Helping to put on the Hudson Valley Pedal, a week long mass (150) bicycle tour from Albany to the Battery (-- well, actually to the Seaport) was an eye-opener. I did chores like cutting fruit, helping to pitch tents and rescuing tired riders. I knew the route well from a car, but seeing the Hudson and its countryside at bike-level was brand new. We visited mansions and farms (ripening apples & ripe corn), talked to farmers who hated Bush’s immigration rules which threaten the harvest (See an interesting NY Times report on this here.). We saw the Clearwater, climbed Bear Mountain, toured West Point (great breakfast at the Thayer Hotel).

Since you can’t go on that trip ‘til next year and may hate biking and camping, consider driving to Scenic Hudson’s Day Long Festival this Saturday, August 25, 2007. Free food, music and fun . It’s in three widely separated parks, so a car would be handy. Do try to RSVP, so they’ll know how much food and drink to bring.

To read about the changing state of NYC biking try this survey by the Gotham Gazette’s Joshua Burd . NYU has begun a program in cooperation with Times Up!, the cycle repair-advocacy group on Houston to repair and recycle those abandoned bikes we see locked to poles on every block (why do people leave them there?). Unmentioned there, but big news for us bikers is that Times Up! will have to move to new space soon.

We all have seen misconduct by cyclists, pedestrians and even vehicle drivers. Streetsblog has this post about how bikers are blamed for car-bike collisions and this great police training video from San Francisco.

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