The Subway Might Actually Be a Circle of Hell
The morning of September 6, 2018 was one of those where the Manhattan-bound L Train platform was a gross, inefficient, overcrowded public sauna. Thankfully, the sign showed “4 Minutes” on its pixelated display, and I found a wooden seat that only had one empty plastic bag on it, between a woman who was braiding her hair and a man who was eating an everything bagel for breakfast. I brushed off the plastic bag, sat down, and began to sweat, along with all the other Brooklynites.
4 minutes passed. 7 minutes passed. 10 minutes passed, and more. The number of sweaty folks in the station grew with each minute the train didn’t come. The screen was still frozen at 4, when it suddenly started to flash “NaN Mi” (which, by the way, stands for Not a Number, Minutes). To our collective horror, a muffled voice came over the intercom and said something that nobody understood. We all looked at each other and asked, “What did she say?” Nobody knew!
A few other people and I walked down the hallway to the attendant, and saw that she was handing out tickets…tickets to what?! “You can either walk to Myrtle-Wyckoff, or go to the other side, which is now Manhattan-bound.” What?!
Rather than join the 20 minute pilgrimage to Myrtle-Wyckoff, I decided to switch sides. I called down the hallway to the rest of the people, “It’s on the other side now!” Barely anyone got up, because why would they believe me, a random citizen who doesn’t work for the MTA? The MTA needs more efficient ways of communicating schedule changes. We have the screens. Why rely on an intercom that nobody can understand or hear when you could just display it on a screen?
I planned to get to work at 10 AM, left with enough time to do so, and arrived at 11 AM. If I had biked, it would have taken me about 30 minutes.
The L Train is not reliable. That is why the MTA/DOT is planning to shut the whole thing down for a year and a half: to make drastic, positive changes in order to serve NYC better. Should I plan for the impending total disappearance of my subway by moving out of Bushwick? Should I buy a car and accrue parking tickets? Or, like many of my neighbors, should I start biking?
The L Train Bike Train
Catchy name, and a pretty cool group of people. The first Bike Train was just over a year before the L Train Shutdown, and came from a desire to do something helpful and bring attention to the need for a safer city to bike in, as well as the demand for alternative transportation.
We spoke with Rebecca Davis of Ridgewood, Queens, who is a member of North Brooklyn Transportation Alternative Volunteer Committee. Every Wednesday from now through the end of the L-suspension, they lead a group of bikers across the Williamsburg bridge into the city.
GG: How did the idea for the Bike Train come about?
RD: It came out of a meeting we had. We saw an opportunity there to push for better bike infrastructure, since a lot of people are gonna be changing their commuting habits.
GG: How many people on average travel with you now? How have the numbers varied since you’ve begun? What kind of increase in attendance are you expecting post-L shutdown?
RD: We are anywhere from five to fifty. We are out there every Wednesday and plan to be out there every Wednesday up until and hopefully through the L Train Shutdown. It’s up and down. The weather impacts people, hot days in the summer and rainy days. But we’ve been doing different themed days! What we are plugging right now is the first Wednesdays of the month are for first-time riders, so we try to make first-time riders feel more comfortable. We also had a dog ride! It went very well. Coming up around Halloween we’ll be doing stuff around that, and on the anniversary of Hurricane Sandy (the reason the L Train needs to be fixed) I imagine we’ll do something for that. 400,000 people take the L train every day, so we anticipate a lot of these folks will bike rather than sit on a bus on the Williamsburg bridge. We expect our numbers to grow to the hundreds, if not the thousands.
GG: Are the riders novices or experienced bikers?
RD: It’s a mix. A lot of us in the Transportation Committee were already bikers and doing a lot of work around bike infrastructure and getting more bike lanes into the city. The idea behind the bike train is getting new riders out. One thing that friends tell me is they are scared to ride, and a lot of the work we’re doing is to help new riders get over that hump and feel more comfortable. We’re getting better bike infrastructure because of the shutdown, on Grand Street and Delancey. Grand Street has historically been one of the more dangerous streets in North Brooklyn. A lot of folks lost their lives on Grand just this year. I myself actually lost a friend to cycling in the city over a decade ago, and that’s one of the reasons I’m so passionate about making biking safer. Many of us have lost friends to the dangerous streets of New York… But it is so easy to ride to work! It takes the same amount of time for me to ride as the train. I ride to Midtown Manhattan every day and people think that’s far, but it’s the same amount of time as the train. So it is very doable to ride, we just need to make it safer. So these bike lanes are way overdue. We’re trying to get people more comfortable while still acknowledging that it is dangerous, and we’re working together on how we can make it safer.
