Hi,
Just joined Kissena... I might try this sunday at CP. First time racing so I hope I can take a pull for some of the Cat 5 Kissenas.
Adam, thanks for your questions, all the answers from William and Dan will make my life easier as a rookie...
David, hope to see you Sunday.
Thanks,

Jorge.

Jorge! Great to see you here. Can't imagine you'll last long as a Cat 5 with your engine - but will be fun to race with you while you are!

Welcome, Jorge! Yeah, he did the computrainer with us all winter. He is strong.

I know I am always the guy linking from the WSJ. Jason Gay's column on cycling in the city and Tim Johnson.

http://online.wsj.com/article/jason_gay.html?mod=WSJ_topnav_newyork

Maybe this needs its own thread, but anyone have plans to pre-ride Grant's Tomb before Saturday? Last year we did a training session, practicing lead-outs, etc. (and I couldn't even race the crit!)

So it appears that there are some powerful opponents to the PPW bike lane. I am actually kind of shocked that Chuck Schumer and Iris Weinshall would be so anti bike lane.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/08/nyregion/08bike.html?ref=nyregion

yup. there was a press conference held today at noon at city hall, brad lander responding to the ridiculous lawsuit. and there is this:



Dear Volunteer Committee members,

Yesterday, a small but powerful group of Prospect Park West residents filed a lawsuit against the City, demanding the Prospect Park West bike lane be removed. This Thursday, March 10th, Brooklyn Community Board 6 will hold a public hearing on the bike lane. The meeting will be a critical turning point. Join T.A. on Thursday to stop this lawsuit in its tracks. This should be a conversation about the street safety merits of Prospect Park West's bike lane and pedestrian safety improvements; with your help, we will be heard.

Whether you have attended every public meeting about Prospect Park West, or Thursday night will be your first time, your voice is integral to making this a conversation about safer streets! T.A. will be in attendance, but we need at least 200 Community Board 6 residents who support Prospect Park West to join us – that means we don't just need you to show up, we need for you to bring your friends and neighbors too!

Members of the public will be allotted three minutes to testify. Because attendance is expected to be high, please bring a written copy of your testimony, in case there s not enough time for everyone to speak. T.A. will be passing out bright stickers to supporters; find us when you arrive!.

What: Community Board 6's Public Hearing on Safety Improvements to Prospect Park West
When: Thursday, March 10 @ 6:30PM
Where: John Jay Educational Campus
237 7th Avenue, Auditorium
(4th/5th Streets)
Brooklyn, NY 11215

When you arrive at the hearing, be sure to sign in at the door for your three minutes to speak. Ask Community Board 6 to redouble its support for street safety improvements and to endorse the Department of Transportation's recommendations to build out the pedestrian safety islands on Prospect Park West.

Here are the facts about Prospect Park West to help you with your testimony:

It improves safety –
Before the lane was installed, 74 percent of vehicles exceeded 30mph
After the lane was installed, only 20 percent of vehicles exceeded 30mph
All crashes are down 16 percent and crashes that cause injuries are down 63 percent
Injuries to all street users are down 21 percent
See the full DOT study results here: http://www.nyc.gov/html/dot/html/bicyclists/prospectparkwest.shtml

No one in a car is being inconvenienced -- Prospect Park West carries the same volume of cars as it did before, and it takes the same amount of time to drive its length. Because the DOT made the timing of traffic lights more consistent, cars are discouraged from speeding and encouraged to travel at a steady pace.

The community asked for it -- The new Prospect Park West was born out of community concern with unsafe driving and speeding on the corridor. The project's development and implementation has been consistently supported by Community Board 6, local elected officials, civic organizations and thousands of Park Slope residents and users of Prospect Park.

Councilman Brad Lander's recent survey about Prospect Park West indicated broad-based community support: http://bradlander.com/ppwsurvey
Among the 3,150 respondents: 78 percent support the new Prospect Park West
Among the 2,210 respondents living in Park Slope: 71 percent support the new Prospect Park West
85 percent of survey respondents feel that the project has very much or somewhat met the goal of reducing speeding
91 percent feel it has very much or somewhat met the goal of creating a safer space for biking
70 percent also feel that the project has very much or somewhat made Prospect ParkWest easier to cross
The small group of opponents to Prospect Park West's safety improvements is simply out of touch with what their neighborhood wants. They are against change, but worse, averse to improvements that save lives and prevent life-altering injury. Let's not let those opponents steer this conversation.

