blog.cyclosity.com

Site downtime

cyclosity / Liam Quigley — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 22:18:43 +0000

I’m working on a whole new setup for both this blog and my official website. Please keep it locked and bear with me. Originally posted on blog.cyclosity.com, all content is © Liam Quigley unless otherwise noted. Subscribe to the RSS feed here.

Originally posted on blog.cyclosity.com, all content is © Liam Quigley unless otherwise noted. Subscribe to the RSS feed here.

FedEx : “call the police” if bike lanes blocked by truck

cyclosity / Liam Quigley — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 19:18:34 +0000

FedEx advice on what to do if you see one of their drivers illegally blocking the bike lane : “call the police” – because they’re not doing anything about it. Despite dozens of posts on sites like mybikelane.com, FedEx has taken a no-action stance on the issue.

Other competitors, such as UPS, have assigned safety managers to specifically handle the issue of bike lane obstruction. Many UPS drivers operating in Manhattan have been instructed to park outside or around the corner from bicycle lanes to allow safe passage for cyclists while making deliveries.

So remember, see FedEx in the bike lane? – call 911 – because FedEx won’t be checking in with the drivers anytime soon.

Originally posted on blog.cyclosity.com, all content is © Liam Quigley unless otherwise noted. Subscribe to the RSS feed here.

Busted Trek at Harlem Crit

cyclosity / Liam Quigley — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 23:34:21 +0000

This guy crashed his trek in the 3rd corner of the crit course. Another one for Busted Carbon. The race was fun. Our team won a Playstation 3 courtesy Rockstar games… For Marco and Andy’s Photos go here.

Originally posted on blog.cyclosity.com, all content is © Liam Quigley unless otherwise noted. Subscribe to the RSS feed here.

FLOYD PHOTOS

cyclosity / Liam Quigley — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 00:15:55 +0000

SILVERSALTY is BACK and doing it again every Tuesday night at Floyd. The photos are just as awesome as always and should give you a pretty good idea of the racing you’re missing out on if you’re not riding flatbush out for the summer race series. Here are a few from the last couple races.

Originally posted on blog.cyclosity.com, all content is © Liam Quigley unless otherwise noted. Subscribe to the RSS feed here.

Video

cyclosity / Liam Quigley — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 01:35:59 +0000

Not a fan of the music but there is much skill on display here.

Originally posted on blog.cyclosity.com, all content is © Liam Quigley unless otherwise noted. Subscribe to the RSS feed here.

Crash at Floyd in the 3/4 Race

cyclosity / Liam Quigley — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 17:26:06 +0000

This is a result of the crash I was caught behind in the Floyd Race this past Tuesday. I made the mistake of turning around and watching the blood pour out of this guys helmet for a second before someone tended to the wound. Others were apparently worse off, but my immediate impression was that this Kissena rider had the worst of the crash.

Photo not taken by me

Wouldn’t usually post about a standard 3/4 pack crash, but this one was particularly bad, with lots of bodies and bikes grinding (and I mean grinding) along the rough pavement in the 3rd straight at Floyd.

See you there next week!

Originally posted on blog.cyclosity.com, all content is © Liam Quigley unless otherwise noted. Subscribe to the RSS feed here.

Deliveries vs Safe Bike Lanes

cyclosity / Liam Quigley — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 00:49:57 +0000

It’s nice to have a safe, clear bike lane to ride in, especially when you are legally required to do so. I’m focusing on 2nd Avenue as my example here. The lane has seen good years and bad years, but based on observation and the rough numbers of recorded bike lane violations by motor vehicles on the stretch between Houston and 14th street, the past couple of years have been better for cyclists.

Delivery trucks are arguably the biggest obstacle for improving conditions in the lane. As more cyclists use it, more will be inconvenienced and pushed out into traffic by a truck blocking the lane. Many of these people are less experienced riders who might have chosen 2nd avenue specifically because it has a lane and they feel safer there. It would suck to have them ride less because of a few trucks in the bike lane here and there.

