HRPT to cyclists: Don’t go near the water

A bicyclist would be hard put to say which is more bike-hostile, New York City or New York State. Time's Up! and Transportation Alternatives–terrific advocacy groups–make a persuasive case against the city. I say the state wins in a walk.

The Hudson River Park Trust bans bike-riding–a ban an overstaffed enforcement unit of rent-a-smokies (under contract from the city Parks Department) with too much time on their hands enforce aggressively–in all parts of the park except the "bike" path. So-called. (Photo right)

Markers here and there euphemistically label the sidewalk on the river side of State Route 9A–a/k/a West Street–a bike path. Pedestrians and runners own it. Wall-to-wall pedestrians walk and jog almost exclusively with traffic in the narrow lanes, with HRPT complicity placing all responsibility for their and cyclists' safety on riders. (Imagine how law enforcement would react if they tried that in vehicular traffic lanes.) The rent-a-smokies do nothing to encourage pedestrians to use instead the adjacent, much wider, riverwalk where bikes now are strictly prohibited.

Although Time's Up! probably has its hands full with NYPD's monthly overreaction to the group's last-Friday Critical Mass rides, it would be satisfying to see Time's Up! take on HRPT. Meanwhile, the Villager's faithful, and lonely, coverage of the Critical Mass busts (the man-bites-dog twist of the October 2005 ride: "No arrests at Critical Mass ride") and HRPT's numb-nuts policing policies is a real public service.

Waaay back, back before New Yorkers rode bikes, I bought a three-speed. Riding was such a lonely, unpleasant, dangerous pursuit I was relieved when rusted brake cables I didn't know how to fix gave me an excuse to abandon it.

I never thought of replacing it till the new West Street bike path opened. But what a change in the streets! Bikes have become so ubiquitous drivers expect and accommodate them. My biggest, happiest surprise has been the slack they cut me–as I've become a bolder rider, I'll admit sometimes more slack than I deserve. The flip side of that coin is that I am if anything excessively courteous to pedestrians wherever they walk. Although I've owned two country bikes since that early Manhattan three-speed experience, I'd forgotten how much more fun life is with a bike's easy mobility.

Whatever, I got this three-speed expressly for transportation to, and to get from point A to point B along, the river, four blocks from where I live. Sitting on the piers by those tidal waters–especially Piers 25 (North Moore Street), 26, and 40 (Houston Street)–has been my form of going to the beach ever since I abandoned my sailboat two decades ago (a story for another time). I've daydreamed away countless hours on them, read hundreds of Timeses front to back in the western wind, shot thousands of photos, chatted with some fascinating instant soulmates.

But suddenly I find the Hudson River Park Trust preventing me and all bicycle riders from enjoying the river. The Trust banned us first from the riverwalk, now from the piers. Every year a new concession–trapeze school, skate park, tennis courts, next year who knows what?–blocks more of the river view from the "bike" path. To get near the water, even to see it, I must ride maybe a mile and a half of NYC streets south to Battery Park City and that distance home, usually after sunset: far safer to take my chances with NYC drivers than with the perilous foot traffic on the HRPT's "bike" path.

Near the water, in contrast to the HRPT the BPC Conservancy is a model of enlightenment. Where the Trust inexplicably forbids riders access to the piers–indeed won't let them anywhere near the water, ordering DISMOUNT (bike racks? forget it)–Battery Park City (bike racks everywhere) river promenade signage sensibly simply advises cyclists to yield to pedestrians; everyone coexists in peace.