What if NJ Transit Actually Served New Jersey?

New Jersey Transit mostly exists to get people from the hinterlands to and from Newark and New York; you can also go to Trenton, Philadelphia, and Atlantic City.

The European Union, population density 109 per km2, supports a rail network that goes even to the tiniest towns, via high-speed rail and a gazillion local lines.

New Jersey, with 488 people per km2,  has more than four times the population density of Europe, but only the tiniest fraction of the rail network. It turns out I’m not the only person who imagines a more robust rail system.

Reddit: creolefish

Here’s the thing, though: this is still a commuter system with NYC/Newark and Philadelphia as the hubs. 

New Jersey is already among the states with the lowest number of cars per capita, at 674 cars per thousand residents. The European Union, despite all those trains, averages 567 cars per person — not so different from New Jersey. But we drive almost twice as far every year than they do — 14,263 miles per year, on average, compared to Europeans’ 12,000 km, or 7440 miles, per year.

(Montana, on the other hand, has almost two cars for every person in the state. Including children. How do they find the time to drive them all?) 

Connecting all of New Jersey without having to transfer in Newark or Secaucus would take only two more rail lines, each starting at the Hudson River in the north, and running west, south, and finally east to the Atlantic Ocean.

The inner ring would go from Stevens to Stockton, with stops at Montclair State, Seton Hall, Monmouth, Georgian Court, and the community colleges in Essex, Union, Middlesex, Monmouth, and Ocean counties. 

The outer ring would run from Fairleigh Dickinson to Atlantic City, by way of the community colleges in the north, east, and south of the state, with a stop at Cape May.

It would transform the state.

• The availability of public transit would increase access to college. Low-income students can study at community colleges around the state for free, but the effective tax is that they need cars to get to class. Driving cheaper, older cars means less reliable transport on top of more repair bills, plus car insurance and gas.
• Reducing by even a quarter the average amount New Jersey residents drive every year would cut tailpipe emissions by more than 3 million metric tons: New Jersey has 2.5 million cars whose owners drive them, on average, 12,263 miles every year, emitting, on average 5 metric tons of carbon dioxide each, or collectively 12.5 million metric tons of CO2.
• Lower-income residents rely on an outrageously slow bus network to get to work and run errands; replacing these bus lines with trains would speed their trips dramatically (and get yet more vehicles off the roads).
• If half the people who went to the shore on a summer weekend could easily ride the train, they’d get to spend more time swimming, flirting, and eating ice cream, and less time stuck in traffic and hunting for parking. With only half the traffic on the roads, the drivers would get there faster, too.
• If teenagers could take a quick train ride to meet up with friends in the next town, we could worry a whole lot less about them driving under the influence.
• Roads with fewer cars are safer for pedestrians and cyclists. And making biking safer would reduce driving even more: almost 40 percent of the time someone gets in the car, they drive three miles or less. A leisurely three-mile bike ride to go to work or run an errand takes fifteen minutes — barely enough to break a sweat. And spending 30 minutes a day on a bike instead of driving and parking makes people healthier and happier.

Less road rage. More time for exercise. Lower emissions. More leisure time. Can we afford NOT to upgrade the system?

Back on the Bike in New York

I've survived my first few bike rides back in New York City. After a year biking in Cambridge, where the streets are narrow and twisty but the cars are tiny and move slowly and the drivers accustomed to yielding to cyclists and pedestrians alike, I was feeling a little squirrelly.

It's great to be back on my Brompton (which cost me more than my first car, a ten-year-old Datsun purchased back in the 1980s) but there's also something to be said for being able to park a bike and run errands while being confident that the bike, and all its parts, will still be there when I return.

The new 25 mph speed limit is a huge improvement. Most of the cars actually seem to be doing that speed, as opposed to pushing the old 30 mph limit to 35 or 40, and it makes a difference. The traffic lights have been re-timed accordingly and it means that cyclists don't get shut out by red lights, block after block after block.

I ended up on Houston Street by accident because I forgot which one-way streets went which direction, and discovered the new bike lane feels quite safe. Until it's blocked in its entirety by delivery trucks, taxis, and livery cabs. There's a web site where you can report blocked lanes, but when I heard about it I actually laughed: I had just ridden from the Lower East Side to Penn Station and found blockages on every street I rode on, and almost every block.

The joy I felt when I saw one police officer giving a ticket to one truck parked in a bike lane was not schadenfreude. It was self-preservation.

