When I came out of the park, I was riding down 7th Avenue and the sane thing to do would have been to head west and take the bike path downtown. But I was lured into the riskiness of riding all the way down Broadway. And so, right in the middle of the day, dodging buses, cabs and trucks, down Broadway through Times Square I went.
At 42nd Street, a big moving truck, with a clever slogan on the back that I can't remember now, cut me off. The stretch of Broadway between Times Square and Herald Square has been turned into an amazing eight blocks for bikers. There's a bike lane separated from the traffic by tables and chairs where people can sit and have lunch. I'm not sure how many lanes there are for actual cars but there can't be more than two lanes. It is almost perfect. If this is the work of Mayor Bloomberg, I'm all for doing away with term limits and electing him again.
I have to say that there is something exhilarating and a great adrenaline rush from the danger of weaving through cars. I'm no daredevil but I have to admit, it is fun. You definitely see the city through different eyes.
The real daredevils are the bike messengers who often stupidly ride up the street in the wrong direction darting in and out of traffic.
When I got down to the Wall Street area, there was a huge police presence and traffic was backed up for blocks. It turned out, two protesters had climbed the flagpoles beside the big brass Wall Street blues and stretched a banner condemning the proposed congressional bailout of Wall Street.
And just as I rode by the bill, there was that big truck with the clever slogan (which I still can't remember). Evidently I can get downtown in the same amount of time as a truck. I'm sure a bike courier could do it much faster. I guess I'm just not that daring.
