Speedy road cyclists are OF COURSE in need of places to go all out, but these mornings on Lafayette and Park are a gift of civic seamlessness, where the idea is to tie us together, NOT separate us out into pelatons and packs. unfortunately, i missed this past week's event, but witnessed far more looking out for each other during the 8/9 events than it seems was witnessed by streetsblog readers here. for a full report about why we cyclists and peds do fine without cars, from my experience on 8/9 see:

http://www.streetsblog.org/2008/08/12/summer-streets-bikes-and-pedestrians-get-along-fine-without-cars/

I went both days, and like most of the incredibly thoughtful posters that regularly appear here I was a bit dismayed at the extent to which faster cyclists seem to be slowly taking over the street. But I am far more worried about the pork, the totally unnecessary overtime for the boys and girls in blue, that may keep this baby from being sustainable. More silly cones and rules will inevitably lead to calls for a constant if not heavier police presence. The sooner the NYPD switches from a crowd control mode to an everyday enforcement, ticket writing (bikes off sidewalks, yield to peds) and revenue generating mentality the better. My suspicion is that most of the fast cyclists are fairly new to riding in the city and will eventually figure out what its all about and that they can do the entire distance at a very leisurely pace and still make their brunch appointments.

I am still awed by the sheer number of novice ('I would ride, but') cyclists, the children sitting and drawing with chalk in the middle of Park Avenue and the political masterstroke that this may represent in terms of defusing the confrontation between critical mass and the police. If the slope from Grand Central going downtown is a problem in terms of speed perhaps the tunnel should be opened up for our inner zoobomber? If this is going to continue, the wrong way, running against the lights on the downtown bound stretch of 4th/Lafayette/Centre should probably be addressed at still open crosstreets in a clearer, more understandable and reliable way than cops on overtime or volunteer marshalls. Whatever you do, don't pinch me.

* Get rid of the connection between Central Park and Summer Streets
* Move Summer Streets to a street where there is actually a reason to go for a slow wander. A bunch of office buildings hardly promotes strolling and window-shopping. Unless you want to look at the beautiful dinosaurs in the Ferrari dealership, and that kinda goes against the whole point of Summer Streets. If we can't have Summer Streets somewhere with shops & attractions, then import them. Food/drink/vendors on the closed off side streets would be a good start. At the moment the only reason to stop is the artificial "rest stops" and all you get there is 'conductorcise' demonstrations. Wow...
* Set up a beer garden somewhere so we can sit and relax over a pint. And have big-screen TVs showing the Tour de France or Olympic cycling. Go Team GB!!!
* Portaloos!
* How about leaving Park Ave for the cyclists and shutting down Bleeker for the pedestrians?
* And for the cycling participants: Slow down, chill out, relax, and let the pedestrians cross the street occasionally!! Leave the TT bike at home and break out the beach cruiser.

I had fun. I'll go again on Saturday and have fun again. It's not as bad as some people are making out. Sure there are quite a few bikes out, but that just shows how much this city is crying out for safe places to ride. The only places I really saw crowds of people was when they bunched up at cross-streets that were still open. Take a look at my pics at http://www.flickr.com/photos/depechetraff and you'll see that there's plenty of room for everyone.

But all in all it's a great event that should take place every weekend on more streets than just Park Avenue. On Saturday the kid and I made the most of closed streets. We walked down Park and then came back up to a street fair on Washington Square North, then up through another street fair on Sixth Avenue between 14th and 23rd. Three large stretches of closed streets.

I noticed that someone claimed early in this post that this event wasn't meant to create a high speed bike avenue. The event is modeled after the colombian event, "Ciclovia." As you can tell it was intended to give the street over to bicyclists.

Ciclovia in Bogota is primarily for bicycles, but the bikes go pretty slowly; it's a leisurely, family-oriented event. Take a look at the Streetfilm on the subject; most of the bikers are ambling along and mixing pretty easily with the pedestrians and skaters.

I admire high-performance bikes and bikers who can go really fast, but slow bikers deserve respect too, and Summerstreets may be one place to give them that respect. If there's no place to ride fast in Manhattan, that's a problem, but maybe it needs to be dealt with at another location.

Anyway, I really enjoyed Saturday. I ride a singlespeed mountain bike, so I was riding slow and just enjoying the day. There were a LOT of runners out and about and a few fast cyclists, but it wasn't as bad as some people are making out. Take a look at some of my pictures at http://www.flickr.com/photos/depechetraff/ - see, it's not overly crowded.

Anyway, to sum up, here's a few suggestions for next year:

* Longer hours - 1pm is too early
* More things to do along the route - give people reasons to ride slow
* Remove connection to Central Park and resultant extension of training loop onto Summer Streets
* Portaloos!
* Set up a beer garden complete with big-screen TVs showing Olympic cycling (go Team GB!!) or Tour de France
* For participants - let people cross the street!!! Chill out, slow down, smile, and let pedestrians cross. It doesn't hurt to be considerate.

Uptown had a very different feel than downtown. Uptown had far more space -- the barricades were a little unnecessary in the middle of the street. However, the marshals warning of an upcoming red light were helpful in reminding me that cars were going to cross -- every 10 blocks or so when I was flying down.

The thing to remember is that for all the perceived injuries to interests in public space, it appears that there were no real injuries, or at least not any serious ones that got reported. People bump into each other on streets and subways all the time, and its accepted as part of urban life. This is a net gain, folks!

That's a good thing. I've really only gotten into this riding on the street as transportation thing for a little over a year. And now my wife is getting into it. She's afraid of most places, but loved Summer Streets.

That's been the whole problem, hasn't it. The streets are too unsafe for newbies and children on bicycles, and that limits bicycle transportation to die-hards.

Really though... there were a *lot* of newbie cyclists out there. People who probably don't ride much. It was crowded at times, so, of course, peds and anyone on wheels could very well run into issues.

I think the real take home message of the day is that there are plenty of people who want to get out and run, bike, rollerblade, trikke, walk or something, but there just isn't enough real estate dedicated to this sort of activity.

Fast lane, slow lane... whatever. Just start taking away motor lanes and give it back to the people.

but in any case, the congestion and the discussion about how to share the space is a fantastic thing. It creates a problem for lawmakers to look at, and feel important solving. It highlights that there is pent up demand to serve people who do not prefer to drive on a saturday. The solution is obvious: make more space for bikers and pedestrians, and less for cars.