Tag: bicycles

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Ridgewood Cycle spandex or not you are always made to feel welcome

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the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Ridgewood NJ, Several months ago this blogger caught some grief after getting my e-bike repaired at Westwood Cycle , instead of Ridgewood Cycle . Some posters took it to mean that this blogger had some bone to pick with Ridgewood Cycle . That is simply not true . I just picked up on a slow leak flat after shopping at Trader Joes in Westwood and walked the bike over to Westwood cycle, no conspiracy.

Continue reading Ridgewood Cycle spandex or not you are always made to feel welcome

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Reader worries about , “a lot of bicycle accidents this summer”

Bike van nes square theridgewoodblog.net

“Be prepared you’re going to see a lot of bicycle accidents this summer. There’s a lot of bicycles being sold. And with summer camps and swimming pools have been delayed opening, and especially most of our kids have very little experience riding a bicycle. That’s because we kept him locked up inside on the computer.”

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Starbucks Manager Warns of Bike Riding Vandals

Bike Lane Traffic Easing Ridgewood
the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Ridgewood NJ, the Glen Rock Starbucks manager Alicia Saige Whalen made this post on the “it takes a Ridgewood Village” Facebook page warning about groups of kids on bikes vandalizing the downtown.

“Attention moms and dads, I’m the glen rock Starbucks manager, but on behalf of the downtown Ridgewood Starbucks I just want to make sure parents are aware. There is a large group of children who plan on riding their bikes through Ridgewood this Saturday around 2pm. Last time they did this, they vandalized the downtown Ridgewood Starbucks and broke a sink in their bathroom. They ride throughout the town causing dangerous traffic conditions and run through stores knocking stuff over, wrecking flower beds, and playing chicken with cars. This causes dangerous situations for themselves and others. They plan to have the police involved to keep your children and the community safe. Just be aware and check in with your kids.”

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Village of Ridgewood ‘s Complete Streets Program,The idea is to take into account pedestrians, cars and bicycles , beauty and ADA requirements .

roadwork

February 9,2018

the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Ridgewood NJ, at last nights council meeting Village Engineer Christopher Rutishauser gave an update on the Village of Ridgewood ‘s Complete Streets Program.

“A complete street is a transportation facility that is planned, designed, operated, and maintained to provide safe mobility for all users, including bicyclists, pedestrians, transit vehicles, truckers, and motorists, appropriate to the function and context of the facility.” The idea is to take into account pedestrians, cars and bicycles as well as beauty and ADA requirements .

Councilwoman Bernie Walsh commented that the Village and Citizen safety have to do a better job at disseminating problem areas and what the Village’s response will be to address those problems.

Readers often comment on the poor conditions of the roads in town , Walsh felt that if more residents were informed on what’s going on and why it would help alleviate some confusion.

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Why Do Drivers Hate Cyclists? It’s Not Because We Behave Badly—Really

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Most cyclists aren’t jerks. But drivers tend to single out the few who are—perpetuating the forever war between road users.

CHARLIE SORREL 09.02.16 12:15 PM

Why do drivers hate cyclists? Ask one, and the top answers are most likely to do with our behavior. Cyclists run red lights. We weave through traffic without looking and ride the wrong way down one-way streets.

First, let’s consider the drivers making these accusations. These drivers never use their cellphones while driving, they stick to all speed limits, they stop at all stop signs, and they never park in bike lanes, or turn right across a bike lane without looking, so they’re clearly well placed in the whole glass-house/stone-throwing scenario.

Back to these terrible cyclist. Are we really so bad? The data says that no, we are not only overwhelmingly decent folks, but we’re getting better. Slate’s Jim Saksa, “asshole cyclist,” and “stereotypical Jersey driver,” took a look at some figures from a 2011 report by the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia and found that average cyclist behavior is improving pretty fast.

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Ridgewood Police Report a rash of Bicycle Related Crimes

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August 26,2016
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ , Ridgewood Police report and upsurge bicycle related crimes an East Ridgewood Avenue resident responded to headquarters on 8/8/16 to report the theft of two bicycles from her garage in the past. One bicycle was described as a male Schwinn mountain bike red in color and the second bicycle was described as a female Schwinn mountain bicycle purple and pink in color. The bicycles were valued at $150.00 each.

A Fairfield Avenue resident reported the theft of a bicycle on 8/19/16. The victim reported the bicycle was left unlocked at the rear of an East Ridgewood Avenue business. The bicycle was described as a Nishiki male racing style bike and is black and white in color.

