Hello everyone,

My name is Michael Palmer and I'm actually a reporter for The Record in Northern New Jersey. We're doing a story on 9W and its popularity amongst cyclists. I'm wonderinf if anybody has personal experience with the route and can tell me about any improvements that can be made, what problems typically exist on the route, any accidents that may have occurred or even personal anecdotes about experiences on 9W.

Thank you very much. If you want, you can also e-mail me privately at [email protected]

Sorry to say this but have noticed that members can and have signed up for more than one ride on a given day. I suppose they are hedging their bets .. But this has the result of freezing other members out of rides that would otherwise be opoen.

Thoughts ??

RIDE IS ON

9:00 am grant's tomb to nyack.

UPDATE: The prospects for this afternoon have improved over the last 30 minutes. The ETA for rain is getting pushed back, something that seems to happen regularly. I expect it'll push back more. Here are the hourly forecasts for Englewood Cliffs, NJ, both showing "Partly Cloudy" at 2pm, with 10% chance of rain. 3pm - 45% chance:

http://www.weather.com/weather/hourbyhour/graph/07632

http://www.accuweather.com/us/nj/englewood-cliffs/07632/forecast-hourly.asp

From the NYT lede blog, with video: "Fed up with the number of luxury vehicles parking in a bike path along a main thoroughfare in the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius, the city’s mayor, Arturas Zuokas, released a video in which he uses some military-grade machinery to crush an illegally parked Mercedes Benz."

Not that anyone's signed up yet, but if yer thinkin' about signing up or contemplating showing up at the last minute...

I'm getting conflicting advice (sic) from the weather predictions I usually consult, so I have no idea what's happening tomorrow. Dry roads & less-than-35% chance of precipitation = Ride Is On. Wet pavement in my neighborhood or greater-than-40% chance of rain = Stay In Bed.

Check this message board around 5:30AM if in doubt.

TA is sending around this alert and invitation to be part of an email campaign to block James Vacca's foolish bill to sacrifice bike lanes and safety for street parking. Here, in TA's words...

"Last month, Council Member James Vacca introduced the Safety Last Bill (Int 0627-2011). If passed, this bill would put New Yorkers in harm's way by requiring city officials to put parking first and safety last when they plan the installation of bicycle lanes. In effect, the Safety Last Bill will give the most parking-obsessed City Council Members the authority to veto safe street designs and disregard community requests."

Here is link to the easy to use email petition. 

Has anyone used this company before?  It is NOT VBT.  It's "Bike Vermont," and the website is http://www.bikevt.com/tours/details.php?tid=3.  I'd love feedback anyone may have.

Be careful everyone!

New York Daily News, Aug. 2, 2011

'His Skull Was Crushed'

A bicyclist was fatally hit by a delivery truck in East Williamsburg Monday morning (8/1/11), police and witnesses said.

The truck driver was turning right off of Metropolitan Ave. onto Gardner Ave. about 8:30 a.m. when the bicyclist tried to squeeze by him, witnesses said. The truck's front bumper clipped the bike and the cyclist, a young man, tumbled under the truck and was killed instantly, witnesses said.

"The bike was flying along and tried to cheat around the truck," said a witness who declined to give his name. "His skull was crushed."