Week 3 In Review (March 21-27)

So I seem to have a trend of only having one random ride a week. I blame Mother Nature. However this ride was very eventful. I was biking my way to Good Karma along the lauded Pine Street bike lane when this Fed Ex truck decided to turn right, right into me. It was not a cute situation. Nothing serious happened it was kind of in slow motion. I ran into his front bumper and skidded along the sidewalk. I didn’t know what to do so I kind of just stopped and looked at him and he looked at me and then while I was biking away he asked if I was ok. Based on his response time I’m glad I was.

Routes	Miles	Minutes	Speed	Calories Burned
1	3.88	17	12.8	192

Anyway, I’ve now biked through 4.95% of Philadelphia, making progress a few tenths of a percent at a time. Right now I don’t have any numbers from the Bucks County bike ride. I’m working on trying to figure out something with multiple municipalities.  I’ll keep you all posted.

Why am I up this early on a Saturday?

This is probably the most epic bike ride I’ve gone on. Not so much because the difficulty of the terrain or that it was a billion miles. More so in the fact that it was a very involved ride; waking up early, biking in 20 degree weather and riding other forms of transit. This whole ride began a few weeks ago when my friend Jeff asked if I’d go with him and a few people to help put up East Coast Greenway signs along an interim route through Bucks County. 

What is early? Well, it’s waking up at 6:40 to catch a 7:30 train. Jeff can back me up on the fact when I read 7:30am train that I wanted to punch him in the face. I don’t even wake up at 7:30 during the weekday, it’s one of the benefits of being unemployed. Why was it 20 degree weather? You’re going to have to ask Mother Nature because she’s punking us right now. Spring my ass. Regardless, I made it out the door all bundled up like I was biking among frecking igloos.When I got to 30^th Street where Jeff graciously and appropriately bought me a coffee. 

Here are the stats for this ride, including my short jaunt to 30^th Street Station and Jeff and mine mini bike ride from the Yardley train station to Yardley proper to meet up with our other bikers. This ride was outside of my preset map so I made another map to show the routes, as always the biking is in yellow but the train ride out and the drive back are in purple. 

http://www.dailymile.com/people/Jerome9883/entries/6126562

Miles	Minutes	Speed	Calories Burned
21.1	111	11.4	1,323

Now for all of those who don’t know what the East Coast Greenway is, it’s a traffic free bicycle trail that will eventually span from Maine to Key West, FL. It is planned and coordinated by a non-profit founded 20 years ago. The route is fully mapped on interim routes, and approx. 20-30% of the route is on a car free trail.  The interim route through Bucks County follows the Pennsylvania Bicycle Route E, administered by PennDOT. According to their website there are several PA bike routes, but very little information about them. Hmm…good enough for government work I suppose. 

This ride was the first time I took a bike on SEPTA, it’s an experience trying to get a bike up on the platform and then down the train aisle. Maybe it was the 7:30 start time. After Jeff and I got off the train in Yardley we biked down Main Street towards downtown/uptown, to the Wawa to meet up with Andy. Andy is the head of the Pennsylvania Chapter of the East Coast Greenway and a board member of the national board. He also had the signs, the route, and a car to drive us to our starting point. However a few sidenotes before I continue with the ride. 1) SEPTA has no business changing their regional rail scheme again when they haven’t even replaced the R3 sign. 2) Yardley is just adorable, maybe it was the morning sun. 

Andy drove us to some odd look strip mall in Morrisville and there we met up with another biking buddy, Chris from DVRPC. It was a plannertastic bike ride just by the people. From there we loaded up bikes with signs and tools and then headed to the beginning of the trail. For whatever reason I didn’t realize the beginning would be the state line. So I was all confused when I saw Trenton and the Delaware River. However it was a pretty awesome view with an old steel truss bridge in the foreground of the river and the Trenton “skyline”.

That was probably the most charming area of our entire ride. I assume due to political reasons the East Coast Greenway has to follow Route E. Well the Pennsylvania bike routes are only on state roads otherwise known as state highways. So that’s what most of the ride ended up being, wide shoulders, ridiculous turning radii and cars going in excess of 50 mph. It was a great bike ride for Jeff as it was his first in like 2 years. 