Cars turning across the bike lanes are also still a major problem: they don't yield for bikes, but they do yield for pedestrians, so they cut you off and then stop suddenly, diagonally across the bike lane. Pedestrians stepping into the street while absorbed with their smartphones are also an on-going problem, and I've nearly been in two pile-ups as a result, when one cyclist slams on the brakes and then the next several have to react.

Bill de Blasio's Vision Zero plan is a huge boon for pedestrians and cyclists alike, but there's still a lot to be done to make New York truly safe for cyclists.

But to brighten your day, here's Gianni riding in style with Elizabeth:

Potty Parity: No Joke

A letter to the Connecticut Department of Transportation:

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The newly designed rest areas on the Merritt Parkway are an improvement on the old ones in several ways. But  every time I stop at one, there's a huge line at the women's restroom (and no line, ever, at the men's.)  Finally, yesterday, while I was waiting in the long line for the women's restroom with my son who had already finished his business, I asked him to go back in and count.

Two stalls, two urinals.

In the women's bathroom? Two stalls, full stop.

This raises several questions.

What were your architects thinking?  Why not provide at least as many options for relief in the women's bathroom as in the men's? Or make several individual, unisex stalls, with sinks outside?  

Why design a series of new facilities that create lengthy wait times for women (and their male family members traveling with them)? Why not create facilities that enable equal wait times, knowing social constructions of restroom activities require more time for women?

(No, it's not simply biological difference.)

How much time is lost by women waiting in these lines, in the aggregate? Would anyone think to calculate lost productivity?

Please consider redesigning the remaining new facilities, and retro-fitting those already constructed to eliminate this disparity. Thank you.

---

If you use the Merritt Parkway, and you're so inclined, you could submit your own comments on the situation here.

So You Want to Play in Traffic?

You're thinking about riding your bike to work, but nervous? Here are some answers to the questions that might be worrying you.

Problem: You'll sweat on the way to work.
Solution: Bring a spare shirt. Keep deodorant and, depending on the level of formality expected at your office, a couple of blazers at the office. Or even drive in on Monday morning with the week's wardrobe and drive home with it again on Friday afternoon.  If you use hair gel, keep that at the office too and use it when you get there after you take off your helmet.

Problem: You haven't ridden a bike since you were thirteen.
Solution: Practice. Take the bike out early on a Sunday morning when there's not much traffic and, if it would bother you, not too many spectators. Go to an empty playground or a park, and...

• Practice riding in a nice straight line.
• Keep your thumbs hooked over the handle bars, and one finger on each brake, and your elbows nice and loose so you don't feel like your fillings are going to fall out every time you hit a crack in the road.
• Look over one shoulder, then the other, to see what's coming, still while riding in a straight line.
• Practice signaling left and right, by sticking one hand and then the other wayyy out to the side so nobody can possibly miss it. And make sure you're still riding in a straight line.
• Come to a complete stop, still in that nice straight line, and then start up again without letting the handle bars sway left or right. Much.
• Try braking and accelerating while signaling.
• Practice turning with one hand, and then the other, off the handlebars.
• Find some parked cars, or a parked car by a building, and practice riding between them. Get to know how much clearance you need.
• If you can, find a dirt road or a trail and ride around to see how it feels. If you hit a patch of sand or gravel, you'll notice that you can stay up if you can keep the bike in a straight line (there's that again) and keep the wheels turning.

Problem: It might rain.
Solution: Check the weather forecast the night before, and again in the morning. Buy rain gear according to your budget, and carry it with you depending on the chance of rain and the temperature and how uncomfortable you'll get if you get caught out. If you can, get a waterproof/breathable jacket, but even then, see item one.

Today, there was a 30 percent chance of rain in the morning, plus cooling temperatures throughout the day. I biked to the train station in a T shirt, with blazer and rain jacket in my bag; I wore the blazer for the ride from train station to office, and on the way home, wore both blazer and jacket -- for warmth. I didn't get rained on during any of the legs. Layers are helpful year-round, because you'll warm up after 10 or 15 minutes of riding, and temperatures can change quite a bit between 8 a.m. and 5 or 6 or 7 p.m., depending on when you head home.

If you do get caught -- or decide to ride -- in the rain, slow down. Braking takes longer, sewer hole covers and train tracks are treacherously slippery, and you never know what's under that puddle. Also drivers will be less likely to see you, because of crud on the windshield plus because they won't expect bikers out there -- so take extra cautions.

