From the Wall Street Journal: A new helmet law reduces bicycle deaths among the affected age group by about 19%. It doesn’t affect older riders. Since serious bicycle accidents are rare, however, the absolute numbers are still small, about eight fewer deaths a year among kids 5 to 15 than would otherwise occur in the…
Read more
The bike lanes through Queensplaza from Queens Blvd are starting to take shape. Very exciting! I’m still not clear how exactly you’re supposed to exit the bridge and head east. But I’ll assume they’re doing something logical and not leaving the long bike-the-wrong-way-against-traffic section heading east off the bridge.
It’s not hard to take a weekend bike trip. Mind you, I never had. But I did. And the recipe is simple: hop on your bike and ride. Of course it helps to have maps but you don’t even have to know where you’re going. You don’t need a fancy bike. You don’t need fancy…
Read more
A garden hose as a tire?! Brilliant? No. Crazy. For real? I don’t know. Can it go? I doubt it. And the metal ends would be hell to bike over. Ka-thunk ka-thunk ka-thunk.
“In Queens, to find locations best…” [Sound of needle dropping and record scratching. Replaced with proper Queens beat.] Roads, drives, streets and lanes.Most have numbers,But some have names! Queens is manic, And the grid’s no good.So you gotta not panic,To find our hood. Streets and avenues run opposite ’hattan,And the ave’s go up as you…
Read more
In the Times, J. David Goodman says I quote E.P. Butler’s rhyming verse affectionately. I mention this only in order to quote an article in the Times that quotes me quoting an article in the Times. Meta reference in the house! Now if they reference this, I promise to reference that, and which point The…
Read more
Don’t forget this ditty from the Dec 3, 1926 New York Times:Verse Affords Means to Get About Queens — E. P. Butler’s Rhyming System Guides All Folks When Street Plans Twist ‘Em. I want to get this framed in needlepoint. I don’t why; I just do. In Queens, to find locations bestAvenues, roads and drives…
Read more
On that least rural and worst of streets to bike down, there’s a Jersey farm stand in Astoria! He’s there Saturday and Monday. It’s on 21st Street, west side, between 30th Road and 30th Drive (next block from the post office). Good stuff. Good produce. Give him business.
Of all the places for heaven on earth, people rarely think of Queens. I was just about to get to work when a friend called and said to meet him in the park for a picnic. So off we went to meet him and his son. My friend, a Steinway-Street restaurant owner, is a well…
Read more
I hate honking cars. Probably more than most people. I mean, have you thrown eggs at honking cars? And that’s only after getting pissed off, putting on pants, leaving my house, and talking to the offending driver. And they still honk?! Usually, when the eggs flew, they were honking at the garbage trucks. That’s a…
Read more
Recent Comments