pre-ride # 2: naifs and egotists

in the twisted words of rene descartes, i think, therefore i rant.  ok, like i said, twisted.

spent the weekend tuning up my new bike and riding a little of 150 miles.  still need to get more work in and do more hill training.  but it looks like an ugly week, weather-wise, so hopefully i can salvage friday or saturday to hit the roads at least one last time before new orleans.

which brings me to this past weekend's rides.

i was talking with a colleague today about riding out on the east end of long island versus riding in the city or through the new jersey countryside.  you get more hill training out in new jersey, but you have to deal with more traffic lights and traffic.  you get more open roads with longer stretches of leaving road congestion behind you but, for the most part, it's flat and very windy.  in new york city, you get either the bike paths along the hudson or laps around central park.  well, you get the streets but for many, that's not an option.

in riding both the westside highway bike path up to the gw bridge as well as riding in and around central park this past week, i got to experience two very different sets of bikers and pedestrians.  i almost said "i ran into..." but, fortunately, that wasn't the case.  almost though.  on numerous occasions.

so what the hell is it that makes non-biker pedestrians feel and look like skiddish squirrels caught in that no-man's land in the middle of the road when staring down an on-coming car or, in this case, bicyle?  and who the hell are you people who ride bikes two and three abreast with total disregard for either on-coming cyclists, runners or little kids walking their dogs when there's barely room for one bicycle on a two-way shared traffic path?

for those who haven't been on them, the bike paths along the hudson are a crazy mix of much-needed  waterfront redevelopment, recreational outlet for frustrated new yorkers and pleasurable sightseeing venues for tourists and townies alike.  in other words, when they all come together, they're an accident waiting to happen.    i say "they" and not "it" as the route up to the gwb is a string of separately designed and developed paths all now connected.  they start down at battery park as recently designed and developed paths that, in theory, separate walks and runners from cyclists and skaters.  through twists and turns by the chelsea piers, they continue in this bifurcated manner until you get to the intrepid air and space museum and the piers for all the cruise ships.  that's when the fun begins.  from the cruise ships, the walk/runner/cyclist paths converge into a single shared path.  they then separate again until around the lower 70's when all lanes join up as a shared experience of human co-existence past the 79th street boat basin.  if you haven't seen it before, it's a conglomeration of cyclists, runners, little kids going to/coming from baseball or soccer practice, dog walkers, couples walking, people fishing off the railings, tennis players heading to the adjacent courts, and folks just out to grab some sun and breeze off the water.  all in a space about 20 feet wide.  the rest of the route is basically a lather, rinse, repeat.  more separations.  more convergences.  more mass hysteria.  oh yeah, and some wickedly wonderful smelling lilac bushes somewhere in the 90's i think.  knocked me out with their fragrance.

i totally get the need to share the paths with everyone.  i'm all in on the "slow down" and "share the road" signs in those congested areas along the hudson where runners and cyclists intermingle with rest of humanity.  hey, i'm not training for the tour de france or the giro d'italia (nice to see taylor phinney of the states leading after the second day) here, but there are folks of all stripes that could give a rats ass about the safety of others.  some are totally on a mission for speed.  hellbent for leather with a "if you get in my way, i'll just run you over" look in their eyes.  others are either totally oblivious that they could possibly be putting others in danger or know better but couldn't give a shit.  honestly, in staring down some of those folks, it's a mix in equal parts.  and when two or more riders are doing that, riding two or three abreast and leaving others to jump out of the way at the last minute, it's calamity waiting to happen.

the polar opposite is the situation with pedestrians.  either they are locals who know you're going to stop before they do, or out-of-towners who haven't figured out that a red light, even on a walkway, doesn't mean you should walk into a crowded pack of riders or runners.  better still are those who go totally into tharn, brainfreeze or whatever syndrome affects folks when they are staring down a rider or runner who obviously isn't planning on stopping, even with the light going against them.  few people actually speed up their walking across an intersection or bike path.  more often than not, they'll panic and just stand still.

and this isn't just the case with the hudson river bike paths.  you see it every day when riding in central park.  i am so surprised that, in either case, there aren't more injuries or accidents along the paths.  guess it's a new york thing and everyone's figured out how to survive.  god bless 'em all.

me, i'll keep trying to find those longer stretches of roads, empty of cars and foot traffic.