Problem: It's dark.
Solution: Lights and brights.  Your rain jacket can be any color, as long as it's neon; you might also want a reflective vest and ankle reflectors. Put red blinking lights on the back of the bike, on your helmet, on your backpack if you carry one, and a white light on the front of the bike.

Are Bike Lanes for Biking?

Dear Mayor DeBlasio,

Yesterday morning, on my bike commute from the Lower East Side to Penn Station, I encountered 24 obstacles in the bike path.  I ride along the East River for approximately half of my route, so I was only counting for two miles.

I'm not counting vehicles crossing the bike path while turning, even though they're ignoring the law that says they're supposed to yield to bicyclists.  I'm also not counting vehicles or pedestrians or other objects partially in the bike path -- only complete obstructions.

Today, I "only" counted nineteen.

That comes to 8.25 obstructions per mile, on average across two days.

I've been biking in New York City for 25 years.  This morning I wondered if having to ride in and out of the bike path so frequently, cutting in and out of the stream of cars and trucks, might be more dangerous than not having a bike path at all.

If you’re serious about Vision Zero, you need to get serious about sending a message to drivers of motor vehicles that the bike lane is not a passing lane, a standing zone, a double-parking zone, or a turn lane. 

Pedestrians might also be encouraged to remember that it’s not a texting zone or a jogging path.

Thank you for your time.

Heide Estes

New York, NY

Copy: Transportation Commissioner Polly Trottenberg

I Will Miss the Solitude

The days are getting longer, and despite flirtation with record lows, it's more or less inevitable that temperatures are going to warm up soon.

And the joggers will return to the outside world from their treadmills or their hibernation, and the rest of the bikers will come back out, and the toddlers and their parents, and all the dogs that have been sleeping flabbily by the radiator for months, the lovers and the tourists and everyone else who has been cooped up indoors, lo these many weeks.

And I will be thrilled to ride more comfortably, to be able to get on my bike without first spending ten minutes adding layer upon layer of clothing. I will be relieved when I no longer have to worry about patches of ice or treacherous potholes.

But I will miss the solitude and the silence of my winter ride along the river at the end of the day.

Thinking About Biking To Work?

Biking to work has huge benefits.  It gets you out of your car and/or off public transit, out in fresh air, with a guaranteed workout built into your day so you don't have to take time to go to the gym.  Right now is a great time to start planning to ride to work later this spring.

Best time to start is in April.  Daylight Saving Time will have kicked in so the evenings are long enough you won't be riding home in the dark; the weather is warm enough to ride without a lot of special gear, yet cool enough to ride without needing to carry clothes to change into when you get to work.

Here's what you need to start preparing now:

Bike:  If you haven't ridden it all winter, give it an overhaul (or take it down to the local bike shop now, before the wait times get long).  Pump up the tires, make sure the brakes work, and check all the nuts and bolts and screws to make sure nothing has come loose.

Helmet:  Ninety-seven percent of people who die in biking accidents weren't wearing helmets, according to the authors of The Urban Cyclist's Survival Guide.  Get one.  Make sure it fits snugly over the top of your head, front of the helmet just above the eyebrows (not at the hairline) and the strap is snug under your chin.  Leave enough room to yawn or yell, but not much more. 

Route: Scout it out by car and Google maps (click on the little "bike" icon to see bike routes in your area, and if there aren't any, call your local elected officials).  Take a test ride early on a Sunday morning, when there's hardly any traffic.

Riding Skills: Study this guide, and also this one to biking safely in traffic.  Practice while you're out there on your Sunday morning ride. 

Prepare for the inevitable: flat tires happen, as do other mechanical failures, sudden rain showers, and falls, most of which don't cause serious injury, but might leave you rattled.  Have a back-up plan: a friend or a cab company you can call for a lift or a bus line you can catch.  Just in case.

Plan your first ride!  Pick a day when you don't have an important early-morning meeting, in case it takes a little longer to get to work than expected, and when you'll be able to ride home while it's still light out.  If you normally work in pretty formal clothes, bring an extra outfit to work the day before, or pick a casual day.  The day of your ride, pack deodorant and hair gel.

For starters, you might aim for one ride a week to work.  Once that starts getting routine, you might aim for two days a week, or three.  Eventually you might find a rhythm where you mix it up, driving some days, riding others.  Or you might get so hooked you ditch your car.