GG: What is your route?
RD: We usually do a ride from Maria Hernandez Park in Bushwick and another from Greenpoint. Then we meet up at Sun and Air, which is our last stop before the Williamsburg Bridge. Sun and Air has kindly offered us free coffee! After the Williamsburg Bridge we separate into different groups, and some people head to Lower Manhattan and others to Midtown.
GG: Do you travel in bad weather as well? What is that like?
RD: We do, and will be going through the winter! Fall or Spring are the best times for people to get started, when the weather is cool. It’s just a great way to start the day and a warm-up to the challenging winter. In the summer, it’s sometimes much more pleasant to be on a bike than in the hot subway station. Riding in the winter definitely takes fortitude, a good amount of gear, and some good gloves.
GG: Has the L Train Bike Train ever been hit by a car?
RD: No. Part of that comes from safety in numbers. When we have a large group riding together, it increases our visibility and the numbers make us safer. I personally have been hit, and most cycling friends I know have had some sort of run in, which is why we’re passionate about getting better infrastructure. We do encourage people to be safe. One way we help make the ride safe for new people is making sure we’re following lights and signaling. We don’t do any specific traffic law training, but as a group we try to follow the rules. But we don’t make people wear anything they don’t want to wear (helmets, kneepads, etc).
GG: What happens if you get a flat tire on the bridge?
RD: That’s never happened to me. One of the great things about riding with friends is that you have people there to help you out if something happens along the route.
GG: Any scary stories? Any funny stories?
RD: Riding is always a mix of scary and funny. You happen upon crazy things in the streets of New York! What’s scary is that you’re mixing with traffic in a city that doesn’t have a full bike safety net. The city has made progress in the past 10-20 years. Just this year we got cars out of Central Park and Prospect Park and that was a big milestone for the cycling community. I think we still have a long way to go. Nobody should have to risk their life by riding. The infrastructure the DOT has been building is a step in the right direction. Polly Trottenberg, commissioner of the DOT joined us for a ride. That was exciting.
GG: Any parents with their babies ever ride with you? Any kids?
RD: We have not had any babies or kids join yet but we would love to do a baby train! So if there are any parents and children who are interested, that would be great. We’ve talked about doing school-commute partnerships. We encourage any parents with school age kids to get in touch with us about this!
GG: Have you made any new friendships from this endeavor?
RD: Bike people are the best people! We are a very nice, welcoming group. We are people who enjoy being outside, enjoy seeing the city from different perspectives, and want to make our city a safer place.
GG: Do you know of any bike giveaways happening? Did you hear about Spiked Seltzer’s bike promo? What did you think of it?
RD: I was not aware of that. Anyone that wants to give away free bikes we are in support of! If it’s gonna get more people riding and creating more need for bike infrastructure, we will take all the new recruits we can get. We have a very knowledgeable group, and for people who are interested but don’t own a bike yet, if they wanna come on a CitiBike, we are a great resource to learn about cycling. We did a partnership with CitiBike when they were launching their first pedal-assist bikes a month ago. They’re like electric bikes and give you a little push in your pedal. One thing Citibike is hoping is that this will help folks who otherwise might be deterred from biking over the bridge.
GG: What do you want people to know about the BikeTrain?
RD: If you had the choice of taking a nice bike cruise into the city rather than getting off a crowded subway, riding is a much better way to start the day. We will be out there every Wednesday until and through the shutdown, rain, shine, snow, and look forward to zooming past those buses on the Williamsburg bridge come April 2019! It’s also great exercise, free, two times a day! I would encourage people to get ready and start early in advance of the L’Apocalypse.