So How Did You Get There?

I might have to try the LIRR method. Yesterday I stayed home, but today I hitched a ride over the manhattan bridge and then walked from City Hall to 43rd and 3rd. Was the LIRR obscenely crowded? Crowded places that i can't easily get out of kind of freak me out so I try and avoid them when possible.

took the manhattan bridge bike path today and it was totally smooth sailing. almost no pedestrians. worth the slight detour for me since i work near wall st .

Rode my motorcycle, froze my hands though. Do gloves get old and less warm? I have a pair of pearl izumi's but they dont seem to cut it. I'll take any recommendations for new gloves.

Wife and I walked from Sterling Pl down Flatbush (stopped at Bergen Bagels) and over the southern side of the Manhattan Bridge. Bikers on the north side were moving at a good clip; some bikers on our side were having trouble swerving and making sudden stops.

Wife was getting cold so she nailed a cab at Spring St, no problems there, tons of available cabs.

4.7 mi according to Google Maps, made it in just about 80 min. But my feet are definitely sore now. For the first time ever, I was slightly jealous at the guy riding the Segway past me on Canal St.

Subject: Getting in to Manhattan

I live in PH and work in the WFC.

Day 1: Slept in. Hoped for a settlement. Hahahahahaha.

Day 2: Biked in with a neighbor on my fiance's bike from her apt. in Park Slope. The back tire on her bike is flat and her gears are busted. My neighbor's bike is a retrobike with no gears. Faster, but more exhausting than walking. And we had to walk our bikes across the bridge anyway. Came home via bike/walk and found that Flatbush is pleasantly downhill a fair part of the way from Tillary to 3d Ave. Drove back to PH from Park Slope.

Day 3: I drove to Kensington (Church and E7th) to catch the BM4 express bus (which is still, for some reason, operating - must be a different local). Got there at ~7:15. Waited on line for about 10 minutes until a dollar van showed up (for $5/person) and was at work by 8AM. The drop off was at Albany St. and the West Side Hwy., just S of Ground Zero.

I do not yet know how I am going to get back to my car, as the word is that one can not catch the express bus back to Brooklyn unless you go to the first stop on the return trip, which is 57th and 2d. I'll probably walk across the bridge and get a car to my car.

Subject: Re: Rumors!

ugarte wrote: A birdie (read: cop) who works at WFC told one of my coworkers that the trains should be running by 5PM. I suspect it will be a limited run even if that is true, but anything that doesn't involve me walking to Kensington or enduring the traffic on Flatbush is an improvement.

Wouldn't that be a piggie, not a birdie? (I kid!)

Yeah, the TWU board is about to vote on whether to end the strike -- yaay! -- but all the news stories I've seen have said that it would take anywhere from 12 to 24 hours to get everything up and running again. I wouldn't count on having a train ride home tonight.

I lucked out for the most part. Spent Tuesday and Wednesday working from home, which was so frustrating I decided to find a way in no matter what today. I was going to meet with Coworker 1 at one of the carpool staging areas, but when I called her this morning to check in she told me she'd gotten a ride with Coworker 2 and that Coworker 3 had an extra space in her car and was supposed to have called me last night. Coworker 3 never called and didn't answer her cell when I called her this morning, so I set out at 8:15 to check out the van situation at Atlantic and Flatbush. One guy was running around hollering "Midtown, five dollars!" I work waaay downtown but I didn't see anyone else offering rides so I went over to him, figured I could just try my luck at catching a cab once I got to midtown. He opens the van door and it's packed like sardines. "Just how do you think I'm going to fit in there?" I asked. The people squished in the van are looking at me like, "Yeah, how IS the fat girl gonna fit in here?" The guy just looked at me and I finally said screw it and started walking. About a third of the way to the bridge I saw a van at a red light with a "Lower Manhattan" sign taped to the window, so I flagged him down and paid him 10 bucks to drop me off at Century 21. There were only three other people in the van and the traffic really wasn't so bad, so it was fairly comfortable and I walked into my office at Broad & Water at 9:40.

This afternoon I've managed to grab a spot in a coworker's car, so if the trains are rolling again in the morning it's all good.

I noticed the van was a rental. Quite an enterprising way to rake in some cash.

so, did anyone ride a post-strike subway car yet?

Ben wrote: sounds like this guy experienced the worst of it: http://www.slate.com/id/2133243/

That's hilarious!

Oiseau wrote: First day after strike wouldn't you know it I slam into an Eastern European tourist on the bike lane of the Brooklyn Bridge.

All in all I would say the cops did a pretty bad job of making life easier for bikers during the strike. On teh Manhattan side of the Manhattan Bridge they were able to turn away bikers from the pedestrian path but were unable to turn away pedestrians from the bike path?

As is typical, the bike lanes were totally ignored. Why even spend the money and time putting in bike lanes if they are not enforced?

Well, it's like this: There were 50 people walking for every person riding a bike. Give the unusual circumstances and the incredibly heavy foot traffic the bridge was experiencing, it would have made no sense to split the lanes 50/50, nor would it have been practical. It was the same way during the blackout, as it should have been. Even so, it was pretty easy to ride across if you were careful.

Sorry for the late reply.