If you're still riding in September, you'll need to invest in lights, reflective gear, waterproofs, warm gloves, and some other gear.  But you don't have to worry about any of that now.

---

Oh, and if you've read this far, I have one copy of The Urban Cyclist's Survival Guide by James Rubin and Scott Rowan to give away to a random commenter.  I bought the copy -- no sponsorship deals to reveal; I just want to give it a good home.

Vision Zero -- Eliminate Traffic Deaths

NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio and his police commissioner William Bratton held a news conference yesterday to announce a program of changes designed to eliminate traffic deaths in the city.

The plan has 62 different elements, including reducing the city's speed limit, better enforcing existing traffic laws including the requirement that -- did you even know? -- cars are supposed to yield to pedestrians in crosswalks.  De Blasio also wants to install more speed bumps, remodel intersections, and increase bike lanes and illumination.

Some of this can be done at the city level, some requires cooperation from the state legislature.  Please contact Governor Andrew Cuomo and let him know you support Vision Zero.  You can send email using this form, or call his office or send a good old-fashioned letter:

(518) 474-8390
Governor of New York State
NYS State Capitol Building
Albany, NY 12224

Don't live in New York?  That's okay, tell him you commute to or visit the city.  Tell him the city's residents have the right to live without the fear of being mowed down by an irresponsible driver.

Thank you.

Gear List

In the summertime, and in late spring and early fall, I don't have to pay too much attention to the weather.  It's either hot or hotter; unless it's really pouring rain it's too warm for rain gear, so I just wear clothing that can get wet and will dry fast.  Bonus: many hours of daylight.

Today, though, it's both chilly and rainy, and I'll get home long after dark.  This is when gear becomes  vitally important.  The challenges: vision, visibility, and keeping the hands and feet and ears warm without letting the core overheat.  Over the years, I've developed a pretty good, though not perfect, system: herewith, an annotated list.

If there's rain in the forecast, I carry waterproof / breathable jacket and pants.  The rain pants have gotten a little leaky; though I usually try to keep and use things as long as possible, this is an area where I need the gear to function really well.  A new pair is in my near future.

A helmet cover rides in my bag almost year round: it keeps the rain out and the warm air in.  I also carry a headband designed to use with a helmet: cold ears get miserable fast.  Below freezing, a thin fleece hat.

A couple of years ago I bought waterproof boots, but the first time I wore them in the rain I discovered ankle-height doesn't cut it: as soon as my legs are spinning, the pants ride up and the rain runs right down them ... and into the top of the boots.  So, I got high boots.  For the coldest days, neoprene shoe covers.  Wool socks: self-explanatory, right?

If it's mild, I wear lightweight long-fingered gloves.  On days like today, windblock fleece, and in the coldest temperatures, a down-lined pair.  I bought them by accident, sort of: I didn't realize they were lined with down until after right after I paid for them.  But then I kept walking and didn't go back to the register for an exchange.  And boy am I happy to have them when the weather goes below freezing, though I regret the ducks that died to keep my fingers warm.  I often wear one pair and carry another, because a daytime ride, especially if it's sunny out, can be a lot warmer than a trip before dawn or after dark.

I have a seriously bright rechargeable headlight, bright enough to see the road on the suburban end of the commute and to get people's attention on the New York end.  Blinking rear lights on both seat post and helmet, though the helmet cover blocks the latter, and this winter I want to try to find something brighter and, frankly, more obnoxious for the back.  

That's a bit tough with the Brompton, as the seatpost needs to slip into the down tube every time I fold the bike (three times a day), and the back of the rear rack is too low to the ground for good visibility.  Let me know if you have any good ideas, okay?

Finally, I have both jacket and vest in lovely shades of neon with reflective strips.  Reflective ankle straps that I don't really use, because they keep slipping off the bottom of the pants legs and then getting hidden under them.  Studies show reflective moving parts are more visible to cars than static ones (e.g. reflectors on the torso which for a car approaching from front or back don't appear to move), so I need to work on that too.

It remains a work in progress.

