Skip to content

Posts tagged "New York City"

StreetFilms Monday, June 13, 2022
View Comments

Scott Ambinder Has Docked At All 1,674 Citi Bike Stations

by

Scott Ambinder's dedication to Citi Bike is impressive. For one, he has docked at least once at all 1,674 locations throughout NYC (and New Jersey's Hoboken & Jersey City!) He's a fountain of knowledge when it comes to where stations are and what the neighborhoods look like around them. And certainly an expert on how to use the app, score membership extensions and where to look to see when a new station activates in the network.

He was always an avid Citi Bike fanatic but in the Summer of 2020 - and already a top 1% user and with Covid raging throughout NYC - he looked at the new City Explorer Map launched by Citi Bike and started pondering whether he could eventually return his bike at each docking station. Soon after he began strategizing how to attack specific neighborhood grids to maximize the number of stations on daily jaunts. But he added another impressive wrinkle to his accomplishment: he never used mass transit to start or finish his journeys (except to cross the river to NJ to get across the Hudson.)

Scott is only one of three Citi Bike members to crest the 1,600+ mark.

Streetfilms followed him around for a few hours on two days to talk about his unique feat and enthusiasm for City Bike. (Editors Note: as you will discover in the film we met one weekend after Scott offered an incredibly kind gesture of help!)

Towards the end of the film, Scott answered Streetfilms fans questions submitted for him to answer.

StreetFilms Saturday, April 16, 2022
View Comments

Announcing the 2022 World Bicycle Day Award for Streetfilms!

by

Announcing very exciting news as Clarence Eckerson, Jr. the director & producer of over 1,000 videos for Streetfilms over the past 17 years, has been selected by the United Nations as a Lifetime Achievement recipient of the World Bicycle Day awards for 2022 on June 3rd.

Spanning a career of nearly 25 years, Mr. Eckerson has been making films by bike in New York City since the late 1990s and for the majority of that time covering the advocacy movement for biking nationally and worldwide while director for Streetfilms. Prior to working in his current role (which began in 2005) he's also done ample documentation and coverage during his volunteerism thru Transportation Alternatives and for the cable-access show bikeTV for six years.

The Class of 2022 includes over two dozen recipients from all six inhabited continents and over 15 countries. Included in the eclectic list is the Nepal Cycle Society, Maud de Vries of The Netherlands, Ugandan urban planner Amanda Ngabirano and the London Ambulance Service's Cycle Response Unit!

Unfortunately, due to Covid protocols the United Nations is not holding their usual ceremony and presentation in-person. However, each honoree was shipped their award and told to take promotional photos to announce their achievements. But since Streetfilms' specialty is making movies, Leszek Sibilski from the United Nations granted his blessing for us to make this very short acceptance in one of the most people-friendly places in New York City: Queens' 34th Ave open street which demonstrates how much safer bicycling and public space is becoming in New York. Clarence would like to thank the United Nations, his family, all of his co-workers from over the years and the wonderfully diverse Class of 2022 for inspiring him to keep documenting the worldwide movement!

StreetFilms Friday, October 15, 2021
View Comments

Spend Saturdays in October at “Little Prince Plaza”

by

A new temporary (Saturdays in October) plaza in SoHo is called "LIttle Prince Plaza"

This stat just says it all:

Cars
Last known vehicular count: 4,639 a day (2019)

Little Prince Plaza 2pm - 5pm
Bike: 398 people cycling
Ped: 8,916 people walking

 

StreetFilms Saturday, September 25, 2021
View Comments

The Uselessness of Gridlock Alert Days

by

We sent our reporter extraordinaire Zardoz out on NYC's streets for a few hours to check out just how NYC's issuing of a Gridlock Alert Week of traffic armageddon is going.

As always, not good. Utter uselessness. A sock puppet could have predicted this.

 

StreetFilms Sunday, April 18, 2021
View Comments

More NYC Teens are Biking to School

by

Biking is cheap. Biking is fast. Biking promotes independence and exploration. Biking is great exercise. And, biking sure is FUN! What better way for New York City's teens to navigate the city and get themselves to school?

This generation is politically active and solutions-oriented. The last few weeks, we've been interviewing students - some in Queens, some in Manhattan on the Hudson River Greenway, some biking across Central Park. All of them joyful and appreciative of the time away from screens, feeling the wind in their hair and connecting with nature and those around them.

One notable incentive for these students? Schools that provide indoor, secure bike parking (here's looking at you school administrators!). Our goal is for each and every teen to have the option to safely bike, walk, scoot to school. That means we need a connected, protected, low-stress bike lane network in each and every neighborhood in this city. The city's future depends on it - quite literally.

StreetFilms Monday, November 30, 2020
View Comments

In NYC You Can Go By Bike on the Pedestrian Signal!

by

So with a great "new" law on the books that allows bicycle riders to also legally use pedestrian signals (LPIs) to get a 5 to 10 second head start on drivers in NYC why did it take Streetfilms nearly a year to talk to the two people most responsible for it?

Well when it was passed council last year and slated to begin on December 20, 2019 it was the holiday season and freezing cold, and no one cares about watching videos end of year. We finally had scheduled to film it mid-March, but then Covid-19 prevented that.

I circled back around to the idea early this Fall after riding thru the NYC Summer Bicycle Boom™ explosion where I would frequently come upon LPI intersections where #bikenyc riders were frequently frozen waiting for the green light, ignoring the pedestrian beacon telling them, "Please go forth person on your bike with your walking cousins!"

So it's a good time to re-promote this great law that makes it safer for bike riders. Let those innovative who don't know it's legal to use the signals. Also, there are now so many brand new riders in the city that don't know all the rules of the road that frankly need enlightening. There are more than 4,000 of the lights.