A lot of times it’s hard for more experienced riders to wrap their heads around how scary it can be for a novice to take to riding to commuting. Some might remember when they first started riding how each passing car could be really terrifying, but then you get over it after some time riding.

Deliveries also need to be made, and if drivers aren’t willing, or aren’t able to find curbside parking, what are they supposed to do?

According to this document published by the DOT, it is legal, and expected, that they should leave the bike lane clear and park in the outside lane of traffic. This isn’t always totally practical, or even physically possible, but on 2nd avenue it most definitely is.

Manhattan Beer is an intresting example because their drivers so routinely fail to use (or maybe even recognize) available curbside parking. Many times you will encounter one of their trucks entirely blocking a bike lane with a curbside space over a hundred feet long, so it was weird to see them employing this practice, especially when the same crew had really carelessly blocked the same lane a week prior.

As you can see people make us of the now-clear lane. Dozens of rush hour commuters stand to benefit if this kind of parking keeps up. I can’t find any very good reasons it shouldn’t be encouraged. Even better if NYPD traffic cops were educated to not ticket in these situations per DOT regulations – but that would require communication among city orgs. HAH.

Originally posted on blog.cyclosity.com, all content is © Liam Quigley unless otherwise noted. Subscribe to the RSS feed here.

Pinarello, Ridley shirts to be sold at UNIQLO

cyclosity / Liam Quigley — Sun, 06 Jun 2010 16:27:20 +0000

From La Gazzetta Della Bici, same place you saw those awesome (or maybe lame) tubulars-repurposed-as-belts, word comes that UNIQLO and Ridley/Pinarello will be selling “off bike casual wear”. Could be really interesting. No idea if we’ll see them at the UNIQLO on Broadway, but if they are, expect a hard hitting news report about it.

Eh. How are they going to make this more than something you can randomly pick up of a team or manufacturer website? If they can’t make it more “stylish”, what’s the point?

Source [1]

Originally posted on blog.cyclosity.com, all content is © Liam Quigley unless otherwise noted. Subscribe to the RSS feed here.

Bowery turning handle in theory and practice

cyclosity / Liam Quigley — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 14:58:20 +0000

A city Harvest van and potential cab-passenger block the “entrance” to the newly installed turning zone for cyclists on the Bowery at Prince.

Originally posted on blog.cyclosity.com, all content is © Liam Quigley unless otherwise noted. Subscribe to the RSS feed here.

6th Avenue Bike Lane June Status Update

cyclosity / Liam Quigley — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 16:21:53 +0000

I used the 6th Avenue lane for my commute uptown this morning. It’s a good example of a lane that has seen a marked decrease in vehicular intrusion rates over the past couple of years. It’s not hard to remember how bad things used to get weekday afternoons between 10th street and 23rd street – it still happens but the violations are not quite as careless and egregious as 2006, 2007, 2008.

I saw only 1 truck blocking the bike lane between 10th street and 42nd this morning. If you’ve ridden in this lane for more than a year you’ll understand how remarkable that is. And the one truck was blocking the lane for no reason other than that the driver was too lazy to pull up in the easy curbside spot while he got coffee.

Beyond a motorcyclist using the lane as a shortcut, I saw 17 other cyclists commuting uptown in the lane, and none going the wrong way. All in all a pretty tame experience compared to what I remember from commuting in it during 2008.

The lane has gotten a repainting where the construction has finished up between 24th and 25th street. The area was a big danger spot for a couple years. Check back for more HARD HITTING BIKE LANE RAW NEWS.

Originally posted on blog.cyclosity.com, all content is © Liam Quigley unless otherwise noted. Subscribe to the RSS feed here.

Katusha offloading team gear

cyclosity / Liam Quigley — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 14:56:58 +0000

Team Katusha has done like Quickstep and opened up an online webshop to offload excess team apparel and equipment. Wait for the euro to drop to the dollar or less and you can probably get a deal out of this. If you’re into rider cards, nows your chance for those as well.

Originally posted on blog.cyclosity.com, all content is © Liam Quigley unless otherwise noted. Subscribe to the RSS feed here.