After hundreds of training miles and two pairs of shoes the marathon is now a little over a week away. Despite struggling at the moment to put a little flu bug behind me, I'm feeling physically ready for the run and growing more excited by the day.
I want to thank all of you who contributed to Team Hole in the Wall in my name allowing me this fantastic opportunity to join with tens of thousands of other runners on November 7 as we travel through the five boroughs. I hope, for those of you who live in the New York area, you will also come out to root us on along the course - if you've never been to the marathon and seen it first hand it is truly something to be experienced. Here is a link to an interactive map for you to precisely see the course.
My bib number is 48739 and will be starting in Blue Wave Group 3 at 10:40 a.m. Here is link to estimates for arrival times along the route, but you will be able to track my progress, whether you're along the route or not, in real-time using the NYRR's Athlete Alert system. There are several options available, including text updates and an iPhone application, and information on them all can be found here. If you do plan to come out and cheer, please let me know where you plan to be and on which side - in relation to my running direction - you'll be standing. I will do my best to be on that side of the route. There are about two hundred members of Team Hole in the Wall and we'll all be decked out in team shirts so hopefully you'll be able to spot us (me) in the crowd.
Thank you all once again and hope to see you next Sunday.
Friday, October 29, 2010
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
In support of the Prospect Park West bike lane
On a slightly different topic than what I've written about here in the past, I wanted to post a copy of the email I sent to members of the New York City Council in support of keeping the bike lane along Prospect Park West. For those not in the area, the Department of Transportation earlier this year reduced the number of vehicle lanes on Prospect Park West from three to two, converting an area between the curb and parking lane to a separated bicycle lane. Predictably, not all are happy with this change and some are calling on its removal and restoring the road to three lanes. I am totally in favor of keeping it since, in my opinion, the change is beneficial to pedestrians and cyclists alike and is of minimal inconvenience to motorists.
Here's what I wrote:
Dear _______,
I am writing to voice my support for the bike lane along Prospect Park West and encourage the City to continue in its efforts to create more. As I resident of Park Slope for over thirty years and avid cyclist, it is my feeling that this lane, and the others throughout the city, is a benefit to our community and increases pedestrian and cyclist safety.
I have long enjoyed the visual appeal of Prospect Park West's grand thoroughfare but at the same time felt it to be quite dangerous. Growing up and, for most of my adult life, living a block from the Prospect Park, I consistently viewed the three lanes of traffic along Prospect Park West as one of the more difficult streets to cross. Not only would drivers take advantage of the relatively open flow of traffic to speed but would routinely accelerate even faster in order to catch the few lights along the route. This scenario made it very challenging to cross the three lanes of traffic, especially when one considers that many of the people crossing to access the Park are elderly, school aged, parents with strollers, etc. Indeed my earliest memory of Prospect Park West as a young child was of a vast, seemingly insurmountable expanse of asphalt where cars careened past all but cutting off access to the Park. Installing the physically-separated bike lane along Prospect Park West was a great idea not only because it shortens the distance necessary to cross from three lanes of active traffic down to two, but provides great safety for bikers and slows down vehicular traffic.
I understand that there are many in the neighborhood that complain traffic speeds have actually increased due to people accelerating to make up for lost time due to congestion - specifically that with two lanes traffic backups occur when there's a double parked car or driver who stops to park in a legal spot. However, these same drivers would in all likelihood be speeding just as much - if not more - were there still three lanes of traffic. Moreover, this consequence of reducing the number of lanes on Prospect Park West should no more warrant the removal of the bike lane any more than it suggests expanding Eighth Avenue to three lanes because such backups occur there as well. Again, speeding is not the result of a narrower roadway (indeed I believe it is quite the opposite and happens more often on wider streets with greater traffic flow) but rather on the attitude of individual drivers. The answer to speeding and reckless driving is not to expand the width of roadways but to increase police enforcement.
Complaints against the bike path have also been raised by pedestrians that say crossing it is dangerous because they have to look both ways. This argument too, however, ought not to result in removal of the bike path. The need to remember to look before stepping onto the bike path in the short run is vastly outweighed by the long-term benefit of having the separate areas for pedestrians and cyclists. Yes, it is a change and something new for long time residents to remember to do, but I doubt anyone would now argue to remove the traffic lights on Garfield Place, First Street, Fifth Street, etc., because when they were first installed people were not familiar with them being there and had to remember to pay attention. As a child I was taught to look both ways before stepping off the curb whether there was a walk signal or not. This ought to apply whether that means stepping into the street or a bike lane.
Finally, as a bike rider who does his best to ride with courtesy towards others, including pedestrians, I will nevertheless be the first to acknowledge that there are many others who are not. Yet I would also point out that there are many pedestrians that walk without awareness to their surroundings as well. I have witnessed and experienced first hand as many accidents and near accidents caused by pedestrian inattentiveness as by cyclist action. Providing separate paths for the two reduces incidents of cyclist-pedestrian interactions and thus the chances for accidents is lessen. Since the installation of the bike path I have seen almost no bikes - with the exception of very young children still in the learning stages - on the sidewalk and have seen equally few pedestrians using the bike lane.