Join T.A. and speak up for street safety and the importance of bike lanes on Prospect Park West!

Best,
Caroline Samponaro
Director of Bicycle Advocacy

P.S. Cannot attend? Please send your written support to CB6 now, and cc: T.A.

To the 4s:

Sorry guys, but my awesome spring comeback has been derailed. I have developed some tendonitis in my left knee. I haven't seen a doc yet but I'm sure I'll be told the usual: stay off the bike for a while. Tried doing some really light stuff on the trainer this morning and it didn't go well at all. Felt a mild popping sensation in my knee with every stroke. So I guess I'll be sitting on my butt (trying to keep it from expanding) whilst watching Paris-Nice over and over and over (best thing on my DVR right now).

Sounds like you guys are kicking serious ass so far! And across all categories! Keep it up and I hope to join you in April!

What a drag! Sorry to hear that Eric, hope you feel better soon!

Posted By: ericmehlenbeckTo the 4s:

Sorry guys, but my awesome spring comeback has been derailed. I have developed some tendonitis in my left knee. I haven't seen a doc yet but I'm sure I'll be told the usual: stay off the bike for a while. Tried doing some really light stuff on the trainer this morning and it didn't go well at all. Felt a mild popping sensation in my knee with every stroke. So I guess I'll be sitting on my butt (trying to keep it from expanding) whilst watching Paris-Nice over and over and over (best thing on my DVR right now).

Sounds like you guys are kicking serious ass so far! And across all categories! Keep it up and I hope to join you in April!

Bummer Eric, sorry to hear about your knee. I hope you will be back out riding in no time.

http://www.economist.com/blogs/freeexchange/2011/03/tragedies_commons#comments

why economic arguments about why bike lanes are economically better than cars, and a nice takedown of the lazy writing of John Cassidy.

Wow. Cassidy is almost as lazy as WSJ Op/Ed writers. And he's a bit touchy about being criticized.

Cassidy is wrong in so many ways on economics. I'm not even an economist and I can see it. He claims motorists pay to use the streets. Last I checked, less than half of all new yorkers owned cars and yet the car-less are paying for streets, too. And I came across an interesting stat recently, that motorists pay about half of the highway costs in this country, where 40 years ago, it was 70%.

here's the page. http://subsidyscope.org/transportation/highways/funding/

He's also wrong on history. Did we have a vote on making this a car culture? We haven't even had a vote on ending public transit, yet that's what has gone on. They were building more and more roads for cars before there were cars to use those roads. Yet somehow, he claims voting on every aspect of public life is appropriate.

I could go on. We could all go on.

This is snarkier response, but pretty funny:

http://naparstek.com/2011/03/bike-lane-backlash-makes-no-sense/

the Bloomberg Administration shoots back in the BikeNYC/Bikelash balderdash

http://www.nyc.gov/html/om/pdf/bike_lanes_memo.pdf

oh and the NY Magazine drivel that launched this specific memo/press release.

http://nymag.com/news/features/bike-wars-2011-3/

I guess I shouldn't be surprised that the author didn't challenge the leader of "neighbors for better bike lanes," a psychologist, on her choice of a misleading name for her group.

Still I looked into the Gruskin Family Foundation and their group "5 to ride"

http://www.5toride.org/index.php

I'm surprised Bike New York is joining up with this group. The group behind it writes of itself, "The Stuart C. Gruskin Foundation, established shortly after his death, is working with Hunter College to facilitate the collection of information and statistics concerning bicycle on pedestrian incidents in NYC. " As a person who has been knocked over by pedestrians twice (and has never hit a pedestrian), I'm touched they see the danger as a one-way street.

Their site is here: http://gruskinfoundation.org/

The author of the NYMag piece also doesn't confront the psychology professors on her own confirmation bias, but that would derail the "controversy" away from the lane and toward the motives of the group against PPW bike lane.

I still can't understand why losing a total of 7 parking spaces in 1 mile, and reducing speeding, while maintaining the same average speed (less idling at lights and stop and go traffic) meaning less pollution-both noise and air-is a bad thing for these people.

