Road & Bridge Conditions-H20, Dirt, Glass, Paving, Closures, etc

Jun 22, 2023 at 04:22 PM

I found out about it from another email from Alex Koch

From: "Aliaksandr Kochatau" <mail@BikeReg.com>
Subject: Central and Prospect park bike racing is under attack!
Date: June 21, 2023 at 10:29:48 PM EDT
To: mugwump@panix.com
Reply-To: pcdocstar@yahoo.com

Hello everyone
Today someone notified me about ongoing Campaign inside Prospect Park and Public Meeting about Central Park drives future. Those events are going to affect racing in other states too, since all parks watching each other in effort to get rid of “terrorists in spandex”. Skin scraping fest last weekend just reminded NYC Parks about their goal to push bicycle racing out of their territory.
Prospect park:
Please watch out for tiny green canopies in Prospect Park on the side of the road or even paths. (photo attached on the bottom). Make everything possible to visit park especially on Friday and Saturday 12pm-4pm. Managers overseeing this project most likely will be there at that time.
Outer side jogger’s lane in not popular since people want to get around the park the shortest way. Athletes make a plan to make certain quantity of laps and outer jogger’s lane makes it longer.
Eliminated buffer lane between joggers and bikes made park more dangerous for everyone
Narrow space for bicycles reduces a chance to avoid collision
No Fast and Slow lanes for bikes making flow of bicycles disorganized.
Slow bikes are riding side by side, blocking whole space dedicated for bikes and pushing faster riders to pass them on jogger’s lane.
Now we need to watch out both sides of bike path for something unexpected.

Central Park is planning to sandwich bikes between jogger's lanes too:
Register for public meeting on Wednesday, June 28 6.00pm-7.30pm at North Meadow Center (mid park at 97 street) for ongoing Drives safety and mobility study. It’s the only opportunity for cycling community to meet top people from Central Park Administration and Conservancy to give them review in person. Please be aware, that Conservancy is just a 2nd job for Central Park administration.
Vise President Erica Sopha is expected to be there and she is probably the only one with common sense in her mind. You probably remember crazy guy yelling at me at Central Park race on 8/28/22 – Stanley Steen is expected to be there too. That’s what you should expect from each Conservancy/DOT/Sam Schwartz representative in average. So, come cold headed and take brakes when they will try to manipulate you. Make sure you don’t use profanity language – there are a bunch of normal words. We need to get on top of them all together and make sure they won’t feel comfortable going against bicycle racing community in the future. Record videos on your phone, especially when they will be lying, yelling or avoiding inconvenient questions. Conservancy states at their website as the only organization taking care of Central Park (screenshot attached), but then where NYC Parks Department money dedicated for CP go to?? Sam Schwartz is running by ex deputy chief of DOT (according to NY Times article from 3/2/23) – no wonder they get all the contracts for designing NYC streets!
Don’t let people who never ride bikes and visit parks just for making money to make decisions for all of us! Let’s get our efforts together and defend NYC racing! Spread the word at your team/group chats!
Alex K
PS: Yes, I understand that I'm going against very powerful people with multimillion businesses. So, you know who to blame on if something will happen to me.

Attachments:
https://www.bikereg.com/BR/a/10698/Screen-Shot-2023-03-17-at-6.15.16-AM.png
https://www.bikereg.com/BR/a/10698/352103352_656837995891362_3093207100590831317_n.jpg

JohnMalcolmson

Jun 23, 2023 at 02:41 AM

mugwump said:

So, there's an in-person open house about the future of the Drives in Central Park on June 28

https://www.centralparknyc.org/activities/events/central-park-drives-study-open-house

I'm signed up.

I'd be curious to know how many of these design experts ride bikes. Here's the budget breakdown for CP:

The NYC Parks Department allocates $37 million per year to Central Park. This funding goes towards a variety of park maintenance and improvement projects, including:

Groundskeeping and gardening
Park security
Playground maintenance
Pedestrian and bike path repairs
Historic preservation
Special events programming

In addition to the funding from the NYC Parks Department, Central Park also receives significant financial support from the Central Park Conservancy. The Conservancy is a private non-profit organization that raises over $100 million per year to support the park. This funding is used for a variety of projects, including:

Capital improvements
Arts and cultural programming
Education and environmental programs
Volunteer recruitment and training

The combined funding from the NYC Parks Department and the Central Park Conservancy allows Central Park to remain one of the most beautiful and well-maintained parks in the world.

