Further to yesterday’s post, not only is Brooklyn supposedly the best large city in America for the riding of bikes (even though it’s NOT A CITY), but New York City’s bicycle parking program is going to “revolutionize urban cycling across North America:”
Indeed, it’s a “potential turning point,” and smuggies are now even comparing New York to Europe, their platonic ideal of absolutely everything:
New York’s upcoming bike parking network isn’t just good news for locals—it’s a potential turning point for urban cycling across North America. Cities such as Montreal, Portland, and Vancouver have made strides with protected bike lanes and bike-share systems, but few have tackled parking in a meaningful, citywide way in a similar fashion to European cities where the modal shift has already swung further in the two-wheeled direction.
So can New York pull it off? I have my doubts. Without boring you with my litany of complaints (you know, the kind that start with “I’m a taxpayer and…”), this is a deeply dysfunctional city. The green roof on the bike pod is an amusing touch, though. I’d say they should build housing on it instead, but it’s probably not necessary because someone will soon be living up there anyway–unless someone elsoe figures out how to park their RAV4 up there, which is equally likely.
I mean how are we going to revolutionize bicycle parking when we can’t even put a bike rack by a pool?
Though to be fair it sounds like the Central Park Conservancy had to move the rack because people in New York suck at riding bikes:
The center, which is run by the Central Park Conservancy – the nonprofit organization that manages most of Central Park – initially installed bike racks at the end of that tricky downhill zig-zag on the East Drive north of 106th Street. To access the bike racks, cyclists would have to dismount at top speeds, and then would be in harm’s way as other cyclists passed. And cyclists entering from Harlem would have to salmon uphill to access the racks.
Uh, why would cyclists “have to dismount at top speeds?” Have they not heard of brakes? Even the fixie doofuses can gradually manage to skid themselves to a stop.
I must say I’m also surprised the advocacy set still uses the term “salmon.” After all, it was I who invented it, and they’ve more or less excommunicated me. In fact I’d stop them from using it if I could, purely out of spite:
Short of that, it seems to me they should at least come up with their own term, and if they can’t do that I’m happy to help them. Might I suggest “wrong-dogging?” You can have that one for free.
Meanwhile, from Eurobike, here comes the gravel motor you’ve been waiting for:
Just make sure to use it with this micro-massaging gravel bar tape:
Hey, it might very well be fantastic, but it sure is creepy looking:
Those look like ambulacral grooves:
This whole gravel thing is just getting weird.