[Hey did you see we have a new ride to Queens Aug 15th to eat our way through the street food carts? Join us!]
“Summer Streets takes place on consecutive Saturdays August 7, 14 and 21 from 7:00 am – 1:00 pm. The 2010 route connects the Brooklyn Bridge with Central Park with recommended connections along low-traffic streets to the Hudson River Greenway, Harlem and Governors Island allowing participants to plan a route as long or short as they wish. This event takes a valuable public space – our City’s streets – and opens them up to people to play, walk, bike, and breathe. ” via NYC DOT
Don’t forget this year there will be dumpster pools on the streets! Three Dumpster pools will be located on the east side of Park Avenue between 40th and 41st Streets. The pools will be open 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. via NYT
Those of you in NYC may know that the Rapha Cycle Club pop-up shop recently opened on 325 Bowery. The space offers Third Rail coffee, cycling themed books and pricey, stylish cycling clothes. It is also a great space to sit and watch the Tour de France with its ample seating and multiple TVs. Add the indoor bike parking and it’s the perfect urban cycling oasis. It’s definitely worth checking out for the space. Don’t except a full line of products though. Selection is slim especially for the women’s line.
Rapha Cycle Club also organizes groups rides out over the G-W and along River Road every Wednesday at 8am.
Part retail store, part café, part gallery; Rapha Cycle Club will be a meeting place where cyclists can celebrate the glory and suffering of road racing.
May is bike month and filled with a whole bunch of events which you can access here. Here are some of our favorite events to help you navigate the schedule.
1. We’ve got a ride this month to Sunset Park on Saturday May 15th @ 3;30pm to check out Artist Open Studio Day! More info on the rides page.
This week, Bike Snob revealed himself to be a 36 year old dude named Eben Weiss. Some folks in the bike community are upset but with a new book launch and promotional events in the works, but he has made himself highly marketable. With his newly reveled identity, Eben will be speaking at an upcoming Transportation Alternatives Bike Culture Summit on May 6 with David Herlihy, author of “Bicycle: The History.” Tickets are on sale April 1 on TA’s website. [via NYT]
The event might actually be entertaining, but a part of me sees it as another dry panel with a couple of middle aged white guys talking about bicycles. Is this really more of what our community needs – a guy from the Harvard Cycling Club talking about bike culture? I want to see all type of folks out there on bicycles, and panels like this don’t help change the image of cycling. If TA really wants to get more bicycles on the road, they are going to need everybody so why not start speaking to us all?
Tonight! January 25: The Great Williamsburg Bike Wars: A Public Debate w/Caroline Samponaro, Heather Loop, Isaac Abraham @ Pete’s Candy Store – 709 Lorimer St Brooklyn NY, 7:30pm.
Just before Christmas, 2009, a war broke out on the bike lanes of Williamsburg. On one side: the Hasidic Jewish community of the Southside, who had advocated–successfully–for Mayor Bloomberg to remove the Bedford Ave Bike lane. On the other side: A coalition of bikesters, whose defiance led them to re-paint the bike lanes, and threaten a topless ride in protest (it was snowed out in the blizzard of ’09). Moderating: Hasidic bike enthusiast Baruch Herzfeld.
Saturday January 30th: Haiti Benefit Race @ Tompkins Square Park followed by an after party w/goldsprints @ Bklyn Wrek Room – 940 Flushing Ave Brooklyn NY
Saturday January 30th: Transporation Alternatives Brooklyn Commitee hosts their monthly ride. Check the TA calendar for route and time closer to the date.
You might remember last year of a major dispute between the Hasidic community and bicycle community in Williamsburg regarding the Kent Ave bike lane. While that lane though redesigned stayed, last week the DOT stripped 14 blocks of bike lane off the street neighboring Bedford Ave with no warning or community voice. Bedford Ave bike lane provides a direct connection for cyclists to the the Williamsburg bridge – possibly the most highly trafficked bike commuter bridge in the city. The community is understandably upset considering how much work and community support must go into installing a bike lane. Apparently removing one requires no thought at all.
Yesterday Gothamist reported that a few people were arrested by the Shomrim or local watchdogs for trying to repaint the lane on Bedford though other sources report no one was actually arrested. Regardless, a group called “OccupyEverything” succeeded in repainting the lane anyway!
The beautifully designed Bikestation, a facility that provides secure bike parking, changing rooms, lockers, bike rental, bike repair and retail sales has opened in Washington DC.
It will be staffed 66 hours per week and available to members 24/7. The Bikestation location at Union Station allows commuters to take public transportation to the station, pick up their bicycles and go to work, shopping or entertainment. [via Bikestation]
If you came out to El Tour de Taco this month, you probably met Emily, one of the organizers of the tour. Earlier this year, Emily was hit by a cab driver who was texting while driving in the rain. The front wheel of her bike was wrecked and she was injured. Last week, Emily had to call in to testify for her case and was unhappy with how it unfolded.
She writes that during the hearing “the attorney based her entire case on the fact that I shouldn’t have been riding my bike in the rain at 11:30 at night from Queens to Brooklyn, and that it was my fault that I got hit, because I shouldn’t assume that the cab would stop at the stop sign. Here I’m assuming that they’re admitting that he ran the stop sign. She also said that because I wasn’t filing a lawsuit that I must be lying.”
It’s kind of unbelievable to hear this would be considered a legitimate defence. Turns out the judge probably thought the same thing because Emily got a message from the Taxi and Limousine Commission stating that the cab driver was found guilty, which means 3 points on his license and a $250 fine. While this just a slap in the face for a guy who could have killed a cyclist, it’s good to hear the justice system isn’t a total wash and that there indeed was a verdict in favor of a cyclist.