Here are some additional details about the funding for Central Park:

The $37 million from the NYC Parks Department is about 10% of the department's total budget for parks and recreation.
The Central Park Conservancy receives about 75% of its funding from private donations.
The remaining 25% of the Conservancy's funding comes from the city, state, and federal government.

Overall, Central Park receives a significant amount of funding from both public and private sources. This funding allows the park to remain a vibrant and welcoming space for all New Yorkers and visitors.

mugwump

Jun 28, 2023 at 05:13 PM

Bump!

anyone joining me tonight?

mugwump

Jun 29, 2023 at 09:31 PM

I attended the meeting.

Last night was pretty much an enhanced in-person version of the Zoom meetings they had about re-designing the drives back in April. The main difference was that Central Park Conservancy officials, DoT officials, and Parks Department officials were present as well as six “interactive” stations where you could mark up maps, use dots to signify agreement or disagreement, and add post-it notes to things you want to see or not want to see. I did try to engage with the officials, but then, so did others, like a woman who claimed “she was nearly killed” by a delivery guy on an e-bike.

Maybe 40 people or so were there, including the various officials. There were seven cyclists I recognized, and about that many whom I pegged as cyclists. Couldn’t figure out if anyone was there on behalf of CRCA.

What you missed you can mostly do by going to the Central Park Conservancy website and visiting two pages

The first is a generalized form for offering advice and telling them how much you use the park

https://www.centralparknyc.org/drives

The second, which you can get to from the first, is a way for you to mark up the map and/or signal approval of other suggestions. You can put in as many comments and suggestions as you want.

https://map.proxi.co/#command-center?topic_id=63ed330759b14092a1cf4070&topic_key=Dgsbdu8mlWQc6CqLwocGCHsFXVixnx

You have till the end of August (the 31st) to mark up the map, but do it soon, so you don’t forget. If you don't have any ideas, but want to see what others have written, go to the Proxi map and click on various colored dots. The color corresponds with a general idea, and then there are specifics to that very spot.

BTW, Here’s one of the interactive stations after the event.

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5019667/uploads/editor/c3/zf0pyufhu9g4.jpeg

LennartZandbergen

Jun 30, 2023 at 03:33 AM

It's striking how the survey makes no distinction whatsoever between 'traditional bikes' and 'race bikes'.

mugwump

Jun 30, 2023 at 02:35 PM

LennartZandbergen said:

It's striking how the survey makes no distinction whatsoever between 'traditional bikes' and 'race bikes'.

Many cyclists have complained about that already.

At one of their interactive stations, they provided a sheet of paper to draw what you thought the ideal lane division would be. A long-time pro bike advocate was there as well and said he was peeved that the assumption was to further squeeze bikes. So I suggested he and I submit a suggestion to make the entire road for bikes. Which we did.

Allocating Space on the Drives.pdf

LennartZandbergen

Jul 10, 2023 at 03:30 AM

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/09/nyregion/flooding-west-point-orange-county.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

Some serious floods around 9W

mugwump

Jul 12, 2023 at 05:39 PM

The latest missive from Alex Koch on Prospect Park

@eloy anything to add? What do you think of his plea?

From: "Aliaksandr Kochatau" <mail@BikeReg.com>
Subject: Save NYC bike racing! The very last chance!
Date: July 11, 2023 at 8:46:38 PM EDT
To: mugwump@panix.com
Reply-To: pcdocstar@yahoo.com