Perhaps there was a time when the wide, three lane thoroughfare of Prospect Park West provided a grand boulevard for motorists, pedestrians, and cyclists alike to enjoy, but what it became in recent years was a mile long, drag strip-like stretch of a road slicing between Park Slope and Prospect Park. Drivers hoping to shave minutes from their commute would routinely speed along its length, jumping green lights and ignoring yellow (and sometimes red) in an effort to make the next. Pedestrians had to scramble to cross its expanse and cyclists forced into the dangerous position of riding unprotected and alongside increasingly aggressive and reckless drivers. Providing the separated bicycle lane has provided a reasonable and good solution these issues. The minor inconveniences it might have created or period of adjustment necessary by all in response to it does not warrant its removal.
I encourage you to resist the efforts to return to Prospect Park West to a car-centric roadway and hope you will support New York's effort to make our city more pedestrian and bicycle friendly and safe.
Thank you.
Here's what I wrote:
Dear _______,
I am writing to voice my support for the bike lane along Prospect Park West and encourage the City to continue in its efforts to create more. As I resident of Park Slope for over thirty years and avid cyclist, it is my feeling that this lane, and the others throughout the city, is a benefit to our community and increases pedestrian and cyclist safety.
I have long enjoyed the visual appeal of Prospect Park West's grand thoroughfare but at the same time felt it to be quite dangerous. Growing up and, for most of my adult life, living a block from the Prospect Park, I consistently viewed the three lanes of traffic along Prospect Park West as one of the more difficult streets to cross. Not only would drivers take advantage of the relatively open flow of traffic to speed but would routinely accelerate even faster in order to catch the few lights along the route. This scenario made it very challenging to cross the three lanes of traffic, especially when one considers that many of the people crossing to access the Park are elderly, school aged, parents with strollers, etc. Indeed my earliest memory of Prospect Park West as a young child was of a vast, seemingly insurmountable expanse of asphalt where cars careened past all but cutting off access to the Park. Installing the physically-separated bike lane along Prospect Park West was a great idea not only because it shortens the distance necessary to cross from three lanes of active traffic down to two, but provides great safety for bikers and slows down vehicular traffic.
I understand that there are many in the neighborhood that complain traffic speeds have actually increased due to people accelerating to make up for lost time due to congestion - specifically that with two lanes traffic backups occur when there's a double parked car or driver who stops to park in a legal spot. However, these same drivers would in all likelihood be speeding just as much - if not more - were there still three lanes of traffic. Moreover, this consequence of reducing the number of lanes on Prospect Park West should no more warrant the removal of the bike lane any more than it suggests expanding Eighth Avenue to three lanes because such backups occur there as well. Again, speeding is not the result of a narrower roadway (indeed I believe it is quite the opposite and happens more often on wider streets with greater traffic flow) but rather on the attitude of individual drivers. The answer to speeding and reckless driving is not to expand the width of roadways but to increase police enforcement.
Complaints against the bike path have also been raised by pedestrians that say crossing it is dangerous because they have to look both ways. This argument too, however, ought not to result in removal of the bike path. The need to remember to look before stepping onto the bike path in the short run is vastly outweighed by the long-term benefit of having the separate areas for pedestrians and cyclists. Yes, it is a change and something new for long time residents to remember to do, but I doubt anyone would now argue to remove the traffic lights on Garfield Place, First Street, Fifth Street, etc., because when they were first installed people were not familiar with them being there and had to remember to pay attention. As a child I was taught to look both ways before stepping off the curb whether there was a walk signal or not. This ought to apply whether that means stepping into the street or a bike lane.
Finally, as a bike rider who does his best to ride with courtesy towards others, including pedestrians, I will nevertheless be the first to acknowledge that there are many others who are not. Yet I would also point out that there are many pedestrians that walk without awareness to their surroundings as well. I have witnessed and experienced first hand as many accidents and near accidents caused by pedestrian inattentiveness as by cyclist action. Providing separate paths for the two reduces incidents of cyclist-pedestrian interactions and thus the chances for accidents is lessen. Since the installation of the bike path I have seen almost no bikes - with the exception of very young children still in the learning stages - on the sidewalk and have seen equally few pedestrians using the bike lane.
Perhaps there was a time when the wide, three lane thoroughfare of Prospect Park West provided a grand boulevard for motorists, pedestrians, and cyclists alike to enjoy, but what it became in recent years was a mile long, drag strip-like stretch of a road slicing between Park Slope and Prospect Park. Drivers hoping to shave minutes from their commute would routinely speed along its length, jumping green lights and ignoring yellow (and sometimes red) in an effort to make the next. Pedestrians had to scramble to cross its expanse and cyclists forced into the dangerous position of riding unprotected and alongside increasingly aggressive and reckless drivers. Providing the separated bicycle lane has provided a reasonable and good solution these issues. The minor inconveniences it might have created or period of adjustment necessary by all in response to it does not warrant its removal.
I encourage you to resist the efforts to return to Prospect Park West to a car-centric roadway and hope you will support New York's effort to make our city more pedestrian and bicycle friendly and safe.
Thank you.
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