The more I drive into the NYC vicinity, the
more I am reminded how much I don’t like driving into the NYC vicinity. I am
also reminded how much more convenient bicycle travel is in the area,
particularly with the quantity of available bike lanes, both of the
painted-on-road and completely road-separated variety.
Let me get my frustration out of the way first.
In my somewhat manic desire to not pay an additional $15 in tolls, I always
drive from Brooklyn, back over the free Manhattan Bridge, across the island
on Canal Street and through the (free NJ-bound) Holland Tunnel.
My bike ride (more on that coming) ended at
3:30, well before the supposed rush hour should start, and I was excited to
think I would be out of there fairly quickly – yeah, right. The actual driving
distance is just over ten miles from Brooklyn to Jersey City, and it took me
THREE HOURS to go that far!
I sat at one particular intersection, behind
only one car, for ten minutes. Now that doesn’t sound like a long time, but I
challenge you to go sit in your car for that amount of time, imagining you are
at a traffic signal. It will (and does) seem like an eternity! There were just
two lanes, one of which had a delivery truck double-parked within, and the
other had a timid driver attempting an ill-advised left-hand turn across a
gridlocked flow of impatient New York drivers.
Not to be outdone, a Manhattan intersection
near the entrance to the tunnel had me sitting for a half hour! The traffic
cops assigned to the area were doing nothing to help the situation, as they
would hold up cars to prevent gridlock and not consider that the drivers coming
into Canal Street from the cross streets would leave us no room to advance when
our change to a green light would finally happen. Of course, the same pattern
occurred at successive intersections, and we were going no place.
I know there was a Yankees home game that
contributed somewhat to the heavy traffic – I’ve experience that nightmare before – and in retrospect, there may also have been a Mets game, matches for both
Major League Soccer franchises and a concert in Central Park, but I’m just
speculating.
My main reason for the trip was a bicycle
delivery in the East Midwood section of Brooklyn. A very kind gentleman named
Solomon took me into his garage to see his collection of bicycles, and I
laughed when I saw a unicycle hanging on one of the hooks. I explained that my
wife was recently disappointed when she saw a cheap one on a local online
marketplace and was beaten to it. I told him I wasn’t sure if she was crazy or
just determined to have a half-bike more than me.
Solomon quickly pulled it down and said,
“Take it for your trouble delivering the bike!” My mild argument consisted of,
“Are you sure?”, but I think he could see how excited I was to return with my
little present for Sue.
I had pulled into Solomon’s driveway to
unload my bike, and I certainly didn’t want to be in his way. I told him of my
plan for a ride in the area and asked about a good place to park for a couple
hours. He pointed out that parking on his street was fine after noon (it was about
12:30), and a couple of folks were just leaving from in front of his house –
aces!
I recently learned that there would be no
Jersey shore rides for me in the foreseeable future, as the Stone Harbor
residence belonging to Sue’s family is in need of some major
renovation/rebuilding, so I thought I could substitute a loop out to Coney
Island across to Rockaway Beach and back as my “shore ride” this year.
I started west on Avenue L and turned left
on Ocean Parkway onto the relative safety of the traffic-separated bike lane.
I’m saying “relative” because there were some really bad tree root upheavals/broken
pavement sections to negotiate, and a couple drivers made “no-look” right-hand
turns to threaten my well-being.
It was about three miles to Brighton Beach,
where I made a right on Neptune Avenue and pedaled about two more miles into
Seagate, an appropriately-named community in which riffraff like me were
definitely not welcome. The entrance looked like it belonged to a prison more
than a neighborhood I would like to visit, let alone live in!
I obviously wasn’t going to get a view from
Coney Island Lighthouse, so I made a right on 37th Street to Coney Island Creek
Park and took a photo out over Gravesend Bay of the weather-obscured Verrazano-Narrows
Bridge. In fact, the whole day was pretty gloomy with very low clouds, but my
luck held out and (spoiler alert) thunderstorms started right after I finished
putting my bike back in the car.
I did a U-turn to head back across Seagate
to reach the west end of the Coney Island boardwalk. I was well aware that cycling
on the boardwalk was not permitted after 10 a.m., but with the crappy weather, this
far end was pretty desolate, so I did just a couple blocks before heading back
to Neptune Avenue.
