First come, first serve, we are giving these away in PAIRS.

Get 'em while they are hot.

If you have a GoPro or similar (and the time) the more of these we can get the better.

Need a volunteer (or several) to map out and post photos of the bad potholes.  We'll use them to start a facebook campaign to start calling 311.  ("Like" this pothole photo if you've called 311)

Fixing potholes is entirely up to DOT so the Park cannot help us.  Post photos in this thread.

thanks,

J

Someone else will need to take care of the actual facebook part but I'll provide a marked up map and photos.

I used it once and a pothole was filled within the week.  I believe I said that I nearly fell off my bike in traffic because of a major pothole.  If I recall correctly, a municipality can't be sued for road conditions unless they had prior notice of the poor conditions.  So once you put them on notice, they have an incentive to do something about it.

Nice work!

He's fine (or so he says) but keep your eyes peeled; another new menace to add to the extensive list...

Charlie & I attended the first of 2014's "Permit Holder's" meetings with Prospect Park.

In general the meeting was very good; the park actually hosts quite a large number of races, and they are committed to helping us keep ours and possibly expand the calendar.

There are some changes in the works though.  There is a construction window during which the run-in to the traditional finish line (eastern drive before Lincoln) may be constricted to 1/2 the roadway (possibly less depending on where they want to put pedestrians).

Obviously this would be impossible to manage with current field sizes and the traditional finish line.

The Park was very accommodating with respect to suggestions for alternate start/finish locations.

The best alternative right now seems to be the opening on the left just prior to the KOM - yeah, you read that right, an UPHILL FINISH IN PROSPECT PARK.  Annie git yer gun!

Some other alternatives were proposed, I'll list them below with their "showstopper aspects" so folks can understand what we're up against.  If anyone has alternate suggestions, feel free to post suggestions or contact me or Charlie I directly.

Here is a map for your reference:

GAP: Concern over riders spilling into farmers market & other events

Prior to 3rd street entrance: too much pedestrian traffic with blind entries to marshal safely

Bartel-Pritchard entrance: the Park cannot issue permits for multiple events with overlapping times (many other events stage there while we are finishing)

The Park also suggested letting us cut through Center drive to avoid any pinch-point but Charlie wisely pointed out that this would entail two crossings of the pedestrian path per lap, for every rider (dropped and off the front) as well as pace vehicles.

We'll be making a written recommendation for the KOM-ish finish line very shortly, so if you have a brilliant solution don't wait too long.

for me, as a racer, it's better. For racing, I think it is worse. 

Frankly I think Bartel-Pritchard would be great, especially if they reversed the direction of traffic

What is the construction time frame?

Ian,

When I first started racing in Prospect, the Temple was the finish.  It was a crazy sprint as you were fighting for position on the downhill and through the funnel.  I'm sure we bombed through the jogger's lane then, and that was before the posts on the outside of the turn.

We also for a while held it in between the temple and the current finish.  I htink by the Parkside entrance.  Was better than the temple for safety.

Temple finish seems pretty fraught with everyone rested at the bottom of a big descent and a pinch point.  Further down is almost exactly where the narrowing will begin.

Don't forget, the start/finish areas also need to allow for car/truck ambulance access.

I attended the most recent "ComCom" meeting, representing Kissena.  Not too much to report; the details on the parking for the rink (as a reminder) are that the available spaces are going down by 50% (from 250 to about 125) and that the lot will only be open for skating months (the hope being it reduces pedestrian/bike/car interactions at the intersection) and the traffic to the lot is limited to just that little road, as opposed to the current setup where the traffic comes in from the entrance by the "pinch point" at the bottom of the hill.

Still no word on when the repairs to the "popup" lake at that pinch point are scheduled for; which to me means it's more & more likely that it happens after the park racing season (lets keep our fingers crossed.)

That is all,

Jules