As we continued into Bucks County we entered a lot townships one being Fairless Hills whose name I find hilarious. These townships started to look like a lot of really old suburbs, with small or cozy houses lining roads that have large front yards and a small strip of sidewalk. 

The further we biked the house became more similar to each other and older, kind of like a 1950s suburb.  Then I realized we were biking through Levittown. Pardon me while I geek out about biking through Levittown, it’s a classic case study in planning. Levittown is considered one of the first suburban developments in the country, by far the most influential. While Levittown, Pennsylvania is not the first, the first being on Long Island, it is the same type of master planned community and is larger than it counterpart; 10 square miles. The developer, Levitt & Sons, purchased the land in 1952 and planned a community of over 17,000 houses, shopping centers, schools and park spaces. Most of the houses are tucked off of the main roads (hence why I don’t have many pictures) on a curvilinear street system. 

There are a few things I never realized about Levittown. Apparently it’s not a town or city, it’s a census designated place, meaning that it is worth identifying in the national census even though the place lacks its own municipal government. Levittown is actually FOUR different municipalities: Falls Township, Middletown Township, Bristol Town ship, and Tullytown (borough). Additionally, Levittown is divided into several sections, and they are actually called sections.Which reminds me of a communist settlement; surprising for a development that was built at the height of McCarthyism.   

The only pictures I have are in and around Middletown Township Park. The park is located at the intersection of Trenton Ave. and State Route 413 one of the worst spots for a park. It did have lion statues. 

Thanks for the geek out time, back to the bike ride.  After finding the lions, we biked down State Route 413 or Veterans Highway. A highway it was, not only did people zip pass us on this two lane expressway, the shoulder was made up of some of the worst pavement that I’ve ever biked on. Therefore it was often necessary to bike on the line dividing the shoulder from the vehicle lane, sometimes in it. Not cool.  

Jeff and I took a break for some Burger King and Andy and Chris continued to put up signs a few miles down. The Burger King was necessary. However I accidently tossed my Rango sheriffs badge from my kid’s meal.  I did get an apple juice though.

After eating we tried to cross the road. Now I’m not sure why we thought we could “jaywalk” across the road but we tried several times.We eventually biked all the way down to the turnpike bridge and turned around. Near the largest Wawa I’ve ever seen, it had to be on a plot of land that was the size of a Center City block. From there we biked back along our route putting up more signs and eventually getting back to the car. After some pizza courtesy of Andy, Jeff and I got a much needed ride back to the city courtesy of Chris.  

An Unexpected DC Adventure

This past weekend I went to DC to visit a few friends and during that visit I used the new bike share system that DC implemented about 3 months ago in December.   Capital Bikeshare is a replacement of the bike share that began in 2008, and now consists of over 1,100 bikes and 114 stations throughout DC and Northern Virginia.  Even though I personally struggled when I rented the bike the program is quite simple. There are daily, monthly and annual memberships. I opted for a daily membership, which allowed me access to any bike in the system for 24 hours for $5.  Then the first 30 mins of a rental are free, each additional 30 minutes are $1.50 and then after 90 mins, each additional 30 mins is $3. We had the bikes out for 1.5 hours or so, therefore it was $9.50 – with the $5 membership.  All it takes is a credit card (or a debit card that is able to hold $100) and then the machine spits out a receipt and a unlock code.  And you’re off. 