Car Culture -- Some Definitions

Car culture is thinking a car is the best way to get people and things from place to place.
Car culture is designing communities so that a car becomes the only (safe, convenient, efficient) way to move people and things.
Car culture is assuming that all bikers are scofflaws because some bikers run red lights or ride against traffic on a one-way street.
Car culture is ignoring or discounting the frequency with which drivers break the law -- running red lights, making illegal turns, ignoring yield signs, exceeding the speed limit, double-parking (for instance, in bike lanes).
Car culture is assuming that a bike and a car should be treated equivalently in traffic, ignoring the car's 3000-pound and 180-horsepower advantages.
Car culture is demanding ubiquitous and convenient free parking, in sufficient excess as to make it available even in times of highest use.
Car culture is referring to collisions between vehicles, or between cars and pedestrians or cyclists, as "accidents."
Car culture is lining streets with parked cars, reducing visibility and aesthetics and space for other activities.
Car culture is believing that no other alternative is possible.

What else is car culture?  Tell me what I've missed.

Bike To Work Day

Tomorrow is Bike To Work Day, the middle of Bike Month, and I'm going to walk the walk, or roll the roll, and do it -- though it means leaving home at 6:15 a.m. to get to a 9:00 meeting by way of my crazy bike-train-bike commute.

It means I have to set the alarm for 5:30 a.m.

I'm not a morning person.

Setting an alarm for earlier than 6 a.m. makes me feel like it's barely worth going to bed in the first place.

However, by the time I'm out on wheels ahead of rush hour, I know I'll be happy.  And I'll be even happier when I'm on my way home via bike/train/bike and the roads into New York City are clogged with traffic.

How about you? Can you swing a bike ride to work tomorrow?

Bike Question

No time for blogging, so just a quick question about how you keep your pant legs away from your bike chain:

stuff them in your socks?
roll them up?
use a strap or other doodad to corral them?

Bike Commuting: Practicalities

I used to think in terms of biking weather and other kinds of weather, but when I took a sabbatical in Cambridge (UK) a few years ago and depended on my bike for transportation to the library, the supermarket, and anywhere else I needed to go, I learned to carry rain gear and just keep moving.

That said, commuting by bike year-round can feel like a bit of a project, especially when winter weather returns after one day of spring and you have to put all those layers on yet again.

In late spring, summer, and early fall, if it's not supposed to rain or snow, I just wear work clothes.  I keep some blazers at the office so as it gets warmer I can ride in shirt sleeves.  (I also keep extra deodorant and hair gel at the office.)  A skirt with boots, as long as the skirt is loose enough to pedal in, can be easier than long pants, which tend to get caught in the chain. There are various ankle accessories that are supposed to peg the pants, but I always find they come off as soon as I start pedaling.  If necessary, I stuff pant legs in socks.

In cold weather, the trick is keeping the extremities warm but not overheating the core. I use a medium weight wool coat with a reflective vest made of fabric that helps to block with wind.  If it's really cold I start the ride wearing a scarf or neck gaiter that I can take off as I warm up, but mostly I'll just live with being chilly for the first five or ten minutes.

Feet: In winter, I wear wool socks with shoes or boots that are loose enough to allow for some air to help keep my feet warm. If it's below about 20 degrees, my feet still get cold, and I have some neoprene overshoes from when I used to bike long distances in cold weather -- but for the amount of time I'm on the bike at any one time, I'll live with cold feet rather than hassling with one more thing to put on and take off (and repeat, three more times throughout the day).

Hands: Can get very, very cold if it's even chilly.  You can get winter bike gloves, but winter gloves designed for skiing also work fine. Main thing is they need palms and fingers with some traction.  It's also helpful if they're breathable.  I accidentally bought down-lined gloves a couple of winters ago in an end-of-season sale (I only noticed the fill after I'd paid), and I have to say they're wonderful.  Even when the temperature goes down into the teens (the coldest I've biked in) they keep my hands warm.  In temperatures around freezing, windblock fleece works; above 40 I use lightweight long-finger bike gloves.

Legs: if there's precipitation in the forecast, I have rain pants that go over whatever work clothes I'm wearing.  Getting overheated can be a real problem, so depending on the weather I might be best off with light-weight tights and a skirt that I can put on when I get to the office.  If it's quite cold, I might want wool pants.  Neither the rain nor the wind pants are specifically biking gear -- I originally bought both for hiking.

Ears: Like hands, can get very cold.  Two great accessories here, for which I paid retail, and which have been worth every penny: a Gore-Tex helmet cover to keep the wind and rain out of the vents and trap some warm air around my head, and a Pearl Izumi head-band, lightweight enough to use with the helmet but somehow incredibly warm on the ears.

