adult supervision. I suppose that the island is so small, and difficult to get to that parents feel alright letting their kids run around outside. It is defiantly an interesting place, but nowhere I wanted to stay. In an hour or so, I saw pretty much everything there is to see about the island, including the Chapel of the Good Shepard right off of the main street [depicted left].



I headed back into Queens and made my way towards Astoria Park. It's a very neat place, but being a bridge fanatic, as I am, I was distracted by the recently renamed Robert F. Kennedy Bridge spanning directly over the park's parking lot [depicted right]. I followed the bridge to its entrance farther east in Queens, and hit some crazy traffic. Now when I say crazy I mean that in the best of ways. I love navigating traffic congestion on the bike. It's exciting! I finally got on the bridge, which I've been meaning to do for a while now. National security concerns apparently prohibit photography on or round bridges. I don't thing I've gotten the hint. They're just to fascinating and brilliant not to be displayed. Oh well, if they haul me off, I guess it wouldn't be the first time someone called me a terrorist. The walkway on the RFK Bridge has a couple points where I had to carry my bike up and down stairs, but was cool all the same. The decent onto Randell's Island was super fun! Randell's Island was a little disappointing. It seems like there's a lot of development going on there. As soon as I got off the bridge I noticed all kinds of equipment. My first impression was of a construction site. There are some large sports fields on the east side of the island. There must have been a bunch of games going on. I headed west and found a Cirque Du Sole tent. I thought this was kind of interesting and random. There's some preserved "wet lands" on the island. Nothing really spectacular. One thing that I enjoyed was the bike path which runs along the west and southern edge of the island [depicted left]. It's clean and sceneic. What more can you ask for? after this I headed for the pedestrian bridge on the west side ofthe island which leads into Manhattan [depicted right]. What's neat about this bridge is that it is soley for pedestrians, bikers, and skaters. Additionally, the bridge is actually closed during the winter months. This is achieved by physically raising the middle span above the walk way's normal elevation.

I traveled south on the green way for a while and then snaked my way through Manhattan. Eventually I ended up back on Broadway. Of course later in the day I biked around a little bit, but I would say that this portion of my ride was about 27-32 miles and only took about 3-3.5 hours. I should also point out that I was bikeing at a leisurely pace most of the day. My point is this: Look at how accessible this city is on a bike! I saw so much in so little time.

To close out the day I paid homage to may favorite landmark in the city: The Brooklyn Bridge. I could go on for days about why I like it so much, but instead I'll just leave a few pictures so others can enjoy it as well.