By the way, I have a NO-speed bike that definitely isn’t for racing.

I hear ya. A large segment of NY commercial real estate (including the building I work in) is managed by SL Green, which as far as I can tell is virulently opposed to making space for their tenants’ employees’ indoor bike parking. Maybe you’ll have better luck convincing your employer given its “green” stance.

But even without indoor parking, you can get by. You need to buy and carry 30 lbs of security equipment at a cost of approximately $100, and take the time to remove and replace your accessories and to lock up properly. When rain is forecast, lock up under a scaffold, making sure to lock up to a weight-bearing pillar, not a cross-brace that can esily be removed.

It’s feasible and its worth it!

Then again, when my son has no school and I’m just traveling a few miles to work, I often will cycle in my suit and tie, weather permitting.

The point is to make cycling as convenient and accessible as possible. The notion that people are undermining the cause of cycling unless they bicycle slowly and dress to impress may carry the day in some European cities. In New York City, we place a higher value on convenience, speed and comfort as a general matter and the idea that NYC bicyclists have to jettison these values in order to bicycle “properly” would only turn people off and impede modal shift.

Channeling Alex Marshall?

Why does it have to be either/or?

I take advantage of my bike commute to get a workout. For my weight and my health generally, I need regular vigorous exercise. And, vigorous biking is really much better in dedicated bike gear.

I don’t mean to suggest that we shouldn’t encourage biking in suits, top hats, overcoats, flowing skirts, whatever. But, is it really necessary to forgo outfits that just happen to be really well-suited to biking, at least one form of biking? My wearing lycra is not preventing people from wearing worsted wool.

Biking: wear what you want.

We’d do well to overcome the myth that biking requires special clothes. That myth is a real barrier to many people who would otherwise try it.

Here’s what I wrote.

As for separated lanes, I’d love to see more of them but they are a heavy lift for the DoT. I think the best we can hope for is a continuous Greenway ringing Manhattan and the waterfront portions of the other boroughs, perhaps with an inland aterial network of separated paths that connect the greenways with the major parks. As great an achievement as that would be, it would not provide an adequate separated path network for the vast majority commuting from home to school. So we are probably stuck with on-street lanes for bicycling to school.

People just need to realize that it is not as dangerous for kids to be on bikes in traffic as it might seem, at least not when their parents are with them. I can’t recall hearing of a fatality or serious injury to child bicycling with parent. Along with the gear, there are many techniques parents can use to protect kids on bikes from traffic.

PayingItNow, you make some good points, but you may be looking at only one slice of the “environment.” Your bike is not only polluting less than a car, it’s creating less congestion on the roadway, less noise, and less threat of injury by collision. And the absence of your butt on the train makes it that much easier for those still using it. And while I use the train when I don’t bike, I usually have the option of ordering a black car home most nights, as do many other people. I don’t order those black cars because I’ve got my bike.

I also know of lots of people who do commute entirely within Manhattan by private auto, everyday. This morning, my 10 year-old son got to wave hello to two different friends on his way to school, each of whom were being driven by their parent or in a black car (we were bicycling). These people aren’t extraordinarily rich either. The fact is for a lot of the “new New Yorkers” who as little as ten years ago would would have relocated to the suburbs to raise their kids, a car is seen as an absolute necessity and is used on a daily basis for short trips of two miles or less. I can’t say what percentage of the overall traffic burden those people account for, but I think its significant.

I think getting these people out of their cars and onto bikes would transform Manhattan. It might not immediately subtract that much out of the overall traffic burden, but it might well have made a difference in the outcome of the CP fight and in a host of other “liveable streets” issues.

Last summer, on the hottest day of the year, passed a guy on the greenway biking in his boxers only– clothes on the rack.

I have also used a garment bag draped over the rear rack, they arrived just fine.

Macy’s isn’t serious about the environment