These are stock photos I found via Google Image Search (Not Mine)

So Kristin, Patrick, their friend Bis and I started at Eastern Market (a “few” blocks east of the Capitol) and ended up in Georgetown.  Unfortunately, I don’t have a cool map to indicate this, but you can click on the dailymile.com link below and hopefully see where we went. 

http://www.dailymile.com/people/Jerome9883/entries/6025083

Miles	Minutes	Speed	Calories Burned
6.4	60	6.4	722

Starting at Eastern Market we traveled southwest along South Carolina.  It was surprising how easy it was to bike on streets with no bike lanes.  But Eastern Market is set in the very ritzy, highly residential neighborhood of Capitol Hill.  So there was hardly any car traffic when we first started out. We continued on 4^th St. SE. south into the Navy Yard area. This area was extremely industrial as many ship building and Navy operations were located along the Anacostia in the mid 20^th century.  However, the Navy as dispersed their operation and did not need as much land, and the private factories closed down, there was a huge push for the redevelopment of this area in the mid 2000s.  In 2007, the Capitol Riverfront Business Improvement District was created to promote growth and implement a development plan that is currently about half finished.  The built out Navy Yard neighborhood is expected to contain 15 million square feet of office space, 1 million square feet of retail and approx. 8,700 housing units.  To give you reference that is approx. half of the office space in Philadelphia’s West Market CBD and approximately the equivalent of all the new residential construction in Center City since 2001.  Lesson being, when DC develops they go big.  Also notably they located the National’s ballpark in this neighborhood.

That was plannertastic – sorry.  We continued or trip along M St SE/SW and ended up at the Potomac.  We had seen on the bike share station’s map that there was a trail along the water. Apparently not as far South as we were, it was all boating clubs and seafood restaurants, err, almost like seafood shacks.  And there were cars lined up to find parking these places, they must be good.  However, they forgot about people walking or biking because the sidewalks were nonexistent in some places and Maine Ave. is a very large freeway street (actual planner term).  We did bike past this cool place, the Arena Stage. It was two stages that an architect cleverly combined with a cool outer pavilion.  Kristin said they were from Vancouver, I believe it. 

After biking past the seafood and freeways we finally made it to a trail and where the Mall begins around the Tidal Basin. It was really pretty and will be much more beautiful in the coming weeks as the cheery blossoms bloom. 

After walking our bikes across the Independence Ave. bridge on a very narrow sidewalk.  We stopped for a moment to figure out what was going on with a high school band dressed in very fancy blue revolutionary war uniforms and then continued along the south side of the Mall.  After almost going the wrong way and visiting the steps of the Lincoln Memorial we found the Rock Creek Trail.  It put us directly along the Potomac, behind the Lincoln Memorial and the Kennedy Center and the Watergate Complex.  My friends learned in this stretch that I like to bike fast, as I made them stragglers.  Sorry guys.  The trail also afforded us amazing views of Georgetown (pictured) and Rosslyn, Virginia. 

After some difficulty finding bikeshare parking, our afternoon ended with delicious flatbreads from Mucnheez and some bargain shopping.  Shopping included a store closing sale at the Club Monaco there, perfect end. 

Week 2 in Review (March 14-20)

Sorry for the delay in blogging, I had quite the eventful weekend.   I used Capital Bikeshare this weekend as part of my bimonthly visits to DC.  I don’t know exactly how to blog about it seeing that it’s not in this region and I didn’t have a camera but look forward to some sort of post in the near future.  Contrary to having excellent weather last week I only had one miscellaneous ride so that doesn’t add much to my total.   

Routes	Miles	Minutes	Speed	Calories Burned
1	1.89	8	14.3	84

However, with Zack and mine southwest Philly ride I’ve covered more ground then I expected.  I’ve now biked through 4.82% or 6.9 sq. mile.of Philadelphia!  Woo-hoo!  I’ve also biked through other municipalities, most notable Yeadon when wandering through the Mt. Moriah Cemetery, due to it’s tiny size I’ve bike through 5.1% of Yeadon’s 1.6 sq. miles.

Southwest Philly continued

Happy St. Patty’s Day to all!  I figured I’d finish up blogging about the ride that I had earlier this week around Southwest Philly.  

To begin this continuation, I’ll honor St. Patrick’s Day by starting with one of the greener sites in Philadelphia, a visit to the Heinz Wildlife Refuge. The Heinz Wildlife Refuge is a 1,000 acre national wildlife refuge formed in 1972 by an act of Congress to protect a piece of what used to be a vast tidal marshland now a part of Southwest and South Philly.  According the National Park Service it is now the nesting grounds of 80 different species of birds.  This includes the Bald Eagle, which I saw fly over on a previous visit.  Although the whole site contains 10 miles of trails and extends well into Delaware County, Zack and I stayed at the visitor’s center.