We went to Brooklyn to the corner of Atlantic Ave & Smith Street and talked with Council member Carlos Menchaca and "The War on Cars" co-host Doug Gordon about what the law means and the journey to its realization.

StreetFilms Sunday, September 20, 2020
View Comments

100+ Bikes Upgraded with Care at Big Fix Day BK in East New York

by

New York City Bike Mayor Courtney Williams provided the nucleus for Brooklyn's Big Fix Day, an event that brings out bike mechanics to the neediest area of the city, in this case East New York and the surrounding communities, to sponsor free bicycle fixing.

Notably this year, East New York, Brownsville, Canarsie and surrounding communities were hardest hit in Brooklyn by the Coronvirus epidemic. There has been a large toll economically in conjunction with the greater challenges of getting around via transportation and maintaining social distancing.

That's why Big Fix Day BK was so vital to bring mechanics and bike shop stores to the community to fix over 100 bikes for free for residents where every penny counts.

 

StreetFilms Sunday, March 22, 2020
View Comments

Is Using a Bike for Transport the Best way to Avoid the Coronavirus?

by

Yesterday, Streetfilms went to the foot of the Queensborough Bridge to ask bicycling commuters if they are using their bikes more due to the novel Coronavirus or if they see the benefits in doing such on a daily basis.

They day prior both the Mayor and Governor issued updated guidelines for residents asking them to try to avoid crowded subway cars or work from home and to consider biking or walking to work. As you can see from the reactions, there were a lot of opinions in favor of using 2-wheels not only during the current crisis, but every day!

The eclectic reactions and advice were of, course, pure New York.

StreetFilms Wednesday, February 12, 2020
View Comments

Happy Valentine’s Bike Day Montage!

by

Well it's February 14th. And I just decided that for the first time ever Streetfilms was gonna do some happy, loving Valentine's Day biking imagery for a card to our subscribers and fans.

I sifted thru about 30 Streetfilms over the past ten years and lifted out lots of scenes of happiness from some of our videos from NYC, USA and around the world.

Bikes = Love

StreetFilms Thursday, December 12, 2019
View Comments

Madison Square Before & After Pedestrian Plazas (and more!)

by

Check out this video montage showing how horrible and inhumane Madison Square/Flatiron Building area was for pedestrians & cyclists in 2007 compared to now!

StreetFilms Sunday, March 31, 2019
View Comments

Queens Fights to Keep their Car-Free Travers Park

by

“No cars in parks.”

That was one of the many signs carried by one of the hundreds of Jackson Heights residents and safe streets activists who rallied Saturday on 78th Street, which the city has long promised would be converted from a roadway into a park — only to apparently renege on that promise so a car dealership could use a portion of the street near deadly Northern Boulevard.

As Streetsblog reported earlier this month, the city may not finish the job of converting 78th Street into a park in deference to Koeppel Mazda, which operates a dealership on the corner of Northern and 78th Street and wants to keep using the northern end of the street for moving cars around. City officials have given us no answers — and Koeppel isn’t talking.

(above text written by Gersh Kuntzman, StreetsblogNYC)

StreetFilms Tuesday, March 19, 2019
View Comments

Transit Advocates Ask Albany to #FixTheSubway!

by

On Monday with Congestion Pricing still hanging in the balance and full funding of the MTA Capital Plan unknown, the Riders Alliance and advocates from many groups bussed up to Albany to talk to dozens of elected officials about the urgency of getting of getting it passed.

Riders Alliance held a press conference and had inventive, fun ways to interact with legislators, their staff and visitors in the capital, including giving out cans of sardines and parading a large bus around the halls.

StreetFilms Monday, November 19, 2018
View Comments

Street Transformations – Sunnyside Lanes (Skillman & 43rd Avenues)

by

For the latest in our Street Transformations series (for others see here: Street Transformations) we check out the dramatic before and afters of the Sunnyside protected bike lanes installed by NYC DOT at the end of Summer 2018.

The links complete a missing section that will enable cyclists to go from the center of Queens all the way to Brooklyn Heights without ever really leaving the safety of a protected bike lane!

The NYC DOT really thought innovatively to get the lanes installed, particularly the final blocks of Skillman Avenue to reach the overpass of the Sunnyside rail yards cycle track. Angled parking was moved further away from the sidewalk and concrete parking blocks were installed to keep drivers from going too forward to interfere with the path of bikes.

StreetFilms Monday, November 12, 2018
View Comments

Sunnyside Family Fun Bike Ride

by

Following the installation of protected bike lanes in the Sunnyside neighborhood of Queens, neighbors decided to hold a family bike ride to celebrate. Over 60 folks and many children came out to ride a three mile circuit on a very cold, blustery November Sunday.

As you can see from the footage it was a huge success and brought out many riders who hadn't ridden a bike before!

StreetFilms Friday, May 11, 2018
View Comments

No room for peds on NYC’s 8th Ave so they walk in Protected Bike Lane

by

Can you really blame pedestrians on 8th Avenue?

For a few hours at rush hour in the am/pm the protected bike lane is filled with walkers since they are forced off the dense sidewalks due to the astronomical number of commuters and residents on them.

This of course turns the protected bike lane installed a few years ago into a virtual nightmare of dodging people. But look carefully, in the 30 minutes we were there pedestrians try to be as accommodating as possible walking in the null zone between bikes and parked cars. Cyclists, too, try to make their way slowly (most of them).

It has to be frustrating for all of them. But the true enemy is, as Mark Gorton points out in the video, we have given far too much of the street to vehicles and drivers. Both pedestrians and cyclists should be angry with NYC's administration for allowing this to happen.

At least one more driving lane (and maybe two!) should be given to widen the sidewalks.

« Older Stories