Ride And/Or Die: A (Reluctant) Beginner’s Guide To Biking in Brooklyn
Commuting To Work
As with most things, I cheated here, and worked from home until rush hour was safely over. That plan wasn’t quite as solid as I thought, since mid-day tends to be the busiest time for giant, unwieldy delivery trucks.
Bedford is a mess of flatbeds and most of the actual bike lane is torn up and blocked off with construction, so I spend a good half mile of the trip walking my bike through Hasidic neighborhoods. On the bright side, earlier that day my neighbor made me download the Ride the City app, and it’s a minor revelation. Routes are divided into “Safe,” “Safer,” and “Most Direct,” and I only wish I’d known about this at the beginning of the week.
The “safer” route eventually takes me to Flushing Ave, with its relatively new (as of 2010) lanes, complete with a divider between you and the rest of traffic. By the time I get to the office I’m actually awake and in a good mood, not the sweaty, bruised mess I expected to be.