Back into Brighton Beach, I passed under the
MTA elevated tracks, were my route’s name changed to Emmons Avenue. I was now
riding along an attractive marina area – I can imagine this would normally be a
hoppin’ site during the summer, but it was pretty dead, due to the dreary skies
and the fact that it was a weekday. At Brigham Street I zigzagged to the right
on to a really nice road-separated bike lane along the Shore Parkway and Plumb
Beach.
I crossed the bridge over the Garritsen Inlet
into the Marine Park neighborhood of southeast Brooklyn, and probably would
have had a really nice view across Jamaica Bay to Rockaway Beach, but the low
clouds completely eliminated that possibility. I made a right turn along
Flatbush Avenue and soon passed Floyd Bennett Field.
Named after a noted aviator who piloted the
first plane over the North Pole, the site was New York’s first municipal
airport, built in 1928 in response to the growth of commercial aviation after World
War I. Despite its excellent facilities, it never saw much commercial use, as
it was a bit isolated from Manhattan, and bus-to-subway connections didn’t
start there until the 1940s. It was used for general aviation, and as a Naval
Air Station during World War II, and then as a Naval Reserve Station until
1983.
The U.S. Coast Guard used a section of the airfield
from the 1930s up until 1988, and starting in 1934, the NYPD occupied Hangar 4
as the world’s first police aviation unit. Floyd Bennett Field is now part of
the Gateway National Recreation area served by the National Park Service. I
recently found out that a 2.4-mile loop of the runways hosts Tuesday night bicycle
races June-August.
I soon crossed the Marine Parkway Bridge
over Jamaica Bay – again, no view to speak of, except the water below, and a
light, misty rain was hitting me briefly. I pedaled west on Rockaway Point
Boulevard until I reached Breezy Point, a private community that only allowed
through-traffic to access the surf club at Breezy Point Tip.
The side streets all had lift gates, but it
was a simple swerve-around on my bike, and I made it over to a beautiful bike
lane that runs between the dunes and the townhouses that have sprung up here
recently. During Hurricane Sandy on October 29, 2012, this area known locally
as “The Wedge” was devastated by fires caused by downed power lines and the
fact that firefighters simply couldn’t respond, as the seven-foot tidal surge
hampered their movements considerably.
 |
| An aerial view, taken shortly after the fire. You can see the bike lane, underwater,cutting diagonally across the upper right of the image. |
I had made a big circle back to Rockaway
Point Boulevard and cycled along the coast until I entered Jacob Riis Park. The
beach facilities here were pretty sketchy, as I can guess the site was pummeled
pretty hard by Sandy, and I’m thinking visitors probably prefer the more groomed
beaches and amenities near Rockaway and Long Beach to the northeast.
I took a right on 126th Street and rode on
the boardwalk for a while. The low clouds obscured the upper floors of the high-rises
all along the shore, which actually made the area more attractive to me. About
1/3 of the life guard stands were manned, as the beach was practically empty!
At 109th I made a swerve to the left, down
onto the Shore Front Parkway, which again, had a nicely painted bike lane. I’m
guessing only about two or three miles of my whole 40-mile loop didn’t have
some type of marked lane for cyclists!
I left downtown Rockaway Beach at 94th
Street, heading out the Cross Bay Veterans Memorial Bridge. I had a tailwind
and was flying along the Cross Bay Boulevard bike lane, through the marina
communities on the spit of land in Broad Channel, into the southwest portion of
Queens known as Howard Beach. Here the bike lane swerved over to the less busy 92nd Street, paralleling the heavily-trafficked boulevard.
I made a left at 157th Street and
a right turn on 84th to intersect the wonderful Shore Parkway bike
path. I rode about three miles east and exited onto Rockaway Parkway at the
Canarsie Veterans Circle. After a couple blocks, I turned left on Skidmore
Avenue and then cut across Canarsie Park to find yet another nicely painted
bike lane on Paerdegat Avenue.
In the homestretch now, I made a left on
Flatlands Avenue, which intersected with Avenue M, and I ended up back in front
of Solomon’s house on 37th. I put my Pinarello back in the car, just in time
for some thunder rumbles, a brief but heavy downpour and, of course, the unexpectedly LONG drive home.
I really don’t mind helping out customers in
NYC, particularly when they don’t have vehicles or if they are willing to
compensate me for delivery, but I think I would like an extended break from
contending with the rush hour traffic. I’m appreciating more and more the easy option
of parking in New Jersey and cycling into the city.
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