I read an article recently about an intrepid Manhattan
cyclist, Erik Trinidad, who did something different for his holiday cards in
2012.
He used the
GPS on his iPhone and the Cyclemeter app and rode all over midtown Manhattan,
turning the GPS on and off to spell out “Happy Holidays.” His video
accompanying the TreeHugger article did not say how long this effort took him,
or how much trial and error it took to achieve the geoglyph. However, he did
post the original GPS readings.
Mr. Trinidad
told TreeHugger that he couldn’t always bike in a straight line, or get GPS
reception amongst all the tall buildings. As a part-time biker in the city, I
know a little about how hard it can be to maneuver a bike through all the
traffic, vehicular and pedestrian. Bike lanes are sometimes closed for
construction, or people stop their cars in them illegally; bikers must swerve
around turning or idling cars. Biking in New York City is very unpredictable. I
find it remarkable that Mr. Trinidad was able to get his geoglyph so perfect.
To analyze his routes, I looked at the Manhattan Bike Map.
The bottom
of his “Holidays” is the 30th Street bike lane. The top of “Happy”
is the West 44th Street bike lane. Parts of the “a” and “p” in
“Happy” and “o,” “l,” and “i” in “Holidays” are within the Broadway, 8th,
and 9th Avenue bike lane greenways. The “s” is part of the 1st
and 2nd Avenue and FDR bike lane greenways. The streets around
Bryant Park, interestingly, are bike lanes and what the NYC Bike Maps website
calls “bike routes,” and yet are some of the squiggliest lines in the original
geoglyph. It can be inferred that bike lane greenways provide cyclists with
more direct, safer routes throughout the city. Without bike lanes, cyclists
must change direction and swerve more often. Mr. Trinidad not only wished us
all “Happy Holidays,” but he may have provided some evidence for the argument
to dedicate more bike lanes in midtown.
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