Finally something vaguely sane from the NYPD:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/23/nyregion/23cycle.html?ref=nyregion

somewhat sane, except they still can't seem to get their story straight. did they toss the tickets because they ticketed for wrong limit or because they sent people to wrong court? depends whether you read times or wsj. and they still won't definitively state what the speed limit is. This article says 15, CP website and WSJ article say 25.

NYTimes would stand by their 1991 article stating that there is a 15 MPH speed limit in the park. I think it all depends on what rules apply to bicycles when the park is closed to "vehicle" traffic. Do traffic rules apply and if bicycles are vehicles are they then banned from the park during car free hours, or are only motorized vehicles excluded from the park? Do park rules apply and a 15MPH speed limit that is not posted on roadways, but in Park rules signs that are not visible from the roadway?

It appears that there is confusion and incomplete information on this. The rules do seem contradictory and I think the information will need to be cleared up before CP is going to be bike friendly again.

Probably one of the best round ups of what has been written so far about cycling in the city and how the PPW bike lane lawsuit, CP ticketing blitz and commentary on Sadik-Khan's style as a Transportation Commissioner are falling out. The author does a great job of putting this all in context.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/bike-blog/2011/mar/25/new-york-cycling

I can't believe this stuff is getting into international news. What CLOWNS we must look like here in New York!

I think the whole thing gets to what direction is the US going in. Are we really thinking forward or backwards. I would love to think we're moving forward, and I think this points to us moving forward, with a few clowns on the wrong side of history (including the Brit Cassidy).

Everyone get out your poison pens:

According to Bloomberg, "If you did not allow cars in the park during rush hour, and, for example, these parks don't totally, generally they don't allow cars other than at rush hour, if you didn't do that the rest of the city streets would be overloaded and it would create an awful lot of traffic."

http://brooklyn.ny1.com/content/top_stories/136228/mayor-expresses-opposition-to-bill-banning-traffic-in-parks

You can email Bloomberg here: http://www.nyc.gov/html/mail/html/mayor.html

The message I sent, in case you need some inspiration:

Mayor Bloomberg, I was very disappointed to hear your quote on NY1 coming out in favor of driving deadly motor vehicles through our city's parks.

As a regular user of Prospect Park, I can tell you that cars are ALWAYS in there, even off hours. Moreover, rush hours (before and after work) are when the majority of New Yorkers can use these parks during the week. The presence of dangerous motor vehicles speeding around during the parks' peak hours is unconscionable.

Please reconsider your position.

The article: http://brooklyn.ny1.com/content/top_stories/136228/mayor-expresses-opposition-to-bill-banning-traffic-in-parks

Pretty sure the DOT has data that the volume, if distributed around peripheral streets, would have a negligible effect on traffic. Such bullshit. It's a fucking Olmstead park, not a highway.

Sam Schwartz (AKA Gridlock Sam, he of the NY Daily News column and the head of a traffic, transportation planning and engineering consulting firm) has said, time and again - over the long term, any spillover traffic from a car-free Central or Prospect Park would be barely measurable. There is literally no impact. Bloomberg is talking out of his ass.

Hey Guys,

I was looking at the Sandy Hook Time Trial and I was wondering if there was a convenient Ferry to take there. I found the SeaStreak Ferry but it's $43 round trip +$5 for the bike but that's not very cheap. It's just so close by water it seems silly to go by car and I'm not doing it if that's the case.

So here's what I'm thinking. Maybe someone knows of a ferry somewhere else, hopefully from sheepshead bay because that's only like 3 miles from where I live. Thanks.

dw

Hey Daniel, I was going to take SeaStreak. The problem is that the earliest ferry from Manhattan is at 9 I believe, too late even if you get a late start time.

I was going to take it on Friday evening and stay in a motel but decided not to. It is an option though, I believe it's 40$ a night for one of the motels that's like 3 minutes from the sandy hook entrance.

This is an awesome column by Tejay Van Garderen:
http://www.cyclingnews.com/blogs/tejay-van-garderen/my-thoughts-on-contador-and-race-radios

Guys...I'm driving out Sandy Hook Saturday morning from the South Slope. At the moment it looks like I have only one open slot in the car. I'll know by tomorrow for sure how much room I'll have in the car and hopefully we'll all get our start times tomorrow as well. Let me know if you're interested in a lift if it all works out.