On 8/22/16 a Spring Avenue resident reported the theft of a bicycle tire. The victim reported the bicycle was left locked along the fence at the Station Plaza underpass. The value of the front tire is unknown at this time.

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THE LONG AND WINDING ROAD

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Mid-life crises don’t always arrive in the shape of a sports car. Tom Vanderbilt’s involved untold hours in the saddle and some very expensive cycling jerseys

t was age catching up with me that got me into cycling. Or rather, it was age overtaking me, speeding ahead and leaving me in the dust.

In the spring of 2010, I found myself on a 60-mile (97km) ride from the leafy New York suburb of Pound Ridge to Manhattan, with a “super commuter” in his mid-50s, whom I was profiling for a story on how cyclists and drivers get along (or don’t) on the roads. I was a casual cyclist then, and showed up on a “hybrid” bike with flat pedals and trainers. My companion, on a road bike with clip-in pedals, tried to hide his apprehension behind a smile. “Oh, you didn’t bring any water?” he asked. I fancied myself fit, but this man, some ten years my senior, kept disappearing down the road. What I had envisioned as an easy-going romp through the countryside became a teeth-grinding fight to hang on.

One expects a midlife crisis to be rooted in the reversal of chronology – trying to act again like one’s younger self; feeling the challenge from a brash upstart at work; eyeing some fetching, vernal oblivious-to-you creature on the subway. My existential wake-up call came from the other direction: a man with a greying beard who was eligible for membership of the American Association of Retired Persons. I had come to a fork in the road: either I could project from my present self a decade of slow decay; or, in ten years’ time, I could be like that man, now.

I got into the saddle. I bought a proper road bike and set out learning how to ride it properly – how to pause at traffic lights without “unclipping”; how to ride calmly inches from someone’s wheel at 30mph; how to pedal consistently through corners. There were vast hills to climb, figuratively and otherwise. On an early outing with sensei Matt Seaton (author of “The Escape Artist”, a cycling memoir), I was forced off the bike three-quarters of the way up a popular climb just outside Manhattan. He consoled me, saying that not only would I someday easily ascend in one go, I would – by my own volition! – spend my Saturday mornings riding up and down it multiple times. As ever, age kept haunting me: at my first time trial, I finished behind a friend who was almost 70.

https://www.1843magazine.com/features/the-long-and-winding-road

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Bicycle fatalities in N.J. defy overall drop in traffic deaths

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file photo by Boyd Loving

JANUARY 13, 2016, 11:02 PM    LAST UPDATED: THURSDAY, JANUARY 14, 2016, 7:30 AM
BY JOHN CICHOWSKI
RECORD COLUMNIST |
THE RECORD

New Jersey road deaths fell a bit less than 1 percent to 554 last year — a near record low — but those who rely on bicycles or let others drive for them won’t find much comfort in year-end fatality figures for 2015.

Cycling deaths ballooned 64 percent to 18 last year, the most since 2008, and passenger fatalities rose to 95, almost a 19 percent rise, according to preliminary New Jersey State Police figures. On a more positive note, motorcycle deaths dropped to a record low 49 and pedestrian fatalities fell to 163, but that figure remained well in excess of the previous 10-year average of 152.

“We’re pleased, but we think we can do even better,” said Gary Poedubicky, acting director of the state Division of Highway Traffic Safety.

States like New Jersey and New York, where overall road fatalities have declined substantially since the 1980s, have been struggling to extend these safety benefits beyond drivers to walkers and cyclists, whose combined death counts have remained stubbornly high. Garden State totals showed 172 pedestrians and cyclists were killed in 2005 compared with 81 in 2014, a 5 percent increase. During the same period, all traffic deaths declined more than 25 percent — from 748 in 2005 to 556 in 2014.

This week, the Legislature sent a bill to Governor Christie that would focus on these mostly preventable incidents — the kind that killed 1,517 people on foot and 143 people on bicycles from 2005 to 2014. The legislation, which unanimously passed both houses, would create a 15-member commission to recommend strategies for making improvements in road design, laws and behavior that traditionally favor vehicles over people, said Cindy Steiner of Montclair, executive director of the New Jersey Bicycle and Walking Coalition.

“More people are walking and riding bicycles than ever,” said Steiner, whose group supports the bill — A-3888 in the Assembly and S-2521 in the Senate. “But for the first time, this commission would put all the parties together who have a stake in the problem — from bicyclists and drivers to police, motor-vehicle executives, transportation officials and even the health commissioner.”

https://www.northjersey.com/news/road-warrior-bicycle-fatalities-in-n-j-defy-overall-drop-in-traffic-deaths-1.1490848