The Cusano Environmental Education Center is a green building that is almost as old as LEED.  Finished in 2001, the center won national recognition as a green building using then-innovative  concepts such as: energy efficient light, heating and cooling, use of recycled materials and touting an indoor marsh that is used not only for education but to filter the water the building uses.  The building is set up on stilts above an intricately designed and landscaped wetland.  The landscape also includes a bird watching area that had some wild turkeys while we were there.

The center itself has some of the best informational graphics and exhibits I’ve seen. The nature center focuses on the importance of wetlands, the history of the Heinz preserve and the nature around the site.  One of the exhibits includes a building long, cross section diorama of various native and invasive species found in the wildlife refuge.

From the wildlife refuge we biked back up Lindbergh Blvd. to 82^nd Street through townhouses and a trail reminiscent of an urban renewal site.  Especially when we biked a little further down the trail to find a school that had some sort of modernist art sculpture outside and a path that has not been maintained since I was in 8^th grade.

The trail was so bad in some parts that some grassy reed was taking over the trail.  Oh and a giant tree was across it. 

From there we continued to up Elmwood Ave. to the Cobbs Creek Bikeway. There were signs along the street directing us, but me being me, I thought that I knew a better way.  Much to the dismay of Zack I did not and we wandered over more trolley tracks and were forced to enter Cobbs Creek by going down an on-ramp like road.  Cobbs Creek is less of a creek and more of a ditch that is a trash-strewn gully, but the bike path was recently paved so that was nice. 

All but 3 minutes up the trail we arrived at what I wanted to see the whole ride, Mt. Moriah Cemetery.  I was under the impression that the cemetery has long been abandoned.  That proved not true as placed helter-skelter there were gravestones of people that have passed within this decade.  The majority of the cemetery though was in rough shape.  Many obelisk and stones that have been toppled, worn or had prickly vines growing all over them.  Some plots seemed as if they had been purchased but empty for decades.

The cemetery was incorporated in 1855 and grew in its heyday to its current size, 380 acres.  The cemetery follows design intentions of other Philly cemeteries such as Laurel Hill and Woodlands, creating a rolling landscape that would be home to the deceased in order to free up land near urban churches for other development.  Over the years as the region expanded the cemetery fell into disrepair.  According to some website, the ownership of the cemetery is unknown, which seem baffling to me.  The cemetery contains not only large plots but mausoleums that have since been bricked off to prevent vandalism.  The mini-buildings are great examples of architectural styles of the time, including Egyptian and Greek revival. 

Along Kingsessing St, the cemetery’s main entrance, are the remains of an elaborate Romanesque enterance and gatehouse.  Built in the mid 19^th century by architect Stephen Button, it looks as if it has been abandoned since the “new” entrance was built in probably the 1920s. 

After the cemetery Zack and I headed back to his house and then I headed back over the Schuylkill, only this time across the still novel South Street Bridge.  Another exploration complete.  

A harrowing tour of Southwest Philly

Yesterday was an awesome day for a bike ride, so after a quasi interview I had in Haverford I met up with my friend Zack who recently moved to West Philly. We decided to bike on a tour of Southwest Philly.  We were debating whether or not to bike around the airport but since it was only in the low 50s, going to cloudy later and still windy we opted for another route.  We ended up riding around for almost two hours!  The route is below along with the stats:

http://www.dailymile.com/people/Jerome9883/entries/5919396

Miles	Minutes	Speed	Calories Burned
21.4	117	11.0	1,397

Zack and I ended up at such southwest Philly sites such as Bartram’s Gardens, the Heinz Wildlife Refuge and Mt. Moriah Cemetery.  Much like my ride a week ago, there is a lot to digest and I took probably too many pictures.  Zack can confirm this as I stopped several times without warning.  I’m only blogging about half of the ride today.  Below is the route that I’m blogging about. 