Want to try it?  Start out on a day when you can dress down a little bit and the weather is nice, and build from there.

Just Imagine It For A Minute

What if cars were the exception, not the norm, mostly invisible in the course of our normal comings and goings? What if people weren't allowed to park their cars on town or city streets?  What if pedestrian zones were the norm?

A pedestrian zone in Turkey

Walking would be a different experience if your view of streets and buildings weren't obstructed by parked and moving vehicles of various sizes.  Biking would be transformed if you didn't have to assume you were invisible to drivers of cars and trucks.

Bicycle parking in Cambridge

Our towns and cities would look and feel and sound and smell totally different.

Just imagine it for a minute.

Back on the Bike

Two weeks ago, I attempted to take the train to work, but after sitting on it for half an hour with no information available to the train crew about when we might leave the station, I got off, biked back home, got my car, and drove to work.  Arriving four hours after I'd first left the house to walk The Offspring to school.

Continued cold weather (it freezes the switches), and then high winds... I drove every day for two weeks.  I didn't think too much about the privilege involved with that, until last weekend when I was out on my bike and caught up with a bike messenger and realized he'd been out in every kind of weather.

I'll admit, the first couple of days of driving I enjoyed sitting in my own private, warm, mobile cocoon, with a soundtrack of my choice and a cupholder.  But it got old fast.

This morning it was a comparatively balmy 32 degrees, and sunny, and the East River bike path had a dusting of snow that gave a little extra sparkle to the morning light, and I thoroughly enjoyed my ride once again.

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At the start of the year, I decided to try not to get all worked up about people who drove or walked or biked into my path, but just let it go. 

I pretty quickly realized that that meant I also wasn't going to post on Facebook about the frustrations, because polishing the incidents in my mind, rolling them around and trying to extract little 15-word nuggets that would be at once pithy and humorous and profound, doesn't help much with letting go.

I've been enjoying my rides much more since then.  I notice, sometimes, how cool it can be that gazillions of people manage to navigate this fair city in cooperation, rolling up against one another like so many river-bottom stones, polishing one another just a tritch and then continuing on their way.

Biking in the Cold

Sixteen degrees isn't actually all that cold.  People routinely ski in temperatures like that (and colder); Canadians and Siberians have to just live with it.

So biking in temperatures in the teens is really a matter of gearing up -- literally, with the right clothes, and mentally, with the right attitude.

Part of the problem is dressing so that the extremities, and in particular ears, fingers and toes, stay warm, without having the core of the body overheat, because sweating in cold weather is bad, and sweating in work clothes is, well, also a problem.

Today, I wore long underwear, wool pants, and windpants on the bottom, with a silk underlayer, a cotton turtleneck, a wool/cashmere blazer, and a parka on top.  Feet: knee-high boots with wool socks.  Hands: down gloves.  Head: thin hat under my helmet; gore-tex helmet cover outside my helmet; a neck gaiter; and Dermatone over any bits of exposed skin.

Upper body got a little too warm; legs and toes got a little chilly; hands were fine.

-----

The train pulled out of Penn Station right on time, proceeded a few hundred feet, and then stopped.  Eventually, it pulled back into the station.  No one had any information about how long it might take before the power problem near Secaucus might be resolved, and I gave up, got back on the bike, rode home, and drove to the office instead.

The body was willing, but the tracks froze.

-----

Yep, down gloves.  I bought them by accident in an end-of-season sale at Campmor a couple of years ago.  I realized they weren't synthetic after I'd paid for them, and decided not to return them, even though they were stuffed with bird bits.  Pretty much the best decision ever.  I also wear leather shoes and boots.  What can I say?  Nobody's perfect.

Bike Lane Rant

Did you know that bike lanes are only for bikes?

 That's right, bikes only.  Also: No Pedestrians:

Plus, they're one way.  Bikers, did you know that?  Here's a hint: the bike icon is right side up:

Also note the arrow indicating direction of travel:

 Still not convinced?  How about this?

 

Still Chugging Along

It's week eleven of making the bike/train/bike commute happen at least once a week, and I can't quite believe I'm still at it.

This morning I got out the serious winter gloves -- fleece on the inside, windproof/waterproof fabric on the outside. (It's supposed to "breathe," too, but doesn't do that so well.)

This morning as I got on the PATH train, a rider getting off sidled up and told me he has the same bike. There should be some kind of group for Brompton riders where we can share our delight in our wheels.