For about 14 years I used a bicycle to travel to and from work, 7 miles away. My backup for really bad weather (ice, snow) was Metro, but that took longer. Since my commute was at rush hour, I could do it in 25 or 30 minutes, as good a time as by car.
In the 18th c. a gentleman could travel about as fast on horseback, and to be fair, I could not travel across meadows. But for any distance in excess of three miles, I believe that a bicycle on a road can do as well as a horse, or better. You cannot ride a horse 50 miles if you wish to keep it in good condition. I have ridden a bicycle 100 miles in one day, against the wind, in the rain, with camping gear.
The crucial point is, that to do this requires far less biofuel than a horse does!
On Wednesday, New York City’s public transit system slowly creaked back to life, with bus service mostly restored and most subway lines in northern Manhattan and parts of Queens starting up again after an unprecedented shutdown.
But for those in lower Manhattan and Brooklyn, things will take longer to return to normal. With power still out for much of Manhattan south of 40th St., no subways were running below 34th St. And on Wednesday transit workers were still working to pump water out of the seven city subway tunnels that flooded with sea water. Even once that daunting task is complete, salt water corrosion could further complicate the city’s ability to restore service between Manhattan and Brooklyn. SmartPlanet’s Andrew Nusca wrote about what the Metropolitan Transit Authority is up against on Tuesday.
So for many Brooklyn residents unwilling to wait hours for the ‘bus bridge’ - linking the Atlantic Ave. transit hub with midtown Manhattan - or spend hours in gridlocked traffic, the solution is pedal power. Bikes are proving to be the most reliable - and in many cases, fastest - way to get around the city. As Chris Puntarelli posted on Twitter on Wednesday, “Everyone in New York City: if you have a bike. Now is the time to use it. Forget about driving anywhere. It’s a mess out there.”
In recent years the city has increased the number of bike lanes throughout Manhattan and the outer boroughs. But biking in New York City is not for the faint of heart - even more so post-Hurricane Sandy. With lower Manhattan largely free of any working traffic lights, many intersections have become a free-for-all. But with several hours of wait times as the public transportation alternative, more people may become willing to face the honking, swerving cars on New York City’s streets. On Thursday, Twitter user @BrooklynSpoke said the Manhattan bridge appeared to have three to four times its usual bike traffic.
We may yet see some good emerge in Hurricane Sandy’s wake: if more New Yorkers come to see biking as a viable commuting option, perhaps the city will work to make city streets safer for bikers - and everyone, including the environment, would benefit from that.
Photo: Leandro Garcia
