noneck: "Is this the real life or is this a fantasy?" a #BikeNYC weekend! »

“Is this the real life or is this a fantasy?” a #BikeNYC weekend! (link to facebook)

Can you image a New York without cars? On Saturday, 14 Aug, you won’t need to!

On Sunday, 15 Aug, @BrooklynByBike will fill your belly with street food!

This Saturday the weather is going to be perfect! We…

I am a huge fan of Clarence Eckerson’s work for Streetfilms.org and I can only hope that @ghostbikesfilm is this well done. 

NYC has over 200,000 Cyclist Daily, Data Suggests »

NYC, April 10th: Memorial and Ghost Bike Dedication for Meg Charlop »

ghostbikesfilm:

from Transportation Alternatives newsroom:

Bicyclists ride in remembrance of a Bronx mother, advocate and mentor

Bike Ride Details
When: Saturday, April 10, 1 pm
What: Bicyclists riding from Norwood to the site of Meg’s crash in East Tremont.
Where: Valentine-Varian House, 3266 Bainbridge Avenue between East 208th Street and Van Cortlandt Avenue East, Norwood, the Bronx

Ghost Bike Dedication Details
When: Saturday, April 10, 1:45 pm
What: Friends and colleagues speak in Meg’s memory, lay flowers and dedicate the white-painted Ghost Bike in her honor.
Where: Intersection of Crotona Avenue and East Tremont Avenue, East Tremont, the Bronx

This Saturday, Transportation Alternatives will join residents of the Bronx to honor Meg Felice Charlop. Meg was killed on March 17th while riding her bicycle to work in East Tremont in the Bronx. According to media reports, she was avoiding a car door opened in her path when she was struck and killed by a bus.

Meg devoted her entire life to helping New Yorkers fight for health, dignity and a better future. She improved her community at every scale from individuals she mentored, to home improvements on abandoned houses, to advocating for better infrastructure. As the Director of the Community Health Division at the Montefiore School Health Program, Megan worked tirelessly to encourage more active, healthy living in neighborhoods with few open spaces or amenities.

Friends, coworkers and colleagues will ride from Norwood to East Tremont, where they will dedicate a Ghost Bike in her honor.

Meg Charlop was a beloved member of her community, and an amazing woman who was a strong activist for the betterment of her community and fellow human beings.

You can learn a little about her life and work from this 1981 NY Times article:

“She Heals Ailing Neighborhoods”

Meg is remembered and loved by many people and organizations she has worked and lived with over the years in the Bronx:

NY Daily News: Bronx ‘Mother Teresa’ Megan Charlop, biker killed by city bus, ‘sought to do good’ 

NY Times City Room: For Bronx Community Organizer, Work and Life Were One

Bronx News Network mourns public health advocate

Statement from Transportation Alternatives

personal post from scienceblogs.com: Remembering Megan

personal post from fellow tumblr my life as dunford

It should be noted that, while initial reports indicated Meg swerved to avoid an opening car door, NY1 later corrected their original report to reflect that Meg was actually struck by the opening door and was knocked into the bus as a result. 

“Cyclist Dies After Striking City Bus”

Saturday’s memorial ride follows Meg’s daily commute route, ending at the site of the incident where a ghost bike will be installed in her memory. View the route on Google maps.

Il Ciclista Dolce: Michael Musto

via streetfilms.org

NYCFoodcrawl.blogspot.com has the Samosa Crawl video up »

Call For Action in Greenpoint Following DJ's Death »

ghostbikesfilm:

In response to the death of 33-year-old DJ Solange Raulston, who was struck by a flatbed truck while on her bike in Greenpoint Sunday afternoon, Transportation Alternatives and Neighbors Allied for Good Growth (NAG) have released a statement calling for action.

Raulston was at the intersection of Nassau Avenue and McGuinness Boulevard when she was sideswiped (a ghost bike memorial is planned), and the groups call the area North Brooklyn’s most dangerous intersection, with 34 crashes and 2 fatalities occurring there in between 1995 and 2005 — and now they’re asking for some long-overdue safety improvements.

While the Department of Design and Construction is restructuring Nassau Avenue, the project (which aims to be completed by 2012) does not focus on safety features. T.A. and NAG are asking that the plans consider the high number of cyclists, pedestrians and trucks that frequent the deadly intersection. They’re calling for open sight lines at all corners by removing one parking spot, the installation of wider refuge medians, more walk time for pedestrians to cross the street and extended curbs into the street to slow turning vehicles.

Director of T.A., Paul Steely White, said in the statement: “Seldom does a week pass without flowers being laid in someone’s memory at this dangerous crossing. No one should underrate the necessity of making the most dangerous intersection in North Brooklyn safer. Now is the time for the City to act.” Your move, city.

Operation Chokehold: tomorrow at 3pm EDT »

iPhone service in NYC (and San Fran) sucks. This is not news.

The latest news is, AT&T might want to implement a new pricing scheme to punish the heaviest data users. Apparently, according to the WSJ, 3% of smart phone users account for 40% of the network traffic (read: 3% of people use their iPhone the way it was intended to be used, despite the 3G network in NYC and San Fran being pitiful…low speeds and an average of 30% dropped calls.)

So of course AT&T has decided, instead of shoring up their infrastructure to ramp up to allowing 100% of smartphone users to have a good user experience, they are instead going to set a price structure that will encourage iPhone users to switch over to the Droid on Verizon.

From betanews.com:

What a strange 10 days it has been for AT&T. How did it comes to this? On December 7, AT&T released the “Mark the Spot” app that lets iPhone users notify the carrier about service problems. The next day, Network World recapped a Root Wireless study that revealed AT&T consistently has the fastest 3G service of any major U.S. carrier. OK, if data’s so fast, why can’t telephony be more reliable? A day later, AT&T’s Ralph de la Vega started talking about imposing data caps on wireless users, which would be one way to address service problems. Say what? Cap the same people who are required to purchase a data plan with their smartphone?

Needless to say, some people are unhappy about it. (Cue the whining.)

Funniest part? AT&T attempting simultaneous nonchalance while shiatting their pants about the network crawling. One moment they are feigning indifference, pointing out that the Facebook page for the digital flash mob only has 3400 members; the next, they are crying about this constituting a DoS and screaming about legal action.

So, um, if AT&T’s network is so critical to its 80 million users and stuff, how come only 3400 people using their iPhones as they are intended to be used is able to degrade the service of said network to a dangerous level??

BTW… participating in Operation Chokehold will not affect 911 emergency services, even if the whole AT&T network crashes. 911 calls, made from AT&T phones, would be rerouted automatically through another carrier in accordance with Federal law.