To begin the ride I biked to Zack’s new West Philly abode, across the ominous and ever windy Grey’s Ferry Bridge; suppose it’s better than a ferry.  After eating some food and hanging out with the cats we started by heading southwest along Springfield Ave and then turned left on 54^th headed towards Bartram’s Gardens.  After one of the first of many stressful crossings of trolley tracks and large streets on this ride we ended up in the gardens.

Bartram’s Gardens is a fairly important historical site in Philadelphia.  The gardens are located along the banks of Schuylkill River, one of the few areas south of Center City where a person can go to the river’s edge.  However, the site is also tucked behind the massive Lindbergh Ave, train tracks, and some rough PHA housing, which currently hampers access. 

The site is the oldest living botanical garden in this hemisphere, and was home to John Bartram who was a well-known botanist in his day, his day being the early 18^th century.  He collected seeds and plants from all over the world and brought them back to his Schuylkill location.  In the 1720s he designed and built his house and original garden, both of which still stand. 

Zack and I spent some time wandering around the garden trying to find the elusive Ginkgo Biloboa tree.  It’s claimed that it’s the last of three original trees introduced to the US, it dates from 1785.   I was convinced that it blew down in the really large windstorm we had last year and since we never found it I’m going to assume I was right.  Jeremy – 1, History – 0, sadness.  Anyway in our hunt we did find this bush of sticks (see below).  According to the sign it was named after Ben Franklin (shocked face), Franklina, and there are no remaining ones in the wild.  In fact the last one in the wild was seen in 1803 and all Franklinas grown today are direct descendants of the Bartram’s plant

Two other cool parts of Bartram’s Gardens:  they have amazing skyline views and there were signs of spring.

After we left Bartram’s Gardens we began to bike down Elmwood and lo and behold, more trailer sized rowhouses!! Outside of their South Philly habitat.  Maybe, unlike the Franklina, they are multiplying and they are retaking the city habitat. I’m obsessed with these tiny places. They’re so silly looking. 

I’ve taken the Lindbergh Ave. route to Heinz before, and as we still weren’t sure if we wanted to go around the airport or not, we took one of the most industrial, auto-centric routes I’ve ever taken; 61^st street , left on Passyunk which turns into Essington and then right on Bartram Ave.  These are all roads  that are at least 5 lanes of traffic, most of the time more.  We chose this route because Google told us there were bike lanes on them.  Well, there were, so good job Google, but bike lanes do not equal bike friendly.  Especially when you find the regions auto salvage yards, there were so many car doors, bumpers and tires. 

In amongst all the salvage yards were an astounding number of gentleman’s clubs.  To quote my riding buddy “This area is full of car parts and lady parts” it was true.  We decided that the following had to be the classiest of these establishments. 

As we biked on we lost our bike lane for a bit which was a little nerve racking, and used cars and ladies turned began to turn into new cars and no ladies.   There were so many car dealerships.  Lucky for us Essington Ave had a service lane. While the main part of Essington Ave has been recently paved and has a new bike lane we chose the route with less chance of becoming road kill.  It also gave us an opportunity to find the Simeone Auto Museum.  It’s mysterious, we never did find it.  But the sign sure helps. 

When we turned onto Bartram Ave. we were pleasantly surprised by such a large shoulder.  Until we realized that the cars had to turn right and then there was no shoulder.  As well as on the other side of the intersection, leaving us with a  strip of pavement about 2 feet wide to either not crash into a rather large curb or get creamed.   

However at one of these intersections (Bartram and Island Avenues) we found what seems like a shanty town. There were sheds that were made of corrugated metal and seemed to be stacked as well as a drunk’s house of cards. Even if you look at the Google satellite image it looks like a shanty town, in amongst large office buildings and freeways.  It turns out that after some research the town is actually Eastwick’s Common Ground community garden, which has been a community garden for over 30 years. It’s over 7 acres and 160 lots. Naturally, the article I found about it were about how the airport expansion is threatening to take over the land and they’re lease is up in June. 

That is all for today.  At a later date I’ll blog about the wildlife refuge and the awesome cemetery we found.