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June 28, 2004
Walk, Bike, LI
Not all cyclists find their hometowns cycle-friendly. "Since I live in a downtown, I
walk for my daily errands," said Neal Lewis, 42, of Massapequa, a lawyer who is
the executive director of Long Island Neighborhood Network, an environmental
protection group. "For other things - grocery, laundry - I take the car. Taking a
bike to the deli, drugstore and other stores is not very convenient. There is
usually no place to lock the bike."
Mr. Lewis lives in an apartment over a delicatessen in a two-story brick building,
part of a block of shops. "I was looking for something pedestrian-friendly," Mr.
Lewis said, "a walkable quarter-mile where I could take care of a good portion of
my errands."
A more pedestrian- and bike-friendly environment may be in the Island's future.
The goal of the Long Island Non-Motorized Transportation Study, sponsored by
the Metropolitan Transportation Council and the State Department of
Transportation, is to "identify a long-range regional bike and pedestrian plan for
all of Long Island with a 25-year time horizon," said David Glass, the project
manager.
A survey was begun six months ago on the study's Web site,
Walk Bike LI, which lists questions about safety and opportunities for
pedestrians and cyclists. So far, it has received more than 750 responses, Mr.
Glass said.
The study is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2004. Mr. Glass said that
proposals might include enhancing pedestrian and bicycle access to Long Island
Rail Road stations by improving traffic signals, sidewalks and crosswalks;
developing ways to teach motorists to respect pedestrians and cyclists; working
with Long Island Bus to equip buses with bicycle racks; and working with the
Nassau County Health Department to encourage more elementary students to
walk to school.
Last month, Governor Pataki announced $2.7 million in financing for local
pedestrian and bicycle safety improvements in eight communities across Long
Island: the Villages of Westhampton Beach, Port Washington and Port Jefferson;
the Towns of North Hempstead, Southampton, Brookhaven and Huntington; and
the City of Long Beach.
Long Island has not been the safest place for cycling or walking. According to
National Highway Transportation Safety Administration figures for 2002, the most
recent available, Nassau ranked 14th in pedestrian and bicyclist fatalities out of
1,249 counties nationwide, and Suffolk ranked 37th.
Joe De Palma, 48, of Lake Ronkonkoma, a bicycle advocate and a member of the
technical advisory committee of the Non-Motorized Transportation Study, takes a
cautious attitude when he is behind the handlebars. "I never ride on a Friday,'' he
said. "Everyone's in a rush to get home. The roads are just horrendous."
Mr. Fligstein, the development consultant, said that Northport, his hometown, is
bicycle-friendly because the police enforce the 30 m.p.h. speed limit. "Northport
is really a smart growth community, which is why I have chosen to call it my
home,'' he said. "I even found my home in Northport while I was out biking."
Larry, a physicist, was being wooed by Brookhaven National Laboratory; he is
now the head of Brookhaven's nuclear theory group. The couple had lived in
California, Texas, Minnesota and Illinois, and in each new hometown Mrs.
McLerran wanted to be able to walk. Long Island was a challenge.
"I didn't want to come here," she recalled. "Long Island seemed like the last
place I'd be happy, primarily because it's suburban sprawl."
Bellport, Sayville and Port Jefferson made the McLerrans' short list. "But the last
grocery store in Port Jefferson is now a Gap," Mrs. McLerran said. "Sayville might
have done it, but by the time I found a house, I had already lost my heart to
Bellport. It's a village with a lot to offer. We even have sidewalks here." They
live off South Country Road just a few blocks from the center of the village.
Mrs. McLerran, the editor of the Bellport Civic Association's newsletter, describes
her walks as full of social potential. She used to drive but now relies solely on
her feet. "When the weather is good I am deliberately inefficient, and I will make
many runs downtown," she said. "I think I get my essentials done as efficiently
and have a lot more fun doing it."
Posted by dc at 11:52 PM | Comments (0)
June 10, 2004
MTA photoban
A tremendous amount will be lost if photographers stop shooting in the subways.
The subway stations are some of the last vestiges of the old pre-Disney,
pre-cleansed New York. Times Square has been turned into a mall—and I have
very mixed feelings about the change. But when you step off the street and into
the Fourth Avenue R and F station here in Brooklyn, all that goes away. You're
instantly transported into the unreconstructed, unrenovated, ungentrified,
un-prettified New York of decades ago. You can walk through that entire
station—and it's just one example—and see almost nothing that wasn't there in
the '50s or '60s. Walk down a passageway in any of the older stations, and all
around you'll see what makes New York run—the pipes and conduits and
strangely-labeled doors, the barred cages where the workers hang equipment
and helmets and lamps, the huge steel beams that support the streets above,
dozens of layers of paint, unironic barely grammatical signs not composed by an
ad agency . . . I could go on and on.
Posted by dc at 01:39 AM | Comments (0)