Good evening everyone
DOT made a new survey to make a final decision about double jogger lanes at Prospect Park and Central Park drives. This survey is different since DOT wants to get review of your experience using East side of Prospect Park with jogger lanes on both sides.
Eliminated buffer lane between joggers and bikes made park more dangerous for everyone
Park and Police vehicles are now parked at jogger’s lane making people jump to the bike lane unexpectedly without looking out.
Foot paths are following main park drives most of the time already
Outer side jogger’s lane in not popular since people want to get around the park the shortest way. Athletes make a plan to make certain quantity of laps and outer jogger’s lane makes it longer.
Narrow space for bicycles reduces a chance to avoid collision
No Fast and Slow lanes for bikes making flow of bicycles disorganized.
Slow bikes are riding side by side, blocking whole space dedicated for bikes and pushing faster riders to pass them on jogger’s lan
We need to revert main drive lanes design to the old one with minor improvements!
The main idea Sam Schwartz (company that designs it) has to make park safer is to make park too congested for riding bicycle faster than foot traffic, just like in South Central Park during the day. But it doesn’t improve safety in any way: the most unsafe times when it’s possible to speed up on bike but park is too busy already for riding fast are just going to shift to different times of the day.
Sadly, Mr. Neile Weissman never been riding bicycle himself and is the only person representing NYC bicycle community at Prospect Park Drive Safety Task Force. I think it happened only because cycling community didn’t delegate our own representatives. It was sad to find out that only 3 people showed up from whole NYC racing community to in-person Central Park meeting regarding same design for the main drive. Each of us will be guilty if we won’t save bicycle racing in NYC!
Don’t let people who never ride bikes and visit parks just for making money to make decisions for all of us! Let’s get our efforts together and defend NYC racing! Do survey now and spread the word at your team/group chats!
Alex Kochatau

eloy

Jul 12, 2023 at 07:38 PM

We should all please fill out the survey, and I would strongly encourage you to let the DOT and Parks know that we prefer the previous configuration (one pedestrian lane on the left) over the new (two pedestrians lanes left and right)

Anyone reading this, please feel free to call me or text me at 347.225.10578 if you need to chat about it.

Almost everything in Alex's note is awkard or incorrect and I unfortunately wont have time to debate it point by point.

mugwump

Jul 14, 2023 at 05:09 PM

eloy said:

We should all please fill out the survey, and I would strongly encourage you to let the DOT and Parks know that we prefer the previous configuration (one pedestrian lane on the left) over the new (two pedestrians lanes left and right)

Bump!

done. Hope others have also added their thoughts.

mugwump

Aug 17, 2023 at 06:04 PM

There's a proposed greenway that could replace the train tracks that run from Englewood to Sparkill. While we probably wouldn't use it much, I think it's a good idea and could use our support.

https://www.northernvalleygreenway.org/

One of the drivers behind it is the owner of Tenafly Bicycle Workshop. He's asking people to send an email to the NJ Transportation Planning Authority.

Here's the letter

Advocacy Alert: Support the Northern Valley Greenway!
Deadline to submit comments is 8/22/23
Send to: njtpa@njtpa.org
Subject: Fund the Northern Valley Greenway
Text: Dear North Jersey Transportation Planning Authority, As a cyclists who frequently rides through NJ, I call upon you to incorporate the Northern Valley Greenway into the 2024-2027 Transportation Improvement Program. The NVG will: • Create an eight mile linear park between between Tenafly and Northvale. • Connect residents and the region’s cyclists, to green spaces across North Jersey. • Improve road user safety. • Comprise a sustainable transportation corridor connecting communities and transportation hubs
Name: (your name) Affiliation: NVG

mugwump

Aug 23, 2023 at 03:24 PM

Peoples, a reminder.

that Central Park conservancy survey and interactive map for marking up ways to make Central Park Drives and walkways better closes on August 31st.

Not to overstate things, but it has the potential to be a repeat of what we saw in Prospect, or worse, or better. It could be an existential threat to both fitness riding and racing in Central Park.

If you haven't taken the survey yet, please do so. If you haven't looked at the interactive map, please do so. At the very least, click on some of the markers placed and heart the ones that seem like good suggestions

Here is the generalized form for offering advice and telling them how much you use the park

https://www.centralparknyc.org/drives

The second, which you can get to from the first, is a way for you to mark up the map and/or signal approval of other suggestions. You can put in as many comments and suggestions as you want.

https://map.proxi.co/#command-center?topic_id=63ed330759b14092a1cf4070&topic_key=Dgsbdu8mlWQc6CqLwocGCHsFXVixnx

Here's an example of what a suggestion looks like. If it's good, you can heart it. You can also add your email address to 'prove' you were there.

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5019667/uploads/editor/w9/nsdfslrr9mob.png

mugwump

Jan 16, 2024 at 08:36 PM

Begin forwarded message:

From: Port Authority Alerts <noreply@everbridge.net>
Subject: Bridge & Tunnel Alert
Date: January 16, 2024 at 1:31:25 PM EST
To: mugwump partland.net <mugwump@partland.net>
Resent-From: <mugwump@partland.net>
Reply-To: Port Authority Alerts <conf-65a6cb70e85acf2ab684d083-65a6cb6e8ea1aa0ccd43f0e7@smtpic-ne.prd1.everbridge.net>

Due to inclement weather, the GWB North Walkway is closed until further notice.

mugwump

Jan 17, 2024 at 02:03 PM

Begin forwarded message:

From: Port Authority Alerts <noreply@everbridge.net>
Subject: Bridge & Tunnel Alert
Date: January 17, 2024 at 6:01:05 AM EST
To: mugwump partland.net <mugwump@partland.net>
Resent-From: <mugwump@partland.net>
Reply-To: Port Authority Alerts <conf-65a7b36fe85acf2ab6c71d11-65a7b36d8ea1aa0ccd44c788@smtpic-ne.prd1.everbridge.net>

The GWB North Walkway is now open.

mugwump

Jan 24, 2024 at 07:23 PM

The rain seems to have melted the pellets on the GWB. And the rain and warmth seem to have cleared River Road.

mugwump

Mar 06, 2024 at 12:31 AM

There's a feasability study on whether or not there should/can be a dedicated bike path between the GWB and the TAppan Zee Bridge. From where I sit, they're looking at the wrong side of the Hudson, but they didn't ask me.

There's a virtual workshop tonight, March 5, next Wednesday March 13, and the following Wednesday March 20.

I"m posting the link here: http://www.palisadespathstudy.com/

"The Palisades Shared Use Path Study is a project to determine the feasibility of constructing a shared use path through the Palisades to create a safe, intuitive, and separated connection between the George Washington Bridge in Fort Lee, New Jersey to the Governor Mario M. Cuomo Bridge in South Nyack, New York. A shared use path provides a travel area separate from motorized traffic for cyclists, pedestrians, skaters, wheelchair users, joggers, and other users. This path would fill a gap in what is a very popular biking route in the regional bike network. The Palisades Shared Use Path Study area extends about 20 miles along the west side of the Hudson River, traversing busy roadways, historic downtowns, and public parklands, including Palisades Interstate Park and Tallman Mountain State Park."

mugwump

Mar 12, 2024 at 02:18 PM

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5019667/uploads/editor/ab/h1xsre3ymoox.jpg

David Yang

Apr 15, 2024 at 10:18 PM

Ugh so the media seem to be conflating this vandalism with cyclists because of its proximity to the velodrome and not motorized dirtbike/atv types.

The annoying part is it is clearly evident that Cunningham park is right next to this area and there is a hugely active mtb community in the area who actively maintain the trails and pump tracks and have no need for the clandestine "dirt track".

https://gothamist.com/news/hunt-underway-for-vandals-who-destroyed-hundreds-of-trees-in-queens-park

mugwump

Apr 15, 2024 at 10:45 PM

@David Yang

It's a bad article in so many ways. That the author didn't bother to reach out to any cyclist, let alone someone who might be able to speak for a cycling community, is a huge problem. I don't understand how 300 trees, even saplings, can be destroyed withotu someone noticing much sooner. It's also impossible to determine if the 'trails' that seem to have been cut, were by the same party. Yet they are treated as inseparable.

I just wrote the author, volunteering to speak with him on anytthing cycling related.

David Yang

Apr 15, 2024 at 11:16 PM

I sent a note to the author as well.

mugwump

May 09, 2024 at 07:32 PM

This came in over the electronic transom. Seems like an easy thing to support.

From: "Ken McLeod, League of American Bicyclists" <communications@bikeleague.org>
Subject: Take Action: support New York State bills for cyclist safety
Date: May 8, 2024 at 2:49:26 PM EDT
To: mugwump partland.net <mugwump@partland.net>
Resent-From: <mugwump@partland.net>
Reply-To: "us13-d8ba3627e5-2aa8a480a8@inbound.mailchimpapp.net" <us13-d8ba3627e5-2aa8a480a8@inbound.mailchimpapp.net>

Take action for transportation funding that benefits bicycling
The League of American Bicyclists supports safer biking across America through our grassroots advocacy at the federal level and in tandem with state and local advocacy groups.

Today, we're reaching out to you on behalf of the New York Bicycle Coalition, who is advocating for two bills that will save cyclists' lives.
Across New York, fifty-two cyclists were killed while bike safety legislation stalled. This year we have two bills that will save cyclists’ lives. Each passed one house in 2023. Now we need every cyclist's help to get them across the finish line. It will only take 30 seconds!

A3986/S2643 (Stop as Yield, Idaho Stop) allows cyclists to treat stop lights as stop signs, and stop signs as yields. A3986 passed the Assembly in 2023.

A4346/S1724 (3’ Defined Safe Passing) requires motorists outside NYC to allow at least three feet when passing pedestrians, bicyclists and wheelchair users. S1724 passed the Senate in 2023.
Email your legislator now!
For more info on these bills, click here.
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Thanks for supporting the League of American Bicyclists' mission to create a Bicycle Friendly America for everyone.

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mugwump

May 14, 2024 at 06:35 PM

Tell the NY Times what you think of riding around NYC. They made a form.

Do it today.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/01/nyregion/new-york-city-streets.html

mugwump

Jul 16, 2024 at 07:53 PM

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5019667/uploads/editor/qo/0wcm5dsg2q0t.jpg

Be on the lookout for this.

I find it crazy they're discussing cutting a trail along 9W when they could turn the abandoned rail line in the valley into a trail. I think we should all say as much.

GregHoge

Jul 16, 2024 at 09:48 PM

In my experience drives tend to be less forgiving when there is a cycle path running parallel to a road and going group ride pace on a path is not the best look.

David Yang

Jul 16, 2024 at 10:10 PM

mugwump said:

Be on the lookout for this.

I find it crazy they're discussing cutting a trail along 9W when they could turn the abandoned rail line in the valley into a trail. I think we should all say as much.

Can you expound on the abandoned rail?

mugwump

Jul 16, 2024 at 10:34 PM

David Yang said:

mugwump said:

Can you expound on the abandoned rail?

Yes.

https://www.nvgfriends.org/

It's called the Northern Valley Greenway.

LennartZandbergen

Jul 16, 2024 at 11:08 PM

GregHoge said:

In my experience drives tend to be less forgiving when there is a cycle path running parallel to a road and going group ride pace on a path is not the best look.

This is a huge problem in the Netherlands. It makes rides with more than 4 people an absolute pain in the ass. Bike paths are too narrow for group rides and bikes are banned on main roads.

Belgium has a rule that a group of 15 - 50 riders is allowed to ride on the main roads instead of bike paths - on the weekends.

LennartZandbergen

Aug 13, 2024 at 09:05 PM

There is a petition to open the GWB bike path 24/7. I wasn't aware that it wasn't, and there doesn't seem to be a reason to close it every day: https://gothamist.com/news/commuters-slam-port-authority-excuses-for-closing-george-washington-bridge-bike-path-overnight

mugwump

Aug 24, 2024 at 11:18 PM

Today, Oscar and I rode over to River Road to check out the devastation.

There were rocks missing on the cliff side of the road. And there was a pretty huge rockpile on one of the waterfalls before the Englewood Cliffs boat basin.

I spoke with someone yesterday who had ridden through to Alpine, so I was thinking we'd get to the top of the boat basin hill.

Nope.

There was a park ranger at the bottom telling people not to go. The official word is that the park officials are not confident the retaining wall or the road are structurally sound at the moment, so they didn't want anyone walking or riding up the hill for fear that the wall will give way.

They apparently had reason to believe this, as there was a second landslide this week, which wiped out some of the work they had done clearing the road.

I asked if they were considering exposing the brick work that was the original surface. She said they were looking into it, but it didn't seem to be in much better shape, as some bricks washed out down the hill in the most recent rain.

I asked if they were going to fix the upper part of the road, the part that has been closed since September 2021, thanks to Hurricane Irene. She said they'd love to do it, but there currently isn't any budget for it. Something like it would have taken $3 million to repair in 2021, and now they have the lower road, which was only fixed this year, to fix again, so repairs might total in the $10 million range to get it all fixed up.

She said the PAPC website will have updates.

https://njpalisades.org/pipc.html

GregHoge

Aug 24, 2024 at 11:24 PM

Dang. Now I feel